Editor's note: This is the third story in a four-part series describing various polls in different NCAA sports.
College football and basketball polls might get the most recognition, but coaches' polls serve a greater purpose for Olympic sports like volleyball and field hockey.
The American Volleyball Coaches Association/USA Today and the STX/National Field Hockey Coaches Association get the most attention at Ohio because those respective Bobcat teams have a history in the poll.
Ohio volleyball coach Geoff Carlston said the Bobcats' listing has been great exposure for the university and for recruiting purposes.
It has been great for our program
great for the university because it gets our name out there Carlston said. Being No.30 and seeing our name up there people see that and talk about that. They see we're ranked higher than teams everyone knows about. It gives us a sense of legitimacy.
Both coaches' associations use the same basic methods to conduct their polls with slight differences.
AVCA Director of Media Relations Bill Kauffman said the AVCA/USA Today poll ranks the Top 25 out of a possible 312 teams through votes of 65 designated coaches, with 64 coaches voting every week and one of 10 alternates voting each week.
Every Division-I conference gets at least one voter on the poll
Kaufman said. The size of the conference and the strength of schedule plays a factor in how many voters they get.
The Mid-American Conference currently has three coaches who are eligible to vote every week - Marshall coach Mitch Jacobs, Bowling Green coach Denise Van De Walle and Ball State coach Randy Litchfield.
Jacobs said most coaches take their poll voting responsibilities seriously and try to cast their votes in an objective and credible way based on record and that week's game results. Coaches submit their list of the Top 25, with the No.1 ranked team receiving 25 points and the No.25 team receiving one point.
Kauffman, who is responsible for tabulating poll results, said teams are not ranked lower than 25th. Those teams are listed because they did not receive enough points to break into the Top 25.
Ohio volleyball entered the poll on Sept.15, receiving nine points and being listed No. 31. The Bobcats recently received 32 points and a No. 30 listing in the Oct. 20 poll, which means that several coaches put the Bobcats in the Top 25.
I believe they are a Top 25 team
Jacobs said, explaining that a coach's placement of teams in the Top 25 is not released to the public.
The STX/NFHCA poll ranks the Top 20 and is also released once a week, but all 77 coaches of Division-I teams fill out a ballot. And like the AVCA poll, it does not have any bearing on the NCAA tournament field or subsequent seedings.
Ohio coach Shelly Morris said that while she takes voting seriously and tries to be fair and realistic about her choices in the Top 20, some coaches do not vote at all. Only 29 coaches submitted ballots for the Oct.21 poll.
Less than half of our membership is voting
Morris said.
Ohio field hockey has a history of being ranked in the Top 20, getting its first ranking in 2000 at 14th and was as high as ninth in 2001 and 15th in 2002, Morris said.
The poll has done more than give people a way to judge the best teams in the country. Morris and Jacobs both said polls are great for marketing the sport and each individual program.
We moved to have a coaches poll for one reason
and that was for publicity of our programs
Morris said.
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