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Particularly during the football season, and right around the time our rankings come out , we see these kinds of comments on a weekly basis:

> Wow the mules at #7? That's a top 5 team...
> 8 and 9 really
> At this rate you don't have to play anyone if you have the number 1 spot in this power ranking!
> Wow Campbell # 7...

Clearly, our readers are actively thinking of where teams are ranked, and who is better than who, so I thought why not give our readers a chance to vote on who THEY think are the top teams in the state. Compile votes from all over the state and present them as the state's first reader-only Top 10 for Division I and Division II. Show each voter that casts a ballot, and display each individual's chosen teams.

And the end result is the Bleacher Ballot (working title was the Reader Rankings).

So we sought out balloters this past Saturday into Sunday for a kind of soft launch of the poll, and only managed 15 readers willing to provide their opinion (and their name behind it) for publishing. Yes, more than a few of our own staff cast ballots, but hey, we read as much of our content as we write it, and as you'll be able to see since you can view each balloters vote, our opinions vary as much as anyone elses.

Bottom line is we wanted to get the poll going, and I'm hoping once our readers-at-large see what the Bleacher Ballot looks like and does, we will get a significant voter pool. I think it would be awesome to have 500 voters, and I hope we get that kind of response.

Interested in signing up?

To become a pollster is EASY. All you need to do is send an email to [email protected], and in it put your First and Last name (we only use your last initial in the balloter listing) and tell us very, very briefly WHY you should be a pollster.

Don't worry about the 'why' too much. We're not looking for gurus of football knowledge necessarily, just fans who are willing to spend a little bit of time and thought to honestly vote on the best 10 teams for each division.

While I'm not expecting to see any less commentary (and criticism) surrounding the always difficult task of ranking teams statewide, I am hoping the Bleacher Ballot will provide an interesting 'second voice' in terms of team rankings, and maybe help minimize the 'smh' as well.