[Hoot Gibson]

Folks need to get over their problems with BGP. The base of the BGP members didn't vote to create rankings. A pretty select group of knowledgable football folks from around the state (including eastern Ky) created the rankings.

I'm from nothern Kentucky. I guess I don't know anything about the mountain teams when I post very complimentary things about the JC, Harlan County etc. football programs.

There are a lot a posts on this site that display a bad case of little brother syndrome.

I agree, although my post is probably one of those that you are characterizing as exhibiting a bad case of little brother syndrome. My problem with BGP was not with the way that they rank teams - and I think that they make an honest effort to take roster and coaching changes into account - but with a tiny minority (in my case, of one or two) of their moderators abusing their authority when posters (especially me) disagreed with them. I have not been subject to that treatment a single time on BGR. I have had some sharp exchanges with BGR moderators and admins in the Political forum and not once has any of them tried to intimidate me with their moderator badge.

The owner of BGP has made a conscious decision to limit membership by making it a pay site and by tightly moderating its forums. I respect his decision but I got tired of sparring with moderators whose feelings were hurt when I failed to defer to their superior judgment on political issues. Asking paying members to plead guilty to rules infractions that they did not commit has driven subscribers away - but that was apparently part of the business plan - maintain a small, easily managed user base.

As for the BGP preseason rankings and rankings in general, they are biased toward NKY teams because unless the process has changed, the panel of experts, in the end, must negotiate with the owner, a NKY native, before any of the rankings are published. There is some give and take in the process and people from around the state have their opinions heard but in the end the rankings are what one individual decides to publish.

By mid season, I prefer rankings like Massey that are not so heavily influenced by one person's geographical bias. In the preseason, beyond the obvious picks like Highlands, Trinity, etc., nobody's rankings are anything but guesstimate based on what people observed when the lights of last season went dark.