How football coaches voted in their final regular-season poll

Here is are snippets from the article:

BY Jon Solomon
06 December 2010
The Birmingham News

At one point, this was going to be the first year that coaches no longer had to reveal their final regular-season ballots. Coaches didn't like awkward moments sometimes created by revealing where they rank certain teams, so the American Football Coaches Association sought to keep the ballots confidential.

The public got up in arms about the lack of transparency. So did conference commissioners, who ultimately decide what polls get used in the BCS formula. The final ballots remain open.

The ballots submitted yesterday in the USA Today Coaches' Poll show most coaches (or other school officials who vote for them -- wink, wink) typically don't stray from conventional thinking on these subjective polls. But there are still some awkward moments, which we'll gladly point out. Some nuggets from the voting:...

* Auburn had three coaches not vote the Tigers in the top two: Idaho's Robb Akey (TCU 1, Oregon 2); New Mexico's Mike Locksley (Oregon 1, TCU 2); and Utah's Kyle Whittingham (Oregon 1, TCU 2). Locksley and Whittingham both coach in the Mountain West against TCU.

* No. 18 Alabama's highest vote was 12th, by Mississippi State's Dan Mullen. Navy's Ken Niumatalolo put the Crimson Tide 13th. Alabama's lowest vote was 23rd by New Mexico's Mike Locksley, who put five teams ahead of the Crimson Tide that ended up finishing behind them. Locksley, who is 2-22 in two years at New Mexico, ranked Alabama behind Utah, Hawaii, Mississippi State (which lost by 20 to Alabama), West Virginia and Central Florida.

* Alabama coach Nick Saban ranked Auburn No. 1 and Alabama No. 15. He was the only coach from the state of Alabama. Voters are selected randomly based on their conference affiliation.

Nick Saban's Ballot
1. Auburn
2. Oregon
3. TCU
4. Stanford
5. Ohio State
6. Michigan State
7. Wisconsin
8. Arkansas
9. Oklahoma
10. LSU
11. Boise State
12. Virginia Tech
13. Missouri
14. Oklahoma State
15. Alabama
16. Texas A&M
17. Nebraska
18. Nevada
19. West Virginia
20. South Carolina
21. Mississippi State
22. Utah
23. Florida State
24. Central Florida
25. Connecticut

* There were no hard feelings from two former Auburn coaches. Tommy Tuberville, now at Texas Tech, voted Auburn No. 1. So did Iowa State's Paul Rhoads, a former Auburn defensive coordinator.

* Five of the six SEC coaches voted Auburn No. 1, including Mississippi State's Dan Mullen. By now, you've probably heard who didn't: Florida's Urban Meyer, who put the Tigers No. 2 behind Oregon. Bad feelings over Cam Newton, or strong respect for Oregon's offense, which Meyer has described as "mesmerizing"?

* All five of the Pac-10 coaches voted Oregon No. 1....