Local Voter Is in Need of Some Expert Advice

For a change, let’s try some facts here.

Los Angeles Daily News sports writer Scott Wolf has no idea what he’s writing about when it comes to college football.

I know I’m not breaking any new ground here, but it’s just so darn irritating.

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AS YOU know, I make it a practice of being a homer and cheering for our local teams as much as I can. There’s always going to be naysayers, and I know everyone is entitled to their opinion, but there’s no place for Dumb Wolf Opinions, or DWOs--as they are well-known in our business--especially if they hurt our Bruins.

Each week Wolf weighs in as one of 72 national voters in the Associated Press top 25 football poll. He’s one of Los Angeles’ two representatives in this weekly exercise, along with the Orange County Register’s Todd Harmonson, who has smart opinions--often agreeing with me.

The AP poll plays a factor in the BCS standings and who will play in the national championship game--this year in the Rose Bowl Jan. 3--and the L.A. Daily News football writer is making it clear he doesn’t want the Bruins to play in that game.

Last week I noticed Wolf had Texas, after losing to Oklahoma, ranked ahead of undefeated UCLA. So I made a small mention of this DWO without actually publishing Wolf’s name in the hopes I might smarten him up.

I’m like that. I like to educate the local sports writers when I can, and while Plaschke remains a work in progress, I think the improvement is obvious. I haven’t spent time with Pucin yet.

This week, however, the hack--and I’m referring to Wolf--came right back with another DWO, placing Texas No. 6 and UCLA No. 7, and so I asked him how could he explain this, and he replied: “No comment.”

I can’t say for sure if he was waving his notebook and pen at me when he said, “No comment,” because I was kind of flabbergasted that someone who makes their living holding people in sports accountable and asking for their comments, would say, “No comment.”

If I did something as clueless as picking Texas ahead of UCLA in the top 25, I’d probably have nothing to say either. Sure, I picked Texas to play UCLA in the BCS game before the season began, but you can’t call me clueless, because I based my Texas selection solely on what our Times’ college football expert had written.

The Daily News, meanwhile, refuses to correct its mistakes. They run DWOs under a headline every week which reads: “Experts’ Consensus,” like the newspaper thinks Wolf knows what he’s writing about. Shouldn’t that headline read: “Our So-Called Expert Disagrees with the Experts’ Consensus.”

The AP Poll, the collective work of 72 voters, has UCLA No. 4 and Texas No. 9. Pretty soon we’re going to learn Wolf’s dog is named “Bevo.”

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I DID some further checking. I called Harmonson, L.A.’s only other hope for UCLA, and he voted UCLA No. 6 this week and Texas No. 9.

I also called Terry Taylor, the AP’s sports editor, and asked if she was bothered by the fact the top 25 poll has been compromised by obvious DWOs.

She said I was the first one to cry Wolf--you knew that line was coming.

I got to thinking, though--I do that on occasion when I’m writing a column--and it dawned on me that Taylor works in New York, and out here we all know about the East Coast bias, and maybe it’s Taylor urging Wolf to downplay the Bruins. For all I know, Taylor’s dog is named “Bevo.”

Anyway, Taylor got real official with me at one point, and said all the voters are given guidelines--the first one being to vote based on performance.

Based on performance, Texas is 5-1, losing to Oklahoma and beating Houston, New Mexico State, North Carolina, Texas Tech and Oklahoma State.

Based on performance, the sports writer from the Longhorns’ hometown newspaper, the Austin American-Statesman, voted UCLA No. 5 and Texas No. 8.

I checked with the other four voters from the state of Texas. The San Antonio newspaper had UCLA No. 4 and Texas No. 10; the Fort Worth voter had UCLA No. 4 and Texas No. 8; a radio guy in Irving went with UCLA No. 5 and Texas No. 9; while in Houston the official AP voter had UCLA No. 6 and Texas No. 10.

In seeking a neutral opinion--and aren’t all of them supposed to be neutral?--I checked with the Chicago Tribune’s Andrew Bagnato, and he has UCLA No. 3, and Texas No. 17 this week. Why? “I’ve seen Texas play,” Bagnato said. “Unimpressive, would be one way of putting it.”

I TALKED to several college football experts. I even called our Chris Dufresne, but no one was home.

No one could make a case for lifting Texas above UCLA. They said strength of schedule doesn’t favor Texas. They said UCLA is undefeated and Texas is not.

So for the life of me I can’t think of a single reason why this guy, who spends all his time writing about USC for the Daily News, would want to hurt UCLA.

THE COWBOYS are 1-0 since signing Ryan Leaf.

IT WAS a tough decision for Fox what to show in prime time Tuesday night: The suspense-filled finale of “Love Cruise” with Darin and Jeanette each winning Switch Cards in the last episode, prompting Toni and Jeanette to nearly come to blows after Anthony shook things up with some nasty insinuations he passed on to Ralph, or a silly baseball game between Atlanta and some other team.

I didn’t feel strongly about it either way.

THE TROJANS beat Arizona State Saturday, and after the game quarterback Carson Palmer explained the team’s secret to success: “Coach [Pete] Carroll told us the season starts today.”

Just think what USC’s record might be had he mentioned that earlier.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in an e-mail from Dave, a USC fan:

“Did you know Anna Kournikova is a big Trojans’ fan?”

Thanks. I would have never known that.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com.