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Graham Couch has been featured in my weekly Poll Attacks column multiple times over the years. He's always been a good sport about it, which is something I've appreciated. And it's among the reasons I felt obligated to read what he wrote early Monday and share it with people who follow me on Twitter.

(Here's a link, if you missed it.)

Obviously, you can read Couch's words in their entirety at the provided link. But his basic point was that the Poll Attacks column has created a world where AP voters are so scared of me writing about them that they vote in a way to ensure I won't, which by extension means I'm actually shaping the AP poll each Monday. And he used USA Today's Lindsay Schnell as an example because she recently told him what she has also told me -- that she gave up her AP vote last week, in part, because she was fearful of appearing in a Poll Attacks column and what it might mean for her Twitter mentions given that she's a woman.

I'll be honest, this all gave me pause.

The idea that people, other professionals in my industry, are living in fear of what I might write is weird and uncomfortable. I'm not perfect. But I'm also not mean. And I find no joy in causing people stress. 

That said, what am I really doing with this column each week? Answer: I'm writing about nonsensical things that appear on AP ballots. That's it. I won't pretend I've never typed a word I would like to take back, or said something I wish I wouldn't have said. But, for the most part, the column is just me finding something some AP voter did that is, at least in my mind, impossible to intelligently defend. Then I basically write, "Here's a very specific thing I noticed on a ballot this week. It makes no sense. Here's why."

That's the column.

Every week.

And, I don't know if you've noticed, but the column often focuses on the same 10 to 15 voters because it's the same 10 to 15 voters who consistently file nonsensical ballots. Sometimes, frankly, I feel bad because it must seem like I'm piling on. But I'm honestly never piling on. I don't go look for certain people. I just look for nonsensical things. And it's amazing how often those nonsensical things lead me to the same group of people.

Anyway ...

I tweeted the following Monday afternoon:

You can read the replies here. Most of them came from readers who told me to keep writing the column, which was nice. And I especially liked the following tweet because it basically summarized how I feel:

The only thing I would change about that tweet is that my goal is not to "embarrass" somebody. It's why I never put anybody's name in the headline or on Twitter. My goal is simply to highlight something egregious on a ballot. Obviously, the embarrassment sometimes comes with it. I realize that. But I didn't start writing the column to "embarrass" people. I started writing the column because I kept noticing ridiculous things in the AP poll. And nobody else was writing about these ridiculous things. So I figured I would.

More than five years later, here we are.

And if the column has grown and turned into something that holds AP voters accountable and actually shapes the AP poll (as Eli Boettger suggested recently), well, I don't think that's the worst thing in the world. And to those AP voters who might live in fear every Monday afternoon, here's my advice: Just take your responsibility seriously. Put some time into it. And if you don't have the time, hey, I understand. We're all busy. But I have a wife and three kids. I host a radio show five days a week. I host a podcast three days a week. I travel to New York every week for television work in studio. I serve as a sideline reporter on games. I write columns. And I still rank 26 basketball teams every morning. So if I can find time to take the responsibility seriously every morning, anybody can probably find time to do it once a week. But if not, again, I understand. Sincerely, I do. But, if that's the case, what you should do is pass along the opportunity and give somebody else a shot. Because here's the truth: The people who actually take the responsibility seriously, and spend time on it, and use logic and all of the resources available, rarely end up in the Poll Attacks.

This is your typical Poll Attacks column.

That column focused, in part, on a writer who had Arizona ranked 18th one week. Then Arizona went out and beat Arizona State -- and he dropped the Wildcats five spots to No. 23 the following week. In other words, Arizona was on an eight-game winning streak that included a victory against a team that was ranked, at the time, in the top five of the AP poll. And yet he dropped Arizona five spots.

I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous.

It's careless.

There's no defense for it.

And I'm not sure why it's wrong to highlight something so careless and ridiculous when -- as the above tweet pointed out -- the AP Poll is, contrary to what some think, very important. It largely determines what highlights get on television. It determines what scores are on a scroll at the bottom of a screen. It determines what scores are highlighted on certain apps or in newspapers.

The AP poll matters.

And anybody who agrees to be a part of the process should take the process seriously. Earlier this season, one AP voter I highlighted in the Poll Attacks was asked by readers to explain his ballot. He essentially responded by saying he just didn't have much time to spend on it. So if it looks crazy, that's why. And that's pretty lame, I think.

Either way, I'll close with this from Lindsay Schnell:

I guess I would respond this way: What she calls "attacking" I would call "holding accountable." Again, all I do is find nonsensical things each week, highlight them and explain in great detail why I think they're nonsensical. Which means I probably spend more time on my Poll Attacks column than most of the AP voters I'm writing about spend on their AP ballots. And the idea that media members shouldn't hold other media members accountable is ridiculous. The media can hold politicians accountable. And Hollywood actors and producers accountable. And corporations accountable. But somehow it's crossing a line to hold each other accountable?

Please.

And though I'm well aware that women -- especially women who work in sports -- and people of color deal with unfair criticism on social media more often than white men like me do, I've rarely noticed a woman or person of color dealing with harsher criticism after being featured in a Poll Attacks column than, say, Graham Couch has dealt with. Best I can tell, the readers who tweet at the people whose ballots I write about tend to focus on the exact thing I focused on. They tend to focus on the ballots.

Bottom line, yeah, I'm conflicted.

I don't like embarrassing anybody. But I do like the column. And I like that people like the column. And I think the column serves a purpose. So, to answer the question some have asked since I retweeted Graham Couch's words earlier ... Yes, I'm going to keep writing the column. I'll go out of my way to make sure there's nothing personal in the column. I'll stay super-focused on the ballot and not the man or woman who submitted the ballot. But the solution to this issue, to the extent that it's an issue, isn't for me to ignore AP voters who submit nonsensical ballots that can't be intelligently explained. The solution is for AP voters to be better.

So be better, AP voters.

And I'll be nicer.

And perhaps someday we'll get to a point where I'll stare at ballots on a Monday afternoon and find nothing too ridiculous to write about. Hasn't happened yet. But it might someday. And when it does, the column will die. But till then, it won't.