Okay, ideas for the blog awards are still rolling in, but here are some of Brian's ideas to give you a flavor of what we're looking for. As Brian had already fleshed out most of the ideas that were just beginning to take shape in my mind, I'll have to think up some new ones and put them in the comment section as they hit me. Help us out by doing the same.
The Mythical National Champion
FOR: overall outstanding coverage. The blog that has the best content, period.
CRITERIA: posting frequency and quality; insight, humor, and professionalism. The blog that represents the idea that blogging is something different and worthwhile best.
The Gary Danielson Award
FOR: Cogent, interesting analysis.
CRITERIA: Emphasis placed on statistical manipulation, well researched pieces that reveal something new, and/or solid argumentative pieces that function as the authoritative last word on a subject.
The Trev Alberts Quits To Do Construction Award
FOR: comic relief; overall hilarity.
CRITERIA: This one's simple: the funniest college football blog.
The Job Award
FOR: The blog that has suffered through its chosen team's dismal season with the most dignity.
CRITERIA: Continued engagement in the face of crippling, misery-inducing defeat. A stiff-upper lip and sane reaction to everything crumbling to dust.
The Keith Jackson Circa 1995 Award
FOR: The blog with the most consistently expressive and excellent writing.
CRITERIA: Mechanical competency, yes, but the ability to turn a devastatingly funny phrase or write something compelling is probably more important. This isn't an award for copy editing; it's an award for kickin' prose.
Notes on voting for these awards: please enter the root URL for the blog in question as your vote.
AWARDS FOR INDIVIDUAL MOMENTS OF BRILLIANCE
The Tyrone Prothro And His Amazing Catch Award
FOR: The finest individual post of the college football year.
ELIGIBLE: Any post that deals with the sport posted in August or later.
CRITERIA: Longer is better but only if the same high quality standard is maintained throughout; should be memorable and either deeply true or
incredibly hilarious or both.
The Chris Berman Antimatter Award
FOR: The best contribution to the lingo of our little interniche, be it a nickname, neologism, or catchy phrase used with frequency.
NON SUGGESTIVE BUT ILLUMINATING EXAMPLES: "Hennebriated"; "QED, MFer";
"Ron New Mexico."
The Lee Corso Award
FOR: The worst prediction of the year, be it for a team's season or an individual game.
CRITERIA: Hilarity and uniqueness is desired here; picking Michigan to go 10-1 probably doesn't qualify because Michigan was widely expected to
be very good. Purdue, on the other hand...
The Phil Steele Award
FOR: The exact inverse of the above. The most prescient words uttered in the college football blogosphere.
CRITERIA: We're looking for something dead on and unusual. Predicting USC to be good doesn't count; predicting USF to wax Louisville would probably be a winner.
*The Brad Nessler Award *
FOR: The best recurring feature of the year.
CRITERIA: The feature should be posted weekly and be generally good and stuff.
Notes on voting for these awards: please use the URL of a specific post for these. In the case of the recurring feature award, please the most
recent edition of said feature. For the nicknames and predictions please leave a note specifying the exact phrase/prediction.
Since these latter categories may be somewhat obscure there will be a plug-your-stuff roundtable before the nomination phase.
A few points of discussion: Mike from Black Shoe Diaries brings up some interesting points that we'd like your feedback on. On the use of the word "BlogPoll" in the name of the event, I still stand by my original justification for it, but I'm open to discussion on the question and can be persuaded to change my mind. For the record, Brian doesn't care one way or the other.
We could use some additional suggestions on the "rich getting richer" question. One thing we could do is to encourage the more narrowly-read bloggers to nominate some of their best stuff so we can get it before more eyes. The other thing is, while readers should inform a blogger's vote, it will be bloggers who will actually be casting the vote, as they likely read more blogs than do their readers. We'll also just keep a close eye on it during the nomination and voting phases, and if the end result is wacky, we'll figure out how to de-wack it then. But the bloggers should do their part in finding, nominating, and recognizing diverse bloggers and their content during the nomination phase.
The issue of possibly having the same winners from year to year is a serious concern, but it won't really ripe until next year.
All for now. Later. RTT readers, leave your ideas below. Bloggers, if you haven't already, post some ideas on your site and encourage your readers to leave their ideas in the comment section of your post. Be sure to leave me a link to your posts in the original announcement comment section so I can more easily find it.