We are on the eve of a new season of college football. Let us all give thanks and praise! And since our imperial past has given rise to a new republican present (*), that means that a lot of extremely popular somewhat beloved mostly tolerated features from our former hangout will be migrating to this humble establishment.
(*) Not to be confused with current events, in which our Republican present is leading us all toward an imperial future.
Among the features that will be making the move are the Big Ten Power Polls. I need to start by offering another massive salute to BRT for her curation of the Power Polls at OTE over the past several years. I'm only starting to come to grips with the Herculean task it's going to be to wrestle these things into shape, and she did it with wit, grace, and aplomb for a very long time (which I'm sure felt like a lot longer).
A couple of weeks ago, I announced that this move would be taking place.
Transient Buckeye
In that column, I mentioned that I was extremely interested in soliciting participation from members of the OTR commentariat--I was seeking volunteers who would be willing to sign up to write a Power Poll or two during the upcoming year. And, unsurprisingly, you crazy bastards came up clutch. The response from the community was exceptional, and while we don't have the entire schedule filled, we should be able to run polls most weeks during the season.
In order to help out those who volunteered to contribute, and to keep us all organized, here is the tentative schedule for the upcoming season thus far:
I think I caught most of the people who volunteered to write columns. If I missed you, please reach out in the comments below. If you have been waiting to take the plunge, and want to give it a go, put your name forward, as well. Please say what your proposed topic is, and where you'd like me to slot you in during the season. We're still looking to fill in Week 1, Week 3, Week 8, and Week 12.
Now, to the Important Stuff (aka, "logistics"): For those of you who are not among the ranks of our "writers," we will need a way for you to submit your materials. The easiest way will probably be for you to email your stuff to me (Microsoft Word format will be the easiest, editing-wise). When your turn in the rotation comes up, I will insert the voting data (rank, rank last week, first place votes, last place votes, etc.), and prep the column for publication. It will have to be my name on the masthead, but I will ensure that the author of each column is blamed credited in the intro, so readers will know who is responsible for that week's enduring masterpiece.
Your submissions can be directed to my handle (all lowercase) at the mail of the "g". Alternatively, you can reach out to AlmaOtter, and he will make sure your stuff gets routed to me. If you are sending submissions by email, please put some/all of the following in your subject line – your OTR handle, your topic, and the words "Power Poll."
When your turn is approaching, it would help me out a lot if you could get me your stuff at least a week before your submission is scheduled to run. That will give me time to get it plugged into Ghost (our editing package) and get the entries re-ordered to reflect that week's votes. If you realize on further reflection that you are not going to be able to get your stuff in, or you want me to push your further back in the calendar, that is completely understandable, but I would appreciate a heads-up so that I can try to fill gaps.
Thank you so much to everyone who has volunteered to author one or more PowerPoll articles during the upcoming season. While they're a lot of fun, these things are also an absolute bear to write, so the more our commentariat steps up, the fewer I'll have to do!
Keep OTR weird!
