UConn vs. Tennessee: Holding Up AP Poll - The Back Story

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

One of the great side stories that came out of the first Connecticut/Tennessee game back in 1995 has been the reference of the Associated Press holding up its weekly women’s poll to get the result of the showdown included.

In the underbelly, there was a feeling of this game is really something special.

But it wasn’t like there were major meetings about what to do. It more came out of a discussion of logic.

That season was the first that the poll switched from coaches to writers on its voting board and managed in-house instead of by remote under the guidance of yours truly.

Chuck Schoffner out of the Des Moines bureau where he lives in Iowa became the national women’s writer until in later years succeeded by Doug Feinberg, who still runs the show.

And in that first season, we’d still consult over the lay of the land.

Here is how the Huskies and Lady Vols ran their collision course in terms of polling.

Week 1 (preseason): Tennessee, Purdue, Louisiana Tech, Connecticut

Week 2: Tennessee, Stanford, Connecticut

Week 3: Tennessee, Stanford, Connecticut

Week 4 (Dec.-6-1994) Tennessee, Connecticut

Weeks 5-9: Tennessee, Connecticut

Weeks 10 (Jan. 17, 1995)-17: Connecticut, Tennessee

Final Poll (Before the NCAA tourney): Connecticut, Colorado, Tennessee

Meanwhile, back when the world was different than today, technology had yet to arrive, but newspapers still thrived.

It so happened as the women’s season progressed, the NHL was on strike and so to fill the space needed to normally give short blurbs on ice hockey games, many sports sections decided to use the women’s blurbs and just make the college section a little larger.

Thus, as UConn and Tennessee quickly became the last two unbeaten teams, the nation got to know about them. 

But by the time the New Year was approaching, the looming Martin Luther King game was hitting the radar and in being not far from the major media markets, the hype began.

Now back to yours truly and Chuck.

In those days because there were still a bunch of afternoon papers, the men’s and women’s polls were released on alternating AM/PM cycles every week as to which went out first. 

About two weeks out from the game, we noticed that the women’s poll was a PM release for that day, meaning, the ballots would be counted with the usual Sunday results close out for consideration, but the poll wouldn’t make its release until after that game.

Furthermore, most of the world got their papers in the morning and there was no internet, so first word of the new poll would hit eyeballs almost a day after the game was over.

If Tennessee won, no big deal, since the Lady Vols were No. 1. 

But if UConn was victorious, there was going to be a lot of time taken explaining the process.

But in discussing the situation, we noticed something: 

Though the poll usually said games thru Sunday, that Monday, the UConn/Tennessee game involved the only two teams of any relevance so even with the extended day, the week was already over for everyone else in terms of being affected by wins or losses.

Otherwise, the delay would have to be much longer.

So, why not just get an alternative vote from everyone in advance to account for a Huskies win.

Then, the count could be done in advance and two polls reflective of the outcome could be on standby to quickly hit the normal release time.

Chuck ran the discussion up the flagpole at his end and it made sense to the powers that be.

But of course, as the decision was made and the hype of the game was at full metal jacket, the decision to delay was quickly sucked into the advance coverage when the word was put out. 

Part of the narrative became, “ this game is so big that the AP is holding up its women’s poll for the outcome.”

True, but it was off the initiative, let’s not look stupid. 

However, the nice thing in terms of the growth of the sport, was, to the man in the street reacting, was, this must really be important if the AP is holding up its poll.

Of course, in today’s world this routinely happens every year in college football.

So now you know.

Tennessee vs. UConn – Poll Stats

Since we are talking UConn and Tennessee and Polls, your Guru thought you’d be entertained out of the database showing Tennessee totals before UConn’s first-ever poll appearance, their ranking in categories with the entire history, and their comparative number after Tennessee’s 209-week head start. 

Tennessee Before UConn First Ranking (Thru 2/5/90)

Total Rankings 209

No. 1 Appearances 27

Top 5 Appearances 113

Top 10 Appearances 163

Final Poll No. 1 Appearances 3

Tennessee and UConn Overall Poll Categories

Total Rankings: This is week 780

Tenn (1) 737 UConn  (4) 534

No. 1 Appearances:

UConn (1) 245 Tenn (2) 112

Top 5 Appearances:

 Tenn (1) 464 UConn (2) 442

Top 10 Appearances: 

Tenn (1) 617 UConn (2) 486

Final Poll No. 1: 

UConn (1) 15

Tenn  (2) 5

La. Tech (2) 5

Tenn/UConn Totals After First UConn Ranking 2/12/90

Total Rankings

UConn 534 Tenn 528

No. 1 Rankings

UConn 245 Tenn 87

Top 5 Rankings

UConn 442 Tenn 351

Top 10 Rankings

UConn 486 Tenn 444

Final Polls No. 1

Conn 15 Tenn 2

And that’s the report for the moment.