Still Dancing

Dan Monson was forced out of the head coaching position at Minnesota last week after opening the season 2 - 5 with stunning defeats at the hands of teams like D-2 Winona State (The obvious matchup with Rider makes me thirsty for this season's Edward Scissorhands Invitational).

Monson, who took over the bench in 1999 following the great Clem Haskins farce, received a $1.1 million dollar buyout from his contract and turned over the reins to assistant coach Jim Molinari. It doesn't seem that Monson got rid of all of his duties though.

According to the latest USA Today/ESPN Coaches Top 25 poll, Monson is still a voting member of said poll. Big deal? I think so. The poll reflects the input of 31 coaches from Jim Boeheim at Syracuse to Ron "Fang" Mitchell at Coppin State. These coaches represent less than 10% of all Division 1 schools, and Monson isn't even officially coaching anymore!

Of course, I hope that I'm wrong and Monson's dismissal from his duties at Minnesota voided his poll chores. Yet, if Monson is still voting, what credence are we to give to these rankings? At some point Air Force (currently #23) will hear a chant of "O-ver-ra-ted" that they'll now deserve for so many more good reasons.

It could be worse, though. This could be the BCS.