DiNardo, Holtz take jobs with ESPN, won't be able to vote in new BCS poll

NEW YORK -- Former coaches Lou Holtz of Notre Dame and Gerry DiNardo of Indiana will not be able to vote on the new college football poll being used by the Bowl Championship Series because they now work for ESPN.\nHoltz, who retired as South Carolina coach last year, recently signed on as a studio analyst. DiNardo, fired as Indiana coach after last season, will work for ESPN Radio.\nHoltz, DiNardo and John Congemi, a game analyst for ESPN's regional college football coverage, are not permitted to vote in the Harris Interactive College Football Poll by ESPN because it is being used by the BCS to determine which teams play for the national championship. Also, Jason Rash, the son-in-law of Troy coach Larry Blakeney, has withdrawn from the 114-member Harris voter panel after the BCS informed the Sun Belt Conference that he did not meet its voter criteria.\n"When the Harris poll was announced, we went on record saying our commentators wouldn't participate for journalistic reasons," ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said Thursday. "That decision is consistent given our decision to pull out of the coaches' poll."\nESPN said it removed its name from the USA Today coaches' poll earlier this year because all ballots are not being made public. The coaches agreed this season to release only their final ballots for the first time.\nThe Harris poll is being used by the BCS to replace The Associated Press media poll after the AP asked college football officials to stop using the Top 25 in their formula for picking teams to play in the four major bowls.\nNancy Wong, a spokeswoman for Harris Interactive Inc., said Congemi has confirmed his withdrawal, but Holtz and DiNardo had not yet informed Harris they will not be participating.\nThe 11 Division I-A conferences and Notre Dame provided Harris with a pool of about 300 possible poll voters. The panel was randomly selected with the only consideration being equal representation for all conferences.\nWong said Harris will randomly select replacements for Harris and Rash out of the remaining pool of voters and is prepared to do the same for Holtz and DiNardo when their withdrawals are confirmed.\nThere were no women among the 114 original voters. Wong said there are female candidates in the voter pool, so the possibility exists that a woman could be selected as a replacement. But no special accommodation will be made to put a woman on the panel, she said.