Time for Transparency
So, WNBA, don't you think it's time that you told all of us poor little plebeians who these voters are? Just like the USA Today/ESPN Poll Board of Coaches is listed each season for its NCAA Poll, and the AP Poll Journalists are publicly available, your voters should be fully disclosed to fans and the rest of the media as well.
Tonight is Game Two of the WNBA Finals, and before the game begins the league is expected to give out two more awards. Coach of the Year will go to the Atlanta Dream's Marynell Meadors, and Rookie of the Year will be awarded to her #1 Draft pick Angel McCoughtry.
Now that all of the awards have been decided, I want to vent about something that's been bothering me for a long time. The WNBA does not make public who the voters are for these awards. With the exception of some reporters who happen to write about their picks (see Mechelle Voepel, Jayda Evans, SPM's own Donald Barnat) and television analysts/broadcasters who might mention their choices (Nancy Lieberman, Carolyn Peck) most of the voters are not necessarily known to the public.
Not only do I disagree with this policy, I don't understand the purpose of it.
Whether or not the voters want to make their actual votes public should certainly be up to them; they should not feel restrained from choosing for fear that their choices would be made public without their knowledge, possibly questioned, or ridiculed, or because they feel that somehow they would alter their picks if they were forced to list them for the world to see. The same principle we apply to our voting booths should (and does) apply here. But we don't keep secret who is registered to vote.
These journalists are being given a significant responsibility, and while I do not always agree, for example, with the picks of those writers who are generous (and brave) enough to publish their choices, (OK, I almost never completely agree) I am very grateful that they do so because I appreciate the openness.
So, WNBA, don't you think it's time that you told all of us poor little plebeians who these voters are? Just like the USA Today/ESPN Poll Board of Coaches is listed each season for its NCAA Poll, and the AP Poll Journalists are publicly available, your voters should be fully disclosed to fans and the rest of the media as well.
Why the secrecy?