Harris Interactive

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Harris Interactive (NASDAQ: HPOL) is an American market research company that specializes in public opinion research, using statistical sampling for both telephone and online surveys. Headquartered in Rochester, New York, the company has annual revenue of over $200 million, and employs approximately 1,000 full time staff.

Harris Interactive has produced the Harris Poll surveys of public opinion since 1963, and is a member of the National Council of Public Polls (NCPP), the Council of American Survey Research Organizations (CASRO), the Council for Marketing and Opinion Research (CMOR), and the European Society for Opinion & Marketing Research (ESOMAR).

[edit] The Harris Poll in college football

The Harris Interactive College Football Poll is used to rank the top 25 college football teams each week from September all the way to the end of the regular football season. First, Division 1-A college football conferences and independent institutions nominate prospective panelists. Then Harris randomly selects 114 members from the nominees to participate in the actual panel. From each week in September to the end of the regular college football season these 114 panelists vote on the particular ranking of teams. These rankings are then published and are used to determine 1/3 of the BCS standings.