The Non-Unanimous Unanimous Choice

OK, gang, rumor revealed. Affable Wash Times Maryland Beat Man Patrick Stevens is the voter who did not vote for Hansbrough for the ACC-first team, and he chronicles the ACC's decision to call Hansbrough a unanimous choice in his blog. As Patrick details, here was the ACSMA's reasoning:

Your vote was counted and the players you voted for first-team were duly noted and the appropriate point totals recorded. However, as has been done in the past with the Board's approval, if a particular player is one or two votes shy of being a unanimous selection, we have designated that player as being a unanimous pick. All ballots per our by-laws can be made public if requested, so we do this in order to avoid possibly singling out the one or two people who did not vote for a particular player. We feel that is the best policy and avoids any un-needed distractions in the overall process. At times in the past, I've tried to contact voters to let them know that this was being done, but this year with the large number of votes that I had to count Sunday evening, there simply wasn't time. If you would like the Board to consider changing this policy, please let me know.

That, of course, is patently absurd. Unanimous should mean unanimous, or there's no point in calling someone a unanimous choice. I'd feel wronged if I was Jared Dudley or Al Thornton, who should be the lone unanimous choices. I'd also feel wronged if I was Stevens, whose vote was basically disregarded. Stevens, by the by, voted for Dowdell, Singletary, Reynolds, Thonrton and Dudely.

Hogwash, I say. Not Stevens' vote, but the whole ordeal.