The USA Today Coaches Poll makes up 1/3 of the BCS formula. The other two-thirds are the Harris Poll and the average of the 7 computer polls.
The difference between the Coaches Poll portion and the other two-thirds? One will be secret, the others are not. The public always has access to the Harris Poll results and the computer poll results. In 2010 the American Football Coaches Association plans to make the Coaches Poll private.
Not if Sports Illustrated reporter Andy Staples can help it. Andy is on a mission to make the ballots public and he’s got some support. Read about it here.
Looks like this is becoming the new trend.
Load up your non-conference schedule with weaklings and get to that National Championship Game on the merits of your perfect record! Brilliant! Read the article here.
Seriously though, this is good for the pro-playoff campaign. The more undefeated teams at the end of the year, the better. The more teams yelling as the season ends that they have a legitimate claim to play in the title game, the better. More controversy means more ticked off coaches, players, fans, schools. More anger means more cries for a playoff.
Eric Horchy with the Suncoast News in Tampa Bay makes a good argument for doing away with the Preseason Polls altogether. Far too much in the initial BCS rankings is based on these meaningless polls that magically rank football teams before a single game has been played.
As we all know, the Big East is one of the 6 conferences that gets an automatic berth in a BCS game at the end of each season. Last year the highest ranked team from the Big East at the end of the season was Cincinnati, ranked 12 in the BCS standings. Cincinnati was invited to the Orange Bowl where they were creamed by Viginia Tech.
This year the Big East Conference doesn’t have a single football team in the main Preseason Top 25 Polls. Not in the AP Poll and not in the USA Today/Coaches Poll. NOT A SINGLE TEAM! This conference, the Big “Least” is going to get another automatic berth in a BCS game this year, as they will every year, yet they don’t have a single team in the Top 25.
Yah, the BCS system is fair.
By the way, the Mountain West Conference has 3 teams in the Preseason Top 25, in both major polls.
BCSReform.org is an organization seeking to garner support for legislation that has been introduced in Congress that would eventually force all 120 FBS schools to create a playoff system. Representative Gary Miller from California introduced a bill in January 2009 (H.R. 599). Representative Joe Barton from Texas also introduced a bill in January 2009 (H.R. 390). Both have been assigned to committees.
Now, will these bills ever even make it out of committee to go to general debate? Most likely not. Still, the push for a college football playoff must be accompanied by attempted legislation. It creates momentum! If a similar bill gets introduced every year, with nationwide support for a playoff system growing all the time anyway, who knows whether some day one of these proposed bills could become law. Maybe that’s how we’ll get our beloved playoff, after all.
Rick Reilly knows who the real champ was last year. Read his article.
Doesn’t the irritating controversy that the BCS creates at the end of every college football season prove that the current system doesn’t work? When an overwhelming majority of the college football culture (fans, players, coaches, teams, media, etc.) agrees that at least 2 or 3 teams had a legitimate claim on the title in a given year, that’s a CONTROVERSY. And we have that every year!
Now, we all know college football is a business and it’s all about profit. But since that profit comes from the wallets of college football fans, shouldn’t the fans have the right to agree with the method of choosing a champion??!! Come on John Swofford and the rest of you high and mighty BCS Presidents, WHY WON’T YOU LISTEN TO THE FANS??
And by the way, it’s not just the fans that don’t agree with the current system — at least half (probably more) of the actual teams don’t agree with the system. You know why? Because by virtue of the conference they’re in, they’re already eliminated from competing for the national title. And the season hasn’t started yet!!