While everyone is complaining how the BCS as a whole is not working; and how college football needs to move more toward a playoff, I think there is some other issues inside the BCS that need addressed. First and foremost, the coaches should not be allowed to have a say in who gets to play in the BCS Games.
Before I get into my rant about how they vote, just look at the facts on the surface. Most of the week coaches spend time preparing for their opponent, which for at least 70% of the time are conference foes. Secondly, how much football, other than their game, do you think the watch on Saturdays? My guess is pretty minimal. But yet when it comes to the BCS rankings, the USA Today Coaches poll counts for 33% of the billing. I am smart enough to realize that for some schools the SID fills out the ranking sheet each week, but does that make it any better?
The Bleacher Report outlines another well known fact about the coaches poll, for the most part the coaches vote on conference lines. There is so much money involved when a conference gets an extra team in a BCS Bowl game, and for the BCS conferences, all of the teams split the money (not-equally), and that is a big plus for the team’s budget for the next season.
Luckily for us the USA Today publishes each coaches votes. Below are some “unique” voting habits that I and a few other ITB people noticed in the final poll.
- Bob Stoops apparently thinks that LSU is the 6th best team in the nation and that 3 of the top 4 teams in the nation reside in the B12.
- Big10 coaches went out of their way to make sure that Illinois made the BCS. Brett Bielema, Ron Zook, and Mark Dantonio all had them ranked #9. Those three, along with Lloyd Carr and Joe Tiller were the only ones that had them ranked in the top 12.
- Bobby Bowden either loves his son a lot or his wife fills out his bracket, as he has Clemson much higher than any other coach does. He also ranked Oklahoma #10. His son Tommy isn’t much better, ranking Missouri over Oklahoma.
- I know I was hard on Hawaii this year, but Dennis Franchione had them ranked 22nd. Hal Mumme ranked Hawaii #1.
- Howard Schnellenberger’s ballot is a joke. Kansas #2, Missouri #4, Oklahoma #7, did he miss the last two weeks of the season? He also ranked Florida #21, 6 spots lower than anyone else and also ranked USC at #12, lower than anyone else. Take his ballot away now!
This is a joke, and if you don’t agree with me you are either blind or corrupt. I won’t pick on votes for Hawaii being high because the team did finish undefeated, but when coaches vote for a team higher that lost twice to another team, there is an agenda going on. Bob Stoops knew that LSU was his main competition and voted them as low as he could get away with. It’s time for the BCS to look at this, don’t worry about tweaking the computer portion, worry about getting some competent voters in there which will watch the games, and not vote on an agenda.
by Dave, on December 6 2007 @ 2:50 pm
Well said. Actually, not all coaches even vote. Several years ago, Joe Paterno publicly stated that he lets one of his assistants vote for him because he doesn’t have the time to fill out the ballot. I realize this wasn’t the purpose of your entry, but you didn’t even mention the writers poll. Does anyone think they are NOT biased? I’d like to see some results on how they vote. How many games do they really watch?
by Brian Sakowski, on December 6 2007 @ 2:58 pm
I am sure the writers are biased but they aren’t making decisions that have a direct impact on themselves and their team, plus I think they have the opportunity (whether they use it or not is another story) to watch a lot more games than the coaches do.
by Ryan, on December 9 2007 @ 2:33 pm
Very interesting post. I didn’t know the coaches votes were so easily accessible through USA Today. Something is definitely rotten in Denmark.