Coaches, media shouldn't be voting
By Greg Stoda
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Stop the voting.
The writers and broadcasters who cover college football have no business setting the sport's bowl agenda, and neither — Shouldn't this part be even more obvious? — do the college football coaches themselves.
The influence of the polls by The Associated Press (media) and USA Today/ESPN (coaches) on the Bowl Championship Series process is too great. Not only is the system itself flawed beyond what any amount of annual tinkering can fix, it carries an inherent risk of significant conflict of interest for those people casting ballots.
A criticism of the media poll long before anyone ever heard of anything called a BCS was the perception of possible regional bias. That is, writers and broadcasters might be inclined to react more extremely in either the positive or the negative to teams with which they are most familiar. Coaches might be inclined to do the same thing while also perhaps being tempted to weigh financial considerations either in terms of bonus clauses for themselves or money splits for their teams as members of a particular conference represented in a BCS game.
No one need examine further than the current situation to see the problem.
Southern California, Oklahoma and Auburn concluded the season as the nation's three unbeaten big-dog teams from three different big-dog conferences. The Trojans, Sooners and Tigers all have legitimate regular-season claim to play for the so-called national championship come Jan. 4, 2005, in the Orange Bowl at Pro Player Stadium, but Auburn is being left out.
Why?
Because the Tigers began from 17th and 18th positions in the media and coaches polls, respectively, while USC and Oklahoma began at and near the top. That means the voters pushed Auburn to a different and disadvantageous starting line than they did the Trojans and Sooners, and it turned out to be too much for the Tigers to overcome.
That's nothing if not significant impact on the ultimate result.
Nor was the force of the voters' opinions limited to what happened at the front of the BCS pack.
Consider, for example, what happened to California.
The Golden Bears finished as the fourth-ranked team in both the media and coaches' polls, but fifth-ranked in the final BCS standings behind fourth-ranked Texas. California won a close game Saturday night at Southern Mississippi while Texas was idle. Cal didn't lose enough votes from media representatives and coaches to lose its standing in either the AP or the USA Today/ESPN poll, but it lost enough points in the overall tabulation to allow Texas' computer edge in the BCS formula to make a difference.
This might be as good a place as any to state that Longhorns coach Mack Brown solicited voters to change their ballots in favor of Texas in replacement of teams — not necessarily California — he felt less deserving of a BCS berth. But it nevertheless was California that paid the penalty, because there was only one at-large berth available (Texas got it) after Utah earned a BCS berth from a non-BCS conference this season.
Nor was it a small penalty.
Texas will play in the Rose Bowl against Michigan with an estimated payout of $14.5 million per team; California is bound for the Holiday Bowl against Texas Tech with an estimated payout of $2 million per team.
The weekly polls compiled through the results of votes by media members and coaches this season combine to account for two-thirds of the BCS total. The remaining one-third of the formula comes from the average of six computers used in the ranking system.
But some editors are considering pulling out of the voting structure.
"We will give serious consideration to that," said Tim Burke, Assistant Managing Editor for sports at The Palm Beach Post. "This isn't the poll we all grew up with. Reporters should not have a say in who gets a $14 million payday."
Edgar Thompson, who covers the University of Florida for The Post, votes in the AP poll.
"We may get out of it," said Dallas Morning News Assistant Managing Editor/Sports Bob Yates. "That's the way we're leaning right now. The main concern is the poll is being used for a purpose for which it was never intended.
"We'd be kidding ourselves to think the poll hasn't always played some role in determining bowl matchups. But the stakes are so high. A couple of votes can make a $12 million difference decided by sports writers."
Big 12 Conference Commissioner Kevin Weiberg, who is the BCS coordinator, has suggested not conducting the first media and coaches polls until a month or so into the season in order to provide a better foundation for making initial judgments on the rankings.
Not a bad idea.
But not as good a one as stopping the vote altogether.
