BCS to adopt independent poll: As long as they can put together a credible panel, I believe this private poll is the best option because it won't have a final poll. Could you imagine the outcry if a 2003 situation arose again where the AP, Coaches, and this poll agree but disagree with the BCS result? Personally, I would never put Roy Kramer and people like him on the panel. I would have great difficulty believing that they would actually do the work required.
Anything short of a playoff, at this point, will fall short of the expectations of Joe Fan. The BCS's credibility hs been permanently and irrevocably damaged because of the inherent bias built into the polling system. For the most part, journalistic integrity and the reputation of participants (including head coaches) could once be relied upon to keep the results within an acceptable accuracy limit. But as CFB developed into a big-biz entertaiment product, and as competition among the media resulted in a lowering of integrity standards, the UPI and AP polls became subject to the influence that big money tends to apply. The bias is there, it's real, and it's no less damaging to the game than point-shaving or game-fixing. The intentions of the BCS were to satisfy the need for media ratings (translation = advertising dollars), not to determine a true champion. I mean, I get it.....the designers of the BCS built it on the belief that "what's good for entertainment ratings is good for the game of CFB." They really do believe they were doing the right thing. The reality is that selling out your integrity for the promotion of an "amatuer" sport is a short-sighted approach that will further damage the game in the end. (rant over)
I disagree with that, the polls have never benn accurate all the way through. The only time no one fusses is when their is only one top(unbeaten) team. I think they do a good job dealing with the hand they are dealt, it's the presidents that force this on them. I just don't along with this, there is plenty of bias, but I disagree with the supposed money theory.
cajdav, you'd be naive to think that money isn't the root cause of this issue. For example, the block voting by coaches that occurred last season to deny Cal ..... there can be no doubt that those votes were directly influenced by the amount of money that shifted as a result. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying coaches votes were bought and paid for, but the money definitely influenced the voting, no doubt. and you're correct that the polls have never been right all the way through, but the bias now affects revenue-sharing in the millions of dollars, not a few thousand. The point is not whether they do a good job with the hand they are dealt, the problem is the card game itself.......
I'll just disagree with you on that one. There is no way IMO that Nick Saban and other coaches were told who vote for in 2003 or 2004. To assume that pressure was put on all of the coaches and AP voters because of media markets or conference payouts is to also assume that not one of these voters would go public with it. I just don't buy it. I can imagine what Saban would have told whomever pressured him to vote for certain schools because of their conference affiliation. I can also imagine what some of these Sportswriters who think they are the only one of sound mind would do if someone from up the food chain told them how to vote. I'd love to hear Lee Corso's remarks if the ABC brass told him they wanted a USC/OU matchup in the Rose Bowl and he would be fired if he didn't vote that way. As for the Texas/Cal votes, I saw almost as many votes that changed in Cal's favor when there was no obvious reason and to me Texas was the better choice. Whenver a conspiracy has more than 3 people invloved and death is not being held over the participants, it will be brought to the public's attention.
The entire reason there is no playoff is because of money .... and nothing else. The BCS schools simply do not want to split the pie with all 119 members. Even though the pie created by a playoff system would be much larger than that enjoyed today, the pie would be shared among many more mebers, thus the "net slice" would be smaller. It's a classic case of the "haves" versus the "have nots."
I can agree with that somewhat, but I think if the presidents ever decided to do a playoff they would also realign and form a new division.
I started to read through this thread but is seemed to be mostly Aubarn talk. With that being said, I apologize if this has already been discussed. On the radio today I heard talk that the BCS committee is strongly considering creating a new poll/committee. It will consist of former coaches, former administrators (ad's, sid's, etc), and former players. This new poll would not be released until October, when the first BCS rankings are released. The AP poll would not factor into the BCS in any way, just as the AP writers want it. Also the extra game will be added in 2007 starting with the Fiesta Bowl. This is to get the smaller schools a better chance at getting into the BCS. More notably, it would extend the season by one week with the National Championship game being played on January 8th. They can extend the season by one week to add a BCS game to cater to smaller conference schools... Yet they are not able to extend it an extra week for a BCS and +1 format with the top two teams advancing to play on January 8th...... I really like the ideas for the new poll, but I do not like the extra game at all because it accomplishes nothing other than to pacify the Tulame's of the world.
2 years ago we lost by a TD...at their place. yes we sucked it up last season against them, but we also lost to Ga Tech and Ole Miss and UGA and LSU. We beat all three teams we played again this season. whats to say we wouldn't have beaten USC too?
