*I like the suggestion in the last paragraph. :)*
*
*
*New poll marks only small step*
The Bowl Championship Series has made a change in its formula to
determine a national championship game, and it has a chance to work out
well.
Organizers have produced a new poll, which will replace The Associated
Press in the BCS formula. The AP still will have a Top 25, but it has
told the BCS that it can't use its rankings.
My first thought was, "Oh, great, another poll." I can't wait for the
day when the new BCS poll, the AP rankings and the USA Today coaches'
poll elect three different champions. At least that wouldn't be like
some activities that have nearly every other school claiming to have won
a national championship.
But the new poll, which will be called the Harris Interactive College
Football Poll, has an advantage over the AP and coaches' rankings.
It won't start until a month into the season. It might work better to
start two months into the season, but at least it won't start in the
preseason.
The problem with most rankings is that voters typically go back to the
previous poll, move teams up when they win and drop them when they lose.
So if you're ranked high in the preseason, you've got an advantage over
lower-ranked teams.
Auburn in 2004 provided a perfect example of this. Even though the
Tigers never lost, they didn't rise higher than third in any of the
preseason rankings because preseason No. 1 Southern California and
preseason No. 2 Oklahoma never lost, either.
While everything worked out, and the best team (Southern California)
wound up winning the national title, it still smacked of unfairness that
Auburn essentially got eliminated from the championship game in the
preseason.
The Harris poll plans to use 114 voters, which is almost twice as many
as the AP and USA Today use. Last year, the AP had 65, while USA Today
relied upon 61 coaches.
The new poll will include former players and coaches, plus media
representatives. Here's the key part: All 11 NCAA Division I-A
conferences and independent teams will be represented by 10 voters each.
Each was allowed to nominate 27 candidates for a position.
I'm wondering if voters will feel pressured to vote the way their
conferences want.
For example, if the BCS had started this poll a year ago, would voters
put forth by the SEC feel pressured to vote Auburn No. 1 or risk losing
their spot in the mix? Will the Harris poll become like Congress where
most simply follow the party line and disregard their own thoughts?
However, the AP relies almost completely on newspaper reporters, and
that's a problem, too. Last year, the AP voting list included 59
sportswriters, two radio reporters, a television reporter from Miami,
Chris Fowler of ESPN, Craig James of ABC and a Sporting News reporter.
Almost all newspaper reporters get to watch only one complete game on
Saturdays — the one they're covering. They see only snippets of other
games and usually spend Saturday night and/or Sunday morning hurriedly
trying to catch up.
It's hard to expect someone like that to know teams well enough to put
forth a confident Top 25. Just about the only way is to use the old
formula of moving up winners and dropping losers.
And the coaches who vote in the USA Today poll are even worse off. They
typically pawn off the job onto a sports information director, who moves
up winners and drops losers.
Somebody should come up with the Couch Potato poll. Those people who
plop in front of the TV on Saturday morning and stay there until late
into the night probably have a better handle on the Top 25 than most
voting in the USA Today or AP polls.
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