They have been meeting for the last couple of days to figure out how to work the BCS for this upcoming season. With the AP poll out, it is still unclear what they will do. Dennis Dodd at Sportsline wonders if they are going to do anything.
Administrators gathered here for the annual BCS meetings have discussed the idea of essentially leaving the much-tweaked formula as is. After the Associated Press pulled out in January, the BCS was left with just the coaches poll and six computers.
So, it was inevitably asked here in a conference room at the Royal Palms Resort, why not leave the dang thing alone?
“It’s possible,” BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg said. “It’s not an option we’ve taken off the table.”
The commissioners listened to presentations by the National Football Foundation and National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics on Monday. Both entities are seeking to organize and administrate a new poll to replace the AP’s.
But it’s becoming clear it’s a monumental task, especially if, as Weiberg says, everything must be in place by July 15. First, approximately 40-60 voters would have to be found who were willing to disclose their ballot each week. That could be a challenge in itself. Some AP voters were harassed by fans last season.
The American Football Coaches Association, which has never publicly released its ballots, is reluctant to take even the tiny step of releasing ballots after the completion of the bowls.
“Ya’ll will have a field day with that,” AFCA executive director Grant Teaff told reporters. “Coaches will be duckin’ and divin’ (if their ballots were released). I’ll be going on vacation right about then. The situation basically called for it because of what happened last year.”
That’s when the BCS endured its most intense scrutiny. Undefeated Auburn couldn’t get into the BCS title game. Meanwhile, voters basically decided on the last day of the season that Texas would edge out Cal for a BCS berth.
Teaff seemed to indicate that if another human poll is established, the coaches would consider releasing their final ballot. But don’t hold your breath on the coaches ever releasing ballots during the regular season; if that were a requirement, they’d be gone.
This story, though, suggests that there might not be any choice but for the coaches to start releasing their votes for the final poll.
Opposite of Dodd, Matt Hayes at the Sporting News thinks they will add another human poll.
The National Football Foundation outlined a plan at this week’s BCS meetings that would have former players, coaches and administrators vote in a poll to replace the departed Associated Press poll. And the plan, although in the early stages, appears to be the answer in yet another chapter of tweaking the controversial system.
“That looks like the way we’ve got to go,” says one BCS administrator.
Because it’s the safest way to go — a way with the least amount of complication and a way to bring back some legitimacy and integrity to the series points system. The problem: getting it set up and put in place by July 15, a deadline Big 12 commissioner and BCS czar Kevin Weiberg has set for the points system to be rolled out for all to see — and criticize.
“My personal preference is human polls,” Weiberg says. “But there are a lot of people in that room with a lot of ideas.”
Other proposals that will be discussed Tuesday include the formation of a selection committee, having the coaches poll and computer polls stand on their own or the potential for a hybrid of those ideas. Each of those, though, have serious flaws and the objective, one BCS administrator says, is to keep the point system from straying too far from previous years.
Weiberg says the new weekly poll would have to have anywhere from 40-60 voters, and the first vote likely would be released on Oct. 1 — not in the preseason like the coaches poll and the now eliminated Associated Press poll. The pollsters would be evenly chosen from all points across the nation to eliminate any potential regional bias.
I’m sure the next system will be just as effective and controversy free as the previous.
