College Football Coaches Choose Darkness: Coaches Poll Changes in 2010

(Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images)

Mack Brown did not get the kind of solid support in Texas that Meyer got in Florida.  His Longhorns were not conference champions, though they had only one loss.  Three coaches from the state of Texas voted UT No. 1 or 2 and the other three voted them No. 3 or 5.  In all, four coaches—Mike Price of UTEP, Todd Dodge of North Texas, Gene Chizek of Iowa State (former Defensive Coordinator at Texas), as well as Rick Neuheisel of UCLA (whose assistant coach at Washington was Texas’s Bobby Kennedy) voted the Longhorns No. 1. 

Brown voted his Longhorns No. 2.  Mike Patterson of TCU chose them No. 3. Art Briles of Baylor and Mike Leach of Texas Tech voted Texas No. 5.

Also, no significant regional boosts came from the six MAC coaches to the Big 10 teams (+0.6 spots), nor from the six Conference USA coaches to the SEC teams (+0.6), nor from the four Mountain West coaches to the Pac-10 teams (+0.15). 

I picked these conferences since the MAC had 13 games against the Big Ten (4-9), Conference USA had 9 games against the SEC (0-9), and the Mountain West had eight games (6-2) against the Pac-10. 

Kentucky coach Rich Brooks feels keeping the Coaches Poll’s final voting public "maybe has a little more validity if it's not protected, if it's open."

Steve Spurrier feels the same: "I thought that we would stay public on that last vote. I sort of think we ought to stay public, you know. It keeps everybody pretty honest."

Coaches Poll 2010

Mack Brown remarked, after looking at the AFCA decision: “I appreciate Grant Teaff and the AFCA taking such a serious and thoughtful look at improving the coaches poll.The Gallup Poll provided valuable insight and the AFCA put a great deal of thought into it. Since it is such a key factor in our national championship game, the goal is to continue to make the poll as fair and accurate as possible. I like the changes that are taking place this year and am excited about the recommendations for the future."

For the Coaches Poll results for 2005, 2006, 2007, The Blue-Gray Sky, a Notre Dame football blog, made a thorough analysis. Their blogger, Jeff, concluded in his 2005 analysis “it’s still somewhat shocking to see such blatant gamesmanship laid bare”. 

Each year he showed worsening patterns of Self-Promotion and Conference Boosting among the coaches. This year Jeff took the four years of Coaches polls rankings,and crunched the numbers to see how accurate coaches ranking of teams were, assuming the higher ranked teams were considered better by the coaches.  He compared those rankings to bowl outcomes.  Coaches were less than 52% accurate in predicting bowl winners over those four years and, in BCS games, were worse - 49.3% correct.  He concluded "You would be better off flipping a coin to figure out who was going to win a BCS game than looking at how the coaches ranked the teams."  (May 14th article)

Whether the Coaches Poll remains part of the BCS formula is not up to them and their participation may be in doubt.

After declaring their final vote would no longer be publicized, BCS Coordinator, John Swofford: "In the past, the commissioners have favored transparency in voting by the people who participate in the two polls that are used to compile the BCS standings. The commissioners review all aspects of the BCS arrangement—including the BCS standings—at the conclusion of each season, and I know the AFCA's decision will be on the agenda for that review after the January 2010 games."

After viewing such blatant partisanship and obvious bias, the relic of the Coaches Poll should be allowed to slip quietly beneath the surface of college football. 

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