4:50 AM
Football
By Bill A Parks
In May the USA Today reported that the Coaches' Poll, which they sponsor, will no longer be made public starting with the 2010 football season. Since 2005, the ballots for the coaches football poll have been made public only for the final vote, but this will no longer be the case.
The American Football Coaches Association came to this decision, claiming that it was part of a three month independent study by Gallup World Poll. This study claims that confidentiality leads to a better poll. This may be true, but the Coaches Association appears to be more interested in covering themselves than making a better poll.
It is ridiculous that these coaches who are completely and pay little attention to teams outside their conference get a say in who competes for the national championship. This is equivalent to having a government where only the politicians are allowed to vote.
Coaches spend as much time as possible studying film, watching one team, then coaching up their own team. Then, while all the other teams are playing, they have their own game to worry about. Coaches are probably less informed than the average college football fan and therefore less qualified to vote for who should play in the championship game.
Several coaches don't even fill out their own ballots, but instead give them to graduate assistants because they entrust that the GA has kept up with the rest of the nation better than they have. Georgia coach Mark Richt even stated, "I didn't mind opening up my vote. I vote myself. I don't give it to a GA (graduate assistant coach)." I'm glad Richt does vote himself, but he is implying that this is out of the ordinary.
I don't blame coaches for passing their vote to someone else, or not voting at all as Bob Stoops did last year. They have an incredibly demanding job. I blame the system for putting one more thing on their plate that most coaches do not have the time to put fair consideration into. And how the college football administrators decide to fix this problem is not to give the responsibility to a more informed, unbiased group, like the Harris Poll, but instead to conceal the coaches' votes to avoid scrutiny. Here lies another example of college football hiding the problem rather than fixing it.
In May the USA Today reported that the Coaches' Poll, which they sponsor, will no longer be made public starting with the 2010 football season. Since 2005, the ballots for the coaches football poll have been made public only for the final vote, but this will no longer be the case.
The American Football Coaches Association came to this decision, claiming that it was part of a three month independent study by Gallup World Poll. This study claims that confidentiality leads to a better poll. This may be true, but the Coaches Association appears to be more interested in covering themselves than making a better poll.
It is ridiculous that these coaches who are completely and pay little attention to teams outside their conference get a say in who competes for the national championship. This is equivalent to having a government where only the politicians are allowed to vote.
Coaches spend as much time as possible studying film, watching one team, then coaching up their own team. Then, while all the other teams are playing, they have their own game to worry about. Coaches are probably less informed than the average college football fan and therefore less qualified to vote for who should play in the championship game.
Several coaches don't even fill out their own ballots, but instead give them to graduate assistants because they entrust that the GA has kept up with the rest of the nation better than they have. Georgia coach Mark Richt even stated, "I didn't mind opening up my vote. I vote myself. I don't give it to a GA (graduate assistant coach)." I'm glad Richt does vote himself, but he is implying that this is out of the ordinary.
I don't blame coaches for passing their vote to someone else, or not voting at all as Bob Stoops did last year. They have an incredibly demanding job. I blame the system for putting one more thing on their plate that most coaches do not have the time to put fair consideration into. And how the college football administrators decide to fix this problem is not to give the responsibility to a more informed, unbiased group, like the Harris Poll, but instead to conceal the coaches' votes to avoid scrutiny. Here lies another example of college football hiding the problem rather than fixing it.
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