Let's Face it: The Coaches Poll is a Joke

The USA Today/Coaches Poll was released on Sunday and the top 10 looks the same as it did a week ago. But when you dig a little deeper, you realize what a true joke this poll really is. First off, why is the Coaches Poll a component in the BCS Standings? Does anyone believe that coaches have time to evaluate other schools on Saturday?

Being an Auburn writer, I spend most all of my time following my team. On Saturday, I'm in the stadium watching Auburn. I rarely watch more than a few other games on the weekends. Most of my day is tied up at Auburn. I get most of my highlights from Reese Davis and his group on ESPN's College GameDay Final Show.

My guess is, even with me being in Auburn on most Saturdays, I still have more time to follow other teams than say the head coach at USC, Georgia or Texas. Is that a stretch? I think not. So why in the world does college football allow a coaches poll determine who plays for the national championship?

Does anyone really believe that college coaches actually vote themselves. Do the powers that be really think fans are that naive? We all know that it's the sports information department submitting the poll - if we are lucky. Do you think they have agendas? Exactly.

Let's look at this week's Top 25 USA Today/Coaches Poll. Ohio States remains the number one team. Fair enough. In the number two spot is Southern Cal. Now USC beat Washington State 28-22 on Saturday. Auburn beat South Carolina 24-17 on Thursday. As a result, the Trojans lost 14 points overall and two first place votes in the poll. Auburn, after beating a 3-1 Gamecock team on the road lost 23 points overall and one first place vote.

If you are comparing apples to apples, how does USC remain number two? If memory serves me correct, Auburn defeated Washington State 40-14 earlier this year. Yet Auburn loses more points than USC this week? Can somebody please explain this to me?

It's obvious that the coaches don't take the voting seriously. It's time for SEC commissioner Mike Slive to get off his butt and start making some noise about this whole BCS system. It's his year to manage the BCS system and he's remained quiet all season - much as he did in 2004. He turning out to be a disaster as a commissioner.

Meanwhile, Lee Corso and Lou Holtz's darling team Michigan, gained 38 points in the poll this week. It really pays to beat a Notre Dame team that nearly lost to Michigan State (who this week lost to a 2-3 Illinois team). Don't tell me that ESPN doesn't wield too much power.

College football is in crisis. It's time for a few good men to step up and make a difference. That means you, Mike Slive.

Link: Football Saturday In The South

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

10-01-2006 @ 4:07PM

Mark Saunders said...

First of all Pete Carroll not only doesn't vote in the Coaches Poll; he doesn't go around trying to whine his way up the BCS. He earns it by playing I-A teams. Maybe you should spend more time around teams that don't play 25% of their schedules against I-AA teams to stack up hollow victories. If you did you would notice that the ONLY poll that puts Auburn ahead of USC is the AP poll which is out of sync with all of the polls that count. Maybe Auburn should shoot for the I-AA National Championship. They seem to love those games more. We're also tired of hearing about the superiority of the SEC (Mississippi State, Ole Miss, etc.)

10-01-2006 @ 4:40PM

Kecia said...

Pete Carroll barely squeaks by a team that Auburn beat 40-14. Playing in the PAC 10 is kind of like playing I-AA teams every week. USC would have 2-3 losses (at least) every year if they had to play in the SEC. The only thing I feel like whining about right now is the blatant favoritism shown by the idiots at ESPN toward CERTAIN teams whose games they just happen to be broadcasting. ESPN usually reserves 15 minutes of air time for the "I love Pete Carroll show" on Gameday every weekend. I'm glad Washington State ruined their Pete Carroll party this past weekend.

10-03-2006 @ 6:04PM

MIchael said...

Mark.

Auburn plays no I-AA teams this year. Auburn played Buffalo last week before their Thursday night game vs. South Carolina. I did notice Southern Cal has two bye weeks this year as compared to Auburn is no bye weeks so, enjoy the win in Pullman. Washington State is quite the power, they even won a pac 10 home game back in 2004.

As for the "whine his way up to the bcs"

It's amazing how quickly Southern Cal fans forgot about their situation in 2003. 1 year the BCS is rigged/broken, the next year it works fine? Which is it?

Sidenote:

Auburn and Ohio State are the only two teams in the top 10, that have beaten a current top 10 team.

10-01-2006 @ 7:57PM

Brad said...

SEC fans who whine about media coverage sure give me a chuckle. Tell me: which conference is underexposed: the one who gets at least 1 game every weekend broadcast to a national audience, or the one who, because of television scheduling, is forced to start games at 10:00 eastern when nobody west of Colorado is watching?

It is funny how you give credence to playing difficult games on the road when it is convenient, but ignore it when it isn't. Pullman is a $h*thole, and one of the more difficult places to play in the whole nation.

Perhaps if more than 2 teams in the SEC could complete a forward pass, your league might have a little more "respect"

10-01-2006 @ 8:31PM

Kyle said...

Playing in the Pac-10 is like playing against 1-AA teams? Are you kidding me. That is perhaps the most unintelligent thing I have every experienced. Three top 25 teams and probably two deserving top 10 teams (Oregon USC) and thats a 1-AA conference. You SEC people had my respect until that unintelligent, uninformed comment. You want Auburn to move up in the polls? KEEP WINNING

10-01-2006 @ 10:39PM

David said...

Good point Brad. There are very few teams that survive a Saturday night in Pullman Washington. I'd love to see a stat on how many ranked teams have gone into that death trap stadium in Pullman Washington only to end up defeated. I bet few ranked teams have survived in that difficult place to play. It would be much easier to play road games in Knoxville Tennessee or Baton Rouge Louisanna or Athens Georgia or Gainesville Florida or even Tuscaloosa Alabama. I bet if teams from the Pac-10 came to visit SEC schools, they would win almost every game. See California, Arizona, and Washington State, they've already proved your point. Thanks for the insight. You have true knowledge of college football.

10-02-2006 @ 8:41AM

Dave said...

OK. Here's the breakdown of Div I-AA opponents of SEC and PAC-10 teams:

Arkansas - Southeast Missouri St.
Georgia - Western Kentucky
Kentucky - Texas St.
Ole Miss - Northwestern St.
Mississippi St. - Jacksonville St.
South Carolina - Wofford
Vanderbilt - Tennessee St.

Arizona - Stephen F. Austin
Arizona St. - Northern Arizona
Cal - Portland St.
Oregon - Portland St.
Oregon St. - Eastern Washington

Fairly evenly matched espeically when you consider that PAC-10 teams play only 3 non-conference games and SEC teams play 4. Also consider the fact that the PAC-10's second and third best teams (Oregon and Cal) both play a Div I-AA team. Georgia (which is the SEC's third/fourth best team depending on the poll) is the only SEC Top-25 team that plays one. So your point about how the PAC-10 rarely plays Div I-AA teams is B.S. In fact they play just as many as everyone else including the SEC.

Here's a breakdown of other Top 25 teams:

West Virginia - E. Washington
Texas - Sam Houston St.
Virginia Tech - Northeastern
Iowa - Montana
Georgia Tech - Samford
Boise St. - Sacramento St.
Nebraska - Nicholls St.
Rutgers - Howard
Texas Tech - SE Louisiana
Missouri - Murray St.
Boston College - Maine

So in all, more than half (14 teams) of the Top 25 play a Div I-AA team. So if you think that the SEC is the only conference that has teams that play Div I-AA, you haven't looked at the facts.

Of course, there are probably more teams playing Div I-AA teams this year because of the extra game. This adds more difficulty in finding another non-conference opponent, and also coaches want to give their teams a rest since there's only one bye this year. But the first problem isn't a problem for PAC-10 teams because, as I've said, they still have only 3 non-conference games.

Bottom line, everyone plays these cupcake games.

matt boyce said...

i couldn't agree with this writer more. the coaches poll sucks. the AP poll is just as biased. so, the only SEMI-fair solution is a playoff (which would be AWESOME to watch). i'm a huge pac-10 fan and alumni. but i have to ask, is there something we the general public don't know about Auburn? they got screwed out of a national title game a few years ago with a LOADED team and undefeated record. Now, again, they are one of the most talented and loaded teams -- their defense is sick -- and they aren't getting the respect? i'm voting for Auburn-Ohio State championship...let's hope they don't get screwed again.

10-02-2006 @ 8:42AM

Well, the key to it all is that there is BCS Selection Committee that assesses a team's body of work throughout the entire season (like the NCAA Selection Committee for basketball). They look at: wins/losses, strength of schedule, human polls, conference, home/away, etc. etc. They don't release their results until after the regular season. Then you could either do a playoff (ideally). Or (more likely) keep it the way it is. #1 plays #2. Then the bowls choose teams from the pool of eligible teams. But the committee sets the ranks of all teams. No more polls that rely too heavily on pre-season ranks that are put out before a down is played.

10-02-2006 @ 3:02PM

Todd said...

Any poll who puts FSU ahead of Clemson after Clemson dismantled the seminoles and ditto for Georgia Tech vs Virginia Tech. What a bunch of crap. Not to mention USC scraping by a WaSU team that got dismantled by Auburn and the coaches poll widens the gap between USC and Auburn. and as for the pac 10 moron above.......... "I'd love to see a stat on how many ranked teams have gone into that death trap stadium in Pullman Washington only to end up defeated. I bet few ranked teams have survived in that difficult place to play. It would be much easier to play road games in Knoxville Tennessee or Baton Rouge Louisanna or Athens Georgia or Gainesville Florida or even Tuscaloosa Alabama." Yeah Cal, WaSU, and Arizona really showed the gap in tough pac 10 football and just how easy it is to play in the SEC. you putz.

10-02-2006 @ 3:03PM

Todd, if you can't see the sarcasm in David's statement, then you're the putz. To be abundantly clear, he thinks the SEC is better than the PAC-10. Trust me on this one.

10-02-2006 @ 5:44PM

Not that I've got any love for the Coach's poll, but a 4 point conference win on the road that could have been derailed by a Hail Mary isn't significantly less impressive than a 7 point conference win on the road that could have been derailed by a Hail Mary.

Making any equivalence between Auburn's victory over WSU and USC's is silly. No one is close to the same team at home vs. on a cross-country road trip, and with a handful of exceptions, everyone cares more about conference games than non-conference games. If non-Pac 10 teams had to fly at least halfway across the country to play teams in another major conference, more fans and writers would notice this. And if South Carolina were playing at Southern Cal next week, they'd lose by four touchdowns, for much the same reasons that Auburn blew out WSU.

10-03-2006 @ 8:39AM

jennifer said...

frankly dave i couldnt see the sarcasm in the comment either and just because of the moronic pac 10 statements that are made regularly in the comments here if you intend sarcasm perhaps in the future you should qualify yourself as someone capable of making such a tongue in cheek remark perhaps by using quotation marks or some other grammatical tool that would reveal your intended sarcasm. otherwise your picking on the wrong guy (so what if todd could'nt pick up on the sarcasm from non-descript text its hard to pick out the sarcasm from the idiots who really think that way)

10-03-2006 @ 8:40AM

your right i didnt catch the sarcasm(sorry) just read through the blogs quickly and fired a response. david you are obviously not the putz. and dave lighten up apparently we agree about some things at the least. and jennifer thank you for pointing out the obvious.

brad perhaps if Pac 10 teams played anyone with a defense ranked higher than 50th they would be exposed for the posers they really are.

10-03-2006 @ 5:51PM

Michael Freeman said...

Here's a clue to what the PAC-10 needs.....defense, more than three teams in the top 25, and 2 more teams so they can have a championship game like the Big 12, SEC, ACC. The "Big 11" needs to get another team and have them a championship game. Apples and oranges do not go together when you are talking about the SEC and PAC-10! The SEC has a better overall conference, and the PAC-10 needs more defense!

As for Auburn......they got screwed in 2004, and they might get it again. When you beat 5 top 10 teams in a season, go undefeated, and finish the regular season at 12-0, then you should expect a shot at the BCS title!

10-05-2006 @ 4:10AM

Will said...

I've just come to except USC favoritism in the polls. I laughed when I heard a promo for ESPN's game this weekend(they said it was a clash of PAC 10 Powerhouses!!!) What I don't understand is how is West Virginia ranked above Florida and Michigan? If Florida beats LSU this weekend and they do not move up it will show the poll for the sham that it is!