NCAA Football

Mack Brown Cheers as Coaches' Poll Votes No Longer Public

Posted May 28, 2009 10:12AM By Terrance Harris (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Texas, BCS, Big 12

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Mack Brown poll votingTexas coach Mack Brown understandably fumed last season after Big 12 tiebreaker guidelines eliminated his team from the BCS championship mix.

He even threatened to vote his team No.1 in the final USA Today Coaches' poll, which counts for one-third of the voting to determine the BCS national championship. That's a AFCA no-no, as coaches are obligated to vote for the BCS championship game winner , so Brown backed off his threats and voted Florida No. 1.

For a while it looked like Brown was prepared to get real ugly with his peers.

But now the veteran UT coach is all smiles after word leaked out Wednesday that the AFCA has decided to no longer make the coaches' final poll votes public beginning in 2010. So the era of transparency the coaches had been so proud of and confined by is over.

"I appreciate Grant Teaff and the AFCA taking such a serious and thorough look at improving the coaches poll," Brown said in a released statement. "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."

Brown at one point had indicated he might no longer be a voter in the USA Today poll. And even as recently as late last month, Brown still wasn't sure if he would vote next season if asked by the AFCA.

The wound of being left out of the BCS championship mix was still fresh. Brown's Longhorns had defeated Oklahoma during the regular season and on a neutral field in a year in which South Division members UT, OU and Texas Tech all finished 7-1 in league play after taking turns beating up each other. Yet, the Sooners were able to break the three-way tie in the South by virtue of a better BCS poll ranking. Head-to-head competition went the way of the window.

"I just think all of us in college football need to continue to look at what's best for trying to crown a champion," Brown said during a teleconference call last month when asked would he participate in voting in the USA Today poll this upcoming season. "I was concerned after some of things I've seen for the last six years and they popped up again last year.

"As a voter, I just want to make sure I know all the rules because I thought I did and I got confused a little bit last year on some things that popped up and I want to make sure that I feel like the system is such that I would want to be part of it. If it's not then it's no big deal to anybody other than me and the University of Texas. But it's a decision I will have to make based on the direction I feel we are going."

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