Coaches final vote will be public

[Blackshirt]

Finally..

 

Coaches final vote will be public

By KRISTIE RIEKEN, Associated Press Writer

May 26, 2005

 

The coaches' college football poll will no longer be a secret: Balloting in the final regular-season poll will be made public for the first time.

 

Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, said Thursday the decision was best for the game.

 

``Our coaches were under no obligation to do this,'' Teaff said. ``The good news is that somebody out there thinks that transparency is good for the system and our coaches said 'OK we hear you and we're going to join in and do our part.'''

 

Teaff said most coaches did not want to release the votes because of the scrutiny it would bring, but decided to vote for the change to quell any ``uncalled-for controversy.'' He said there are no circumstances where the group would allow their in-season voting to be made public.

 

``The in-season polls are just a barometer,'' Teaff said. ``The final poll that determines the two teams that play in the national championship seems to be the one every wants to know about.''

 

Teaff said the coaches have unanimously supported the concept of a championship game because they do not want to go back to the old system where there was a ``so-called mythical championship which did not have the two best teams playing.''

 

He said the group discussed the issue at its meeting in January and then voted in a survey sent out in late February.

 

Kevin Weiberg, the Big 12 Conference commissioner and Bowl Championship Series coordinator, has said voting by coaches has taken on greater importance since The Associated Press pulled its poll out of the standings formula.

 

However Teaff said that viewpoint had no effect on their decision.

 

``We didn't mention it at the meeting,'' he said. ``None of that has any control over what we do.''

 

A total of 62 coaches vote in the USA Today/ESPN poll.

 

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaaf/news?slug=ap...ov=ap&type=lgns

[AR Husker Fan]

This might finally cause some coaches to actually really assess which teams should be voted where. Under the old secret ballots, it was too easy to cast a bad vote and get away with it. Accountability is good - as long as it doesn't apply to me, of course.

[Blackshirt]

Exactly, and the agendas will be easier to spotlight, which *should* pressure them to be more objective.

 

And maybe some will actually make the votes themselves, as opposed to letting their intern do it for them. Thats no joke either, I read a story last season about how many coaches say they just dont have time to evaluate all the teams to make an informed vote, so they leave it up to their "staff", and usually never have a clue who "they" even voted for. What makes me think this "staff" is code for "AD henchmen" who only care about making the vote which will in some obscure way benefit the bottom line. Damn the Capitalistic Devil!!

 

Okay, time to go to bed so I can get up early and make enough money to pay for my 3rd mortgage loan I have drawn for my 2006 Hummer.