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Poll votes can send clear message
by CEDRIC GOLDEN AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF , Austin American-Statesman
Kyle Whittingham had nothing to lose by voting his Utah team No. 1 in the final coaches poll. His was but a blip on the radar, because we all knew Florida would get the majority of the votes after its BCS title win over Oklahoma.
Still, Whittingham believed his Utah Utes - who went 13-0 with four wins over ranked teams, including a 31-17 bowl win over former No. 1 Alabama - were the best team in the country.
Whittingham did a good thing. His vote sent a message to the big boys of the BCS: I'm not bound by exclusivity, I believe my team to be the best team in the country and it doesn't matter that we didn't get to play in the national championship game. Now put that in your FedEx BCS packet and smoke it.
While he was pleased the Associated Press poll awarded the Utes their first No. 2 finish in school history, Whittingham wasn't happy with his team's fourth-place finish in the coaches poll, behind Florida, Southern California and Texas.
"We talked about it all season as a team,'' Whittingham said in a teleconference Friday. "The word 'national championship' is just a relative term. Until there's a playoff, it's just an opinion. There is really no hard and fast true champion until we put a playoff system in place."
Like Whittingham, Mack Brown said following Monday night's Fiesta Bowl win over
That official said Brown believed his vote would be nullified because of the coaches poll wording: "For the final overall ranking of the season, compiled immediately after the BCS title game, voters should bear in mind that the (American Football Coaches Association) recognizes the BCS title game winner as its No. 1 team."
Brown is a trustee of the AFCA, as is
When reached by phone Friday, an AFCA spokesman said Brown's vote would have indeed been recognized, as was the vote of Whittingham, who also is a member of the organization.
The problem is the bureaucracy of it all.
Coaches can vote for the team of their choice as the national champ, yet the coaching body recognizes the BCS winner as its champion. It makes the coaches poll seem a bit irrelevant.
Brown should have followed through and voted the Longhorns No. 1, even if he believed it would not have counted.
His point would have been made, and given the tremendous amount of respect he garners in coaching circles, perhaps it would have sent a stern message: This system must be changed.
To be clear, this isn't an argument for Texas, USC or Utah to be the national champion. That's not the point. It's more about college coaches needing to become more organized in their beliefs.
This BCS thing is about money and always has been.
The dollars are rolling in and the BCS conferences are getting the biggest slices of the pizza. A playoff is a minimum of five seasons away (probably longer) and that means a minimum of five more seasons of whining and complaining by coaches who believe the polls have been unfair to their respective teams.
The problem with the coaching profession is all that unity they preach on the sidelines and in their locker rooms isn't being practiced in their own profession. Not counting the invisible millionaire booster, head coaches are the wealthiest men in college football.
The players do all the heavy lifting and very few of them will see a dollar from playing pro football. The university presidents - yep, the ones who approved this BCS mess - command a fraction of the salaries paid to the coaches in the major conferences. Shoot, playoff proponent Barack Obama will be lucky to command $500,000 his first year, and he's running an entire country.
What I'm saying is that power is money and the power brokers in college football - the head coaches, athletic directors and those rich boosters - should band together and show a united front if they want to be taken seriously.
The day before the Fiesta Bowl, Brown said that it was up to the media to fan the flames of the college football playoff cause. I disagree.
The media can only do so much here. The power of the pen is strong, but the power of the almighty dollar is much stronger.
These coaches have more influence than they care to acknowledge. So Brown wants a playoff. Pete Carroll wants a playoff. Bob Stoops wants a playoff. JoePa wants a playoff. We know because each one has expressed that desire time and time again.
But if they want it badly enough, then they must take another step. Stand up to the television networks that exert way too much influence over college football. Tell the AFCA to get out of bed with the BCS.
In short, stand shoulder to shoulder with other major coaches and present a united front.
Present your case, not as a bunch of separate, muted voices crying out in the wind after your team gets left out of the title game, but as a powerful, committed group that's willing to put its beliefs ahead of personal agendas.
Don't worry about the money. The billion-dollar industry that is college football can only be helped by a playoff system. The networks will come aboard, because they always follow the money.
There's no need to convince the public. We're already convinced. We need a playoff and we believe the traditional bowl system can coexist with a postseason implemented.
So get it together, coaches. And remember: The people who want a playoff have already heard you.
Now it's time to be heard by the people calling the shots.
cgolden@statesman.com; 912-5944
| POLL?POSITIONS |
| ?*?AP?POLL |
| ?School?Record |
| ?1.?Florida?13-1 |
| ?2.?Utah?13-0 |
| ?3.?Southern?Cal?12-1 |
| ?4.?Texas?12-1 |
| ?5.?Oklahoma?12-2 |
| ?*?USA?TODAY |
| COACHES?POLL |
| ?1.?Florida |
| ?2.?Southern?California |
| ?3.?Texas |
| ?4.?Utah |
| ?5.?Oklahoma |
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