College football coaches' ballots to be secret in 2010 season

[JLEW1818]

The final regular-season ballots in the USA TODAY Coaches' Poll will no longer be made public beginning with the 2010 football season, according to a person with knowledge of the information who didn't want to be identified because he wasn't authorized to comment before an announcement today from the American Football Coaches Association.

The AFCA has released the final ballots since 2005.

The poll is one of three components of the formula used to determine the teams for the Bowl Championship Series title game. The change is among the results of a three-month review of the poll by Gallup at AFCA's request.

Gallup's recommendations were unanimously accepted by the AFCA board of trustees and discussed with USA TODAY and BCS officials.



http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2009-05-27-coaches-poll-votes_N.htm

[JLEW1818]

wow this really did shock me, i thought we were going to go the opposite direction by making the coaches poll public each week.

Me don't like.

[MI Sooner]

So coaches, who have millions of dollars at stake in the outcome of the polls, and shouldn't be allowed to have any influence at all, now can influence the process anonymously?

You could hardly design a system with a bigger conflict of interest. Hey fox, go guard that hen house, oh, and wear a mask while you do it, too.

[KingBarry]

Me no likey, neither.

My guess is, too many coaches have threatened to refuse to participate if they were held to scrutiny.

Still sucks. Coach, don't be a p***y.

[badger]

Stoops pulled out for a reason - he didn't want be subject to that crap that comes with people knowing your votes ("You're biased!" "You're only voting them up/down to help your own team!" whinewhinewhine). Maybe now he'll go back in now that it's private again?

[stoops the eternal pimp]

the fact it was made public didn't change anything....really doesn't matter to me

[soonerfan28]

I thought it was only made public at the end of the season. If thats true then I think if they made it public weekly then that may make some coaches take personal vendetta's out of it.

[yermom]

should be public all season. this is crap.

[MamaMia]

With whats at stake, if they cant publicly justify which teams they vote where, then they don't have any business casting a ballot.

[OUDoc]

Why do we have coaches voting anyway? Hell, if you're going to be that stupid, let the players fill out ballots. I'd probably trust them more. Every D-I team would have 85 first-place votes.

[AlbqSooner]

Why do we have coaches voting anyway? Hell, if you're going to be that stupid, let the players fill out ballots. I'd probably trust them more. Every D-I team would have 85 first-place votes.

Dear Lord. What would be the tiebreaker in the event of a 119 way tie??

[meoveryouxinfinity]

screw this. this is too political. For all you computer haters, wait until your rival's coach puts you out of the top 25, (all season, which he could do anyway), and the week of the BCS final standings...ugh.

Coaches get their egos hurt when we put 60 on them.

[OU-HSV]

Yeah this is really stupid.
Like you said Jlew, I thought they were moving more the other direction. This is getting more and more lame. The coaches need to have some balls and step up to the plate and vote fairly and in public fashion.

[Scott D]

like the coaches actually do the voting other than the final one....and even then it's debatable as to whether or not they actually vote.

[meoveryouxinfinity]

I guess this just shows you CFB is not about what the fans want.
(USC fan: playoffs! Boise St fan: No automatic bids! Notre Dame fan: No scholarship limits!)

[OKC Sooner]

Dear Lord. What would be the tiebreaker in the event of a 119 way tie??

Whatever it was, Texas wouldn't like it unless they won it. :texan:

[Eielson]

I saw some ridiculous voting (Bellotti's ratings of OU), and some deliberate attempts to swing the poll in favor of the coach's own team or against a team they disliked, and I am really hoping that this doesn't make much of a difference. Those coaching ballots were filled with biasedness and if that was a special version to release to the public, it is frightening to think what they might have voted otherwise.

[JLEW1818]

It was Bobby Bowden who voted us under Missouri after we beat them twice in 2007.... i think. ? someone else did too, prlly was his dumbass son at clemson.

[rainiersooner]

Try explaining this to someone who's never paid attention to college football - a foreigner for example. Watch the look of horror and shock on their face when you tell them that the coaches anonymously vote on their rankings. It is a good, fresh reminder of how this is possibly the most arcane, stupid, neolithic way to pick champions. I think there are many, many things wrong with a playoff, but none of them are as wrong as allowing coaches have such a disproportionate role as they currently do...throw in anonymity and the resulting lack of accountability...wow - what a drag.

[JLEW1818]

Pretty soon it will come to something like, "which ever student at that school who shows the most school spirit, secretly gets to fill out the coaches poll that week"
ha

[Collier11]

everyone else is advancing and CFB is stuck in the stone ages...

[JLEW1818]

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm474/jlew1818/pryor_mccoy.jpg

[rainiersooner]

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm474/jlew1818/pryor_mccoy.jpg

I can't quit you!!!

[Cam]

Stoops pulled out for a reason - he didn't want be subject to that crap that comes with people knowing your votes ("You're biased!" "You're only voting them up/down to help your own team!" whinewhinewhine). Maybe now he'll go back in now that it's private again?

That's funny, cause I thought he quit because of the stupid ways people like smells of bourbon were voting that made absolutely zero sense. I never once heard him say, or saw speculation, that he quit because he didn't want people seeing how he was voting. It was because he saw how others were voting and wanted no part of it.

[Crucifax Autumn]

Cam, you are correct on this.

[JLEW1818]

Here is why Stoops pulled out. 2007 final regular season coaches poll

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/graphics/coaches_fb_poll_2007/flash.htm


Bowden