robert.cessna@theeagle.com
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Remember all the fuss last year over the Texas football team not getting to play in the Big 12 title game?
Columnists and radio show hosts spent day after day arguing that the Longhorns deserved to play Missouri, because they beat the Sooners.
Well, guess what?
Let’s say Texas, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State finish 7-1 in the Big 12 South this fall. OSU beats Texas, Texas beats OU and OU beats OSU — with OU having the highest BCS ranking — the Sooners will play in the Big 12 title game, again.
Why?
Because the Big 12 coaches think the existing way to break a tie of more than two teams remains the best. That’s what the coaches voted for Wednesday in Phoenix.
The coaches considered a three-team tiebreaker that would eliminate the lowest-ranked team in the BCS standings, then go with the winner between the other two teams. In that scenario, UT would have advanced last year.
“The tiebreaker system we had was felt, by the majority of coaches, to be appropriate to what we want to accomplish,” commissioner Dan Beebe told the Associated Press. “There’s risks in either one. We had one risk last year.”
The coaches stayed with the current system because of possible national title implications.
Under the rejected tiebreaker, it’s possible that a lower-ranked team could earn the nod because of a victory over a team ranked No. 1 or 2 — and that might cost the Big 12 a shot at the national title.
I give the Big 12 coaches kudos for keeping the status quo, which appears the best solution.
•
The Big 12 football coaches weren’t the only ones making news Wednesday.
The results of a three-month review of the USA Today coaches’ poll are in, but they aren’t for public scrutiny — at least just yet
The American Football Coaches Association asked Gallup to study its poll — which accounts for a third of the BCS standings — and make recommendations to make the process more accurate and credible. The AFCA’s board heard the results Wednesday, but declined to make them public.
Thus, we don’t know if progress will be made. I don’t think coaches should be voting in the first place, at least not active coaches. It’s a headache the coaches need to pass on.
The AFCA will meet with USA Today and BCS officials before announcing any changes to the voting process. Coaches have been taking a lot of heat since they started making their year-end votes public starting in 2005, which probably prompted the survey.
Some of the issues they looked at were:
•Should all voters be anonymous?
•Is 25 the optimum number?
•Should there be a preseason poll?
•Should coaches vote for their own team?
Interesting.
If the coaches agree to participate, I think all voting should be made public.
Let’s not water down the poll by making it a Top 30 or Top 50. This isn’t tennis.
If the coaches don’t come out with a preseason poll, who will notice with all the other preseason polls?
I do have a problem with coaches voting for their own team when not all the coaches vote.
Last week the talk was about a possible national championship mandated through political force.
I keep wondering how great is college football when we’re basically talking about something concerning the game 24/7?
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Posted by: Ken '94 On: 5/7/2009
Comment Title: Playoffs
Once you understand how the powers that be think it's in their self-interest to preserve the current bowl system, you're inevitably led to the conclusion that "political force" is really the only way to get to a (badly needed) playoff system. All of the opponents' arguments can basically be boiled down to "we should keep it the same because that's how we've always done it". To me that's not logical. One day it's going to affect the Aggies, and I hope a better system is in place by then.