Doing away with the polls?

[AU64 10,122]

Interesting piece on another blog...this is free  http://auburn.247sports.com/Article/Phillips-blog-Historic-challenge-78894

The issue is that the committee will not be ranking teams until well in to the season, etc. etc.  in his piece PM seems to think the polls will go away ...or at least be a non-factor under the new system. 

PM writes:  " There'll be no standings. No one will know for sure where things are headed until the committee says so." 

In the strictest sense that might be true but IMO the polls will be just as significant as ever.  ESPN, AP and the other polls will not be immaterial, despite Phil's apparent assertion.    Fans are going to argue and whether the polls determine the playoff teams or not, fans are still going to gripe about the rankings, brag about which school is #1 .....and Las Vegas will still publish the odds. 

In general,  fans will have a pretty good idea about who are the top four teams.    In fact, I would be surprised if the rankings in the polls differs much from the rankings put forth by the "Committee" when they finally appear around week 8 of the season.  I predict there will be a convergence of opinion as the season winds down and by January there will be few surprises about which teams are in the top four though there may be some variations in which team is 2 or 3 or 4.

And when the Committee puts forth their play-off selections, people will still gripe about lack of respect, conference superiority and regional bias.

[WarEagle10 77]

PM is much smarter than me, but I disagree with him. From listening to Tony Barnhart last night, Conference Champs will carry a lot of weight. We won't know who they are until the same time every year. He went into last years scenario. Here was his "what ifs". IF Wisconsin had not  lost to Mich St on a last play Hail Marry, then they are a one loss Big 10 Champ. Ok. St was a one loss Big 12 Champ. LSU SEC Champ. Whoever was the Pac 12 Champ. (can't remember who he said it would have been). He fully believes if this system was in place last year that that is your four teams. bama would have been left out. I heard the head of the BCS on Dan Patrick today. He used to be on the college bball committee. He said he believes it will be done like that. He said when they picked the bball teams that polls were absolutely no factor.

I know this committe is made up of humans. But I will give them the benefit of the doubt until they no longer deserve it. Other than just having Conference Champs play for it all, there is no other way to do it IMO.

[Warbird82 160]

PM is much smarter than me, but I disagree with him. From listening to Tony Barnhart last night, Conference Champs will carry a lot of weight. We won't know who they are until the same time every year. He went into last years scenario. Here was his "what ifs". IF Wisconsin had not  lost to Mich St on a last play Hail Marry, then they are a one loss Big 10 Champ. Ok. St was a one loss Big 12 Champ. LSU SEC Champ. Whoever was the Pac 12 Champ. (can't remember who he said it would have been). He fully believes if this system was in place last year that that is your four teams. bama would have been left out. I heard the head of the BCS on Dan Patrick today. He used to be on the college bball committee. He said he believes it will be done like that. He said when they picked the bball teams that polls were absolutely no factor.

I know this committe is made up of humans. But I will give them the benefit of the doubt until they no longer deserve it. Other than just having Conference Champs play for it all, there is no other way to do it IMO.

I agree that there is no other way to do it.  The problem with the current BCS is that the polls do not penalize teams for losing regular season games...especially HOME games.  If you think your team is good enough to play for a title then don't lose any games, especially HOME games.  I can understand losing a road game, but a HOME game?!!!  No way you should play for the ring if you can't even win your HOME games.  JMHO

[AU64 10,122]

Warbird...not sure how a bunch of nameless and faceless individuals will change this situation.   

Last season, IMO, Bama would have been in the top two under the new system.  From what I read, there are no firm rules on who they select.  In fact, the decision may become very  subjective when a room full of people are "negotiating" the rankings....which is what will happen when they get to the point of selecting the top four.   

[Warbird82 160]

Warbird...not sure how a bunch of nameless and faceless individuals will change this situation.   

Last season, IMO, Bama would have been in the top two under the new system.   From what I read, there are no firm rules on who they select.   In fact, the decision may become very  subjective when a room full of people are "negotiating" the rankings....which is what will happen when they get to the point of selecting the top four.   

When I hear things like "in choosing the 4 teams we will give heavy consideration to strength of schedule and conference championships" tells me that you better not slip up during the regular season.  As for nameless and faceless individuals, what do you think we have now with the polls?  At least we will know who the committee members will be just like we do for the BBall tourney.  Perfect system...no.  Better than what we had...definitely.  BTW, had this system been in place, bammer may not have made it in if it truely was based heavily on strength of schedule and conference championships...it very well could have been OK State, Oregon, and Wisconsin along with LSWho.  As I said before,  if you want to be in the mix at the end, don't lose a HOME game.  The days of the 2004 screw job are over.

[rockfordpi 91]

I think the "we are choosing the 4 best teams" is pure BS.  There is no way that they will ever put 3 teams from one conference in, even if they are in the top 4 best teams.  Politics, political correctness, and regional/conference bias will seep its way into the mix.

We will have all the same controversy as before, it will just be over the 5th  and 6th teams. However, at least it does open the window up to 4 teams instead of 2, so that will be two less teams to get scr***d over.

[ellitor 33,704]

The polls will be used just like they are for college basketball, for fan entertainment and tv scheduling purposes only. Last year is a perfect example. Stanford was #4 and Oregon was #5 but it is highly likely a selection committe chooses Oregon over Stanford in the playoff as the Pac 12 champion.

[Btiger1982 6]

I guess the turds will start claiming more championships if they were the 5th or 6th team.

[AuburnNTexas 7,302]

As much as we all hate the polls. There is always room to argue the number 2 team or number 3 team should have been number one there are very few times if any that anybody could have made a case that the number 5 or number 6 team should have benn one of the top two teams. So by going to a 4 team playoff you have the top two teams in the country are getting a chance to win the NC.

Lat year LSU  would have beat somebody and Bama would have beat somebody then we would have seen the same NC game that we saw last year.

In 2004 there was a legitimate argument in which of the top 3 teams should have been playing in championship game but nobody thought the number 5 team belonged in the game. If this system had been in place we would have played one more game against USC and there is no doubt in my mind who would have won.

[Btiger1982 6]

I believe that we would have beaten USC that year as well!

[ellitor 33,704]

I believe that we would have beaten USC that year as well!

Well the good news is that's not going to happen to an unbeaten BCS team again. They will get to play for it on the field.

[dpwspringer 0]

I believe that we would have beaten USC that year as well!

Well the good news is that's not going to happen to an unbeaten BCS team again. They will get to play for it on the field.

There are still more BCS conferences than there are playoff spots.  It is a long shot but it could still happen.

[ellitor 33,704]

I believe that we would have beaten USC that year as well!

Well the good news is that's not going to happen to an unbeaten BCS team again. They will get to play for it on the field.

There are still more BCS conferences than there are playoff spots.  It is a long shot but it could still happen.

True but by BCS team I mean a school in one of the Big 5 conferences. We will never have a year were a team from each of those conferences go undefeated. Although I would like it to happen because I prefer a 6 or 8 team playoff.