Cal Coach wants Coaches' Votes Made Public

[auburnspice 21]

New contract in hand, Tedford calls for accountability in coaches' poll

GREG BEACHAM

AP Sports Writer

BERKELEY, Calif. — Jeff Tedford plans to keep California in contention for a Rose Bowl berth during each season of his new five-year contract.

He also wants to know which of his fellow coaches helped prevent the Golden Bears from getting to Pasadena this season.

After signing a lucrative new deal Monday that could keep him at Cal through 2009, Tedford called for voters in the coaches poll to make their choices public.

The Bears finished fourth in the poll, but six coaches inexplicably dropped them below No. 6 on the final ballots — one of several factors that kept Cal just short of a Bowl Championship Series berth.

"It's something we need to know," said Tedford, one of the poll's 61 voters. "One of the worst things that could happen is the votes being kept secret. If we had it to do all over again, I would hope that we'd make them public."

Though Cal's players and fans were abuzz over Tedford's new commitment to the school following the Bears' best regular season in a half century, nobody could fathom why six coaches picked the Bears seventh or lower in the final poll — four at No. 7 and two in the eighth slot.

In the previous week's poll, nobody picked Cal lower than sixth. The latest vote came after Cal's 26-16 win at Southern Mississippi on Saturday night — a close game, but a tough road contest that wasn't in doubt in the final minutes.

Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen also wants to put names to the votes that hurt Cal's BCS standing.

"Those votes should be called out," Hansen said. "We ought to know who did that, because that's wrong."

After leading Texas for several weeks, Cal (10-1) slipped behind the Longhorns into fifth place in the final BCS standings Sunday, in part because the Bears lost ground in both The Associated Press and coaches polls recently.

The BCS drop caused Cal to miss out on the school's first Rose Bowl in 45 years. The Golden Bears got a meeting with Texas Tech in the Holiday Bowl instead.

In the AP poll, Cal finished 62 points ahead of Texas in fourth place. In the coaches poll, the Bears were just five points ahead of Texas, which will play Michigan in the Rose Bowl.

The Associated Press made public its poll Sunday, listing each voter's name, news organization and votes for Nos. 1-25. None of the AP media voters had Cal ranked lower than sixth.

But the American Football Coaches Association conducts the balloting for the ESPN/USA Today coaches poll, and the coaches voted twice this year to keep their ballots secret.

"I certainly have a question of some of them," Hansen said of the coaches' votes. "Something pretty unusual happened between last week and this week. I'd like to have the Cal football team be able to know which coaches thought they weren't in the top six teams."

AFCA president Grant Teaff said the ballots from the final coaches poll will not be released. He said he didn't believe there was anything suspicious about the final voting.

"We do very good due diligence to run a credible poll," he said. "I understand their obvious concerns. I'm not oblivious to that."

Teaff said making the ballots open will be discussed again in January.

The controversy didn't detract from Tedford's excitement over a new contract that should end speculation on his future at Cal. With other schools already inquiring about Tedford's availability for the third straight year, the coach and athletic director Sandy Barbour got something done quickly.

"I didn't want to entertain anything else," Tedford said. "I hope everybody knows by now that I am 100 percent committed to this program in the future."

And Cal is committed to Tedford, who will make $1.5 million per year plus as much as $300,000 in incentives, along with a $2.5 million retention bonus at the end of the contract. The bonus boosts his annual salary to $2 million — exactly the amount that will be made by new Florida coach Urban Meyer.

It's an impressive financial investment for Cal, an academic power where athletics have always been viewed skeptically by certain faculty and students. It's also a significant coup for Barbour, who raised all the money to keep her football coach entirely from private donors in just 2 1/2 months on the job.

"There was a call to action that we put out there, and I can't say enough about how people responded," Barbour said. "I've said for months that I believed Jeff wanted to be here, and now he has proven it."

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AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley contributed to this report.

[PChamp119 96]

I didn't hear him make these accusations when they voted a month ago.

[Tigermike 3,051]

Only now that Cal has been voted out of a BCS bowl is Tedford saying that. Good PR Mr. Tedford, especially since there is little chance of that happening. He sounds almost as credible as the Iraqi Information Minister.

[AuNuma1 1]

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing guys..."NOW he wants those coaches votes to be public."

[Texan4Auburn 1,626]

In fairness he might have been one of the ones that voted for the votes to be public. Remember the voting was extremely close with the no show only winning by like 2 votes.

[TigerinBham 1]

I think he has every right to know what happened just like I want to know what coaches voted us 4th.