I just realized something pretty awful about BCS rankings being used as the tiebreaker in the event of a 3-way division tie where the only losses are to each other (so records vs. common opponents are the same, etc.).

Assume for a moment that Rice loses to NT on Thursday, NT wins out, Rice wins out after this week, and Tulane wins out except for the game vs. Rice. Assume further that none of the three teams crack the top 25 in any 2 of the computer polls (since the highest & lowest computer rankings are thrown out) - no points given from the computers.

If no voting members of the Harris poll or other coaches rank any of the three in the top 25, there will be no points there either.

Each of the three team's head coaches are voting members of the coaches poll. Even a 25th place vote for the coaches' own team would jump that team up above the rest if the other coaches didn't follow suit. (See Iowa in the current poll - they're getting one vote in the coaches' poll, which moves them in front of Georgia Tech & USC which have better computer rankings.)

In addition, if Marshall or MTSU is the East Division winner, their coach will be in the position of being able to pick his opponent in the same manner.

Worse still, the poll used will not be the final poll, so the ballots will still be secret. Using BCS standings as a tiebreaker seems to be opening the door to immense temptation.


To sum up: Let's win Thursday so we don't have to worry about it. (and change the rules for next year!)