Another hit for the BCS
AP takes away its football rankings
By Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff | December 22, 2004
The Associated Press has pulled its football poll from being used by the Bowl Championship Series as part of a formula to select the teams for the national title game and the three other BCS bowls.
The AP's decision was another hit for the much-criticized and often controversial BCS system that was created in 1998 to match the top two teams in college football in a national title game.
In an e-mail from AP executives to Kevin Weiberg, the commissioner of the Big 12 conference and the coordinator of the BCS, the organization expressed its concern about the process and said it would not participate in future years. The AP also charged that the BCS had been using its poll without the organization's permission.
"We respect the decision of the Associated Press to no longer have its poll included in the BCS standings," Weiberg said in a statement yesterday. "Since the inception of the BCS, the AP poll has been part of our standings. We appreciate the cooperation we have received from the organization in providing rankings on a weekly basis. We will discuss alternatives to the Associated Press poll at the upcoming BCS meetings and plan to conclude our evaluation of the BCS standings formula, including any other possible changes, by our April meeting."
Controversy and credibility have been key issues of the BCS since its inception. A year ago, a firestorm erupted after Southern California, No. 1 in both the writers and coaches polls, was passed over for the BCS title game because the BCS computers matched up Oklahoma and Louisiana State.
Responding to that situation, the BCS changed its formula for this season: one-third would come from the AP poll (of writers and broadcasters), one-third would come from the ESPN/USA Today poll (coaches), and one-third would come from an average of six computer rankings. This year, five teams finished unbeaten, with USC, Oklahoma, and Auburn finishing 1-2-3 in the AP and ESPN/USA Today poll. USC and Oklahoma were picked for the national title game once the computer rankings were combined with the polls.
But the bigger controversy came lower in the rankings with the selection of the two at-large teams. (The champions of the Big 12, Big East, Big Ten, SEC, ACC, and Pac-10 automatically get spots.) Undefeated Utah earned one of the spots by virtue of a rule that was added when commissioners of smaller conferences complained that they were excluded from the big four bowl games -- Fiesta, Rose, Orange, and Sugar.
That left one at-large spot, for either Cal or Texas. Both finished the season 10-1. Cal was ranked fourth in the AP poll and Texas sixth. But when Texas finished its season with a win over Texas A&M and Longhorns coach Mack Brown pleaded with voters to show his team respect, and then Cal ended with a closer-than-expected win over Southern Mississippi, there was a shift in a few ballots.
Cal had led Texas, 1,410 to 1,325 votes, in the AP poll going into the last week, but its margin slipped to 1,399 to 1,337. Even though the teams stayed fourth and sixth, the change in points, combined with the computer rankings, was enough to put Texas ahead. A similar shift occurred in the ESPN/USA Today poll, as Cal's margin went from 1,314-1,266 to 1,286-1,281, although the teams remained fourth and fifth.
When Texas jumped over Cal in the final BCS standings, it put the Longhorns in the Rose Bowl while Cal dropped to the Holiday Bowl.
The results prompted calls for coaches to reveal their ballots, with suggestions of a conspiracy among some coaches as conferences could profit if one of its teams went to a higher-paying game.
The AP poll also came under more scrutiny, with writers who vote in it becoming part of the news rather than covering the news. The Charlotte Observer said it no longer would vote in the poll, and others considered it. (The Globe does not vote in the football poll.)
The AP poll always had been a factor in the BCS standings but it became more prominent this year when the system was changed.
"This unauthorized use of the AP poll has harmed AP's reputation and interfered with AP's agreements with AP poll voters," the organization said in a statement. "To preserve its reputation for honesty and integrity, the AP is asking the BCS to discontinue its unauthorized use of the AP poll as a component of BCS rankings."
With the absence of the AP poll, the BCS must regroup once again and come up with a plan to make things work.
"This makes it clear we in the BCS have some work to do and some hard decisions to make," said SEC commissioner Mike Slive.
If it doesn't create another independent poll, the BCS simply can use the coaches and computers, a suggestion that is not likely to be received with much enthusiasm because both polls have had their credibility questioned.
A much more logical alternative would be the process that has been pushed the past two years by Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese, who would like to see the formation of a selection committee similar to that used in college basketball, where the polls are only tools of information rather than part of the selection process.
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