Coaches Seek BCS Changes

If college football coaches have their way, next season’s No. 1 team in the USA Today/ESPN poll will get an automatic berth in the bowl championship series national championship game.

That is one of the major changes the American Football Coaches Assn. will seek from the NCAA this off-season, along with a fifth BCS game to accommodate highly ranked mid-majors not belonging to the six conferences in the BCS.

More than 70 coaches met at the end of the AFCA convention here Wednesday to vote on proposals to the BCS administrators. A large part of the weeklong annual convention was spent discussing BCS flaws that led to a split national championship between Louisiana State and USC.

One of the more interesting developments was the unanimous rejection of a playoff system or adding a “plus one” game to the bowls to resolve split national championships. Both postseason avenues were ruled out because many in the AFCA said they believed it would put athletes at undue physical risk and jeopardize the bowl system.

During a discussion about those topics, Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel -- who previously coached Youngstown State in the Division I-AA playoffs -- told coaches about an injury sustained by one of his top players during the playoffs as an example of the postseason dangers.

Rather than go the route of more games and a playoff system, the AFCA took a stance that would ask the NCAA to automatically put the top team in the USA Today/ESPN poll into the BCS title game. USC finished the season No. 1 in the coaches’ poll this year but was not invited to the national championship game because it finished third in the BCS points standings. Under the new system, USC would have played Oklahoma in the title game because the Sooners finished first in the BCS standings. LSU finished second in the BCS ratings and the USA Today/ESPN poll.

The reasoning for the changes stemmed from the twisted path the coaches were forced to take in the final weeks this season. College coaches voted USC as their No. 1 team before the bowls, but the Trojans weren’t invited to the Sugar Bowl, the BCS title game.

After the Sugar Bowl, the coaches were contractually obligated to vote the winner of the game -- LSU -- No. 1 in their final poll, despite USC’s following its No. 1 ranking with a 28-14 victory over Michigan in the Rose Bowl.