Is the college football coaches’ poll still relevant?

Writers from around the Tribune Co. debate whether the USA Today coaches’ poll still has relevance in today’s college football landscape. Feel free to join the conversation with a comment of your own.

Chris Dufresne, Los Angeles Times

The coaches’ poll is only relevant because, for two more years, it remains one-third of the formula in the Bowl Championship Series standings that determines which two teams play for the national title.

The coaches’ poll has never been truly credible because it insists on anonymity for its voters (until the final vote) in a day when transparency in college sports has never been more important. The coaches were dragged kicking and screaming into even revealing their final votes.

Coaches don’t have time to study the top 25 and tend to be provincial, preferential and sometimes even goofy. One year New Mexico State coach Hal Mumme voted Hawaii No. 1 in his final vote. At the end of the 1995 season, when all votes were still anonymous, two coaches dropped Florida to 11th and 13th after the Gators lost the title game to Nebraska? Huh? Who will forget 2003, when more than two dozen coaches couldn’t, by contract, vote USC No. 1? Even though USC was No. 1 in the coaches’ final regular-season poll and then won the Rose Bowl?

The good news is the coaches’ poll won’t be a part of the new four-team playoff formulla in 2014. Of course, only time will tell whether a selection committee is any better.

Teddy Greenstein, Chicago Tribune

If relevant implies a level of significance, then the answer is an unfortunate yes. Lots of fans might not realize this, but the coaches poll will continue to “help” determine college football’s national champion for the next two years. It’s one-third of the BCS formula.

If relevant implies something we should take seriously, the answer is no and probably always has been. Allowing coaches to vote on their own teams -- even teams in their own conference -- is laughably unfair. USC’s Lane Kiffin helped expose that (again) when he fibbed about having picked his Trojans No. 1.

With a playoff coming in 2014, the side benefit is that coaches will get out of the voting business. Not a moment too soon.

Matt Murschel, Orlando Sentinel

The coaches’ poll is relevant -- for the next two years, anyway. That’s when a four-team playoff decided by a selection committee begins.

The poll is still part of the process of selecting teams for the national championship game, which means it will continue to be a lightning rod of criticism -- while the coaches’ votes are hidden behind a veil of anonymity.

Lane Kiffin is only feeling the heat because he lied about voting his USC No. 1 team, forcing poll officials to release his actual vote. Normally those are kept private until after the final poll of the year.

The poll is relevant, but it’s not reliable. To be honest, most coaches don’t spend a whole lot of time watching a lot of football outside of their next opponents. You have more accuracy determining the next American Idol than you do coming up with a fair and balanced poll.

David Teel, Newport News Daily Press

Alas, the coaches’ poll is front-and-center relevant for the next two seasons as major college football transitions from the BCS to a four-team playoff. So in 2012 and ‘13, a poll replete with conflicts of interest will continue to influence which two teams collide in the national title game.

As one-third of the BCS calculation, that influence is considerable. Allowing any coach the opportunity to rank his team No. 1 at regular season’s end to enhance its BCS chances is indefensible. Come 2014 and the playoff, a selection committee will oversee major bowl pairings, including the national semifinals, sending the coaches’ poll to the scrapheap where it belongs, along with the abacus, rotary phone and road map.

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Lane Kiffin’s No. 1 problem: explaining his coaches’ poll vote

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