Does the Coaches Poll Matter in NCAA Football? - Joe Chacon's Blog

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Joe Chacon's Blog

Does the Coaches Poll Matter in NCAA Football? Stuck

Posted on August 18, 2012 at 07:43 PM.

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Stemming from the recent decision of Lane Kiffin to give up his vote in the NCAA FBS Coaches Poll, there has been a surge in the debate as to how effective the polls are in representing the best teams in the country."

Kiffin, love him or hate him because there seems to be no in-between, did bring up a great point regarding how much attention the coach's pay attention to other teams.

Quote:


	"I don't really care," he said. "Really, it doesn't make sense to me. The coaches vote, and the coaches I know, the good ones, they don't watch other games. They're trying to worry about their own team, watching film.

If you think about the game planning a coach goes through during the week, then focus they have on the game itself, followed by their post-game work in which they get ready for the next game. Exactly what are the coaches voting on? Well, it appears to be solely based upon results of the game and not necessarily the flow of how the game went.

Polls that are going to be used as a portion of the calculations to determine the end of season rankings should at least be from voters who are watching the other action going on in the country.

The AP poll, which was just released today reflecting the USC Trojans as the number one team, consists of writers who would ideally be watching the entire landscape of the college football day unfold. Many of those writers, however, are primarily focusing in on the team they are assigned to and who knows how many of the other games they are really watching.

My ranking experience only entails helping another website rank the top 25 MMA fighters in each division. Basically you take a look at the previously released rankings, see who won or loss, and then adjust the rankings accordingly. It's not so much about how impressive they won or loss as it is the result itself.

I'd have to imagine the voting within the NCAA Football polls follow a similar path.

I believe the Coaches Poll is nothing more than a starting point when discussing the best teams in the country. It's unfortunate that if one team is ranked fourth and the other is ranked ninth that it gives the impression that one team is better than the other. There are so many variables that go into figuring out which is the best team and the only way to really know is if the two teams play head-to-head. Even then there would be a debate.

Personally, I have no problem with the polls. When the first ones are released prior to the season it gets fans excited that football is right around the corner. I would just like people to understand that the polls are simply opinions of others and shouldn't define a team.

OS Voice: How much weight do you put in the Coaches Poll? Is there a better way to rank teams on a weekly basis?

Joe Chacon is a staff writer for Operation Sports and a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JoeChacon.

Comments

# 1 Joobieo @ Aug 18

I think the coaches poll is okay, its nice to see what the coaches are thinking about teams. But do I take it into a serious account for a teams power ranking? No, because not all coaches are taking into consideration every aspect of every team. But this also leads to why I think the BCS ranking system isi broken as well lol.

# 2 Senrab34 @ Aug 18

I would have no problem with the polls if they didn't factor into the BCS formula. Since strength of schedule has been taken out of the formula all you have to do is be highly ranked in the pre-season poll, play a soft schedule, so you don't drop and at the end of the year you get a big bowl game. Then if they get blown out in the bowl game we're left to wonder if they were overrated all year or just had a bad bowl game? I can't wait until a committee decides who the best teams are and then they prove it by playing it out on the field. I would really like it if the playoff field is expanded to 16 teams. 4 isn't enough and 8 would leave out a couple of top ten teams, but if your # 17 you can't really complain all that much. Until then I will continue to look at the polls, but like the previous poster I won't put that much stock into them.

# 3 Jimbo614 @ Aug 18

The alternative would be the AP Writers Poll. What do they know about Football?
The fact of the matter is that Polls are subjective by nature. The only true answer is to have every Conference determine a winner by results of games played. Throw out all the Subjective Bull-Crap,
Then the actual Conference Champions would have a playoff. The rest of this is as ridculous as Soccer determing a champion by aggregate scores. At least Soccer determines their Champions based on something objective.

# 4 Eski33 @ Aug 19

The Coaches Poll is a farce and a conflict of interest. The notion that the coaches who vote know more about the landscape of college football is skewed, mostly because coaches dont have time to see what orhers around the country are doing.

The conflict of interest comes in to effect in that most coaches vote their teams number one and could vote orher teams that are contending lower which could impact polls. There are even stories that some coaches have their Sports Information Directors vote because SID's have a better sense of what is happening nationally.

The Coaches Poll holds less merit in my
mind and will not be missed.

# 5 fsufan4423 @ Aug 19

It shouldn't . Would Steve Spurrier vote Florida number one evening if they deserved it? Half the coaches probably don't even watch ave the games.

# 6 McG @ Aug 22

@fsufan4423

Spurrier would probably vote South Carolina #1, considering he is been their coach for like the last 5+ years. Also, he was coaching the NFL Redskins before that for like 2, so I think his UF ties are over when it comes to voting.