NCAA Football 2006

[The Ancient Enemy]

I guess athletic directors have nothing else to do except watch 55 games a weekend. This is about as retarded as the coaches poll.

[fleaflicker]

I think the best way might be to alter the coaches poll some, and let the computer generated standings count for a bit more. I think all Division IA coaches should be allowed to vote. Perhaps for the second poll, they could have the computers do a random selection of say, half the coaches. The problem is that there would be too much variation. The athletic directors aren't the right people to be doing a poll though, as they are too busy worrying about other things.

Maybe instead of using all these polls, we could bring back strength of schedule and quality wins.

If we must have a poll, let's use it with somebody that actually knows something. Perhaps getting the conference commissioner of every conference and two assistants to do a poll would be the right thing to do.

[El-Moldo]

I'm sure a conference commissioner and two assistants wouldn't be biased.... By the way, I would trust a poll with athletic directors more than coaches. Coaches get too wrapped up in who they are playing, and who they are playing next, to see the overall picture of what happened during a weekend of games.

[El-Moldo]

Hot off the presses!!!! Penn State announced today that they have entered into a verbal agreement to play Temple in 2006 as their 12th game. They will play the owls 3 times in the next 4 years. Naturally, 2 of the 3 games will be at Beaver Stadium. Temple's last winning season was in 1990. When asked about the announcement, future PSU starting QB Anthony Morelli said, "Verbal committment? I'll believe it when I see it signed and in writing."

[El-Moldo]

Did anyone read Hugh Conrad's article in today's Tribune entitled "Paterno Should Take Call"? It was about Pitt's Wannstadt wanting to renew the Pitt-Penn State rivalry now that a 12th game will be played each year. But Conrad's advice to Wannstadt was "Don't hold your breath. Joe Paterno has a long memory, and his animus toward Pitt is deep". Of course this can be demonstrated by how fast PSU jumped at the chance to get Temple onto their future schedules. Concerning the renewal of this great rivalry, Conrad concluded his article by saying, "The ball is in Paterno's court right now, but Wannstadt should know that the only way for the renewal to come soon would be for Paterno to step down, and that is not likely unless the Nittany Lions continue their losing ways. It is time for the Penn State administration to overrule Paterno on this issue. The game brings excitement to each campus, and the Nittany Lions' coach should enjoy the battle and the bragging rights that go along with it".

[fleaflicker]

El Moldo, I figure a conference commissioner poll would have less bias than the coaches poll would, at least more than likely, but these people would also be up to date on each team in the conference. That's why I think it is the best idea of a (perhaps) necessary evil. Any kind of poll that would be implemented in place of the AP Poll would have some bias, and in fact, I'm very sure that the AP Poll has bias. So take what you will from that.

And also, I agree that it is unfortunate that Pitt and Penn State won't be renewing their rivalry anytime soon. It would make for some good excitement. Which is better, a good (in their conference) Big East team, or a bad (in their conference) Big Ten team?

[El-Moldo]

The way I see it, a conference commissioner would have MORE loyalty to a conference than any separate coach within that conference would have. A conference commissioner would "like" all the teams in his conference, rooting for all of them to do good, hoping ALL of them would move up in the polls. If, for example, Paterno is chasing Michigan for a higher ranking in the polls, wouldn't he more than likely vote for them NOT to be ranked as high so he could pass them by? To a conference commissioner, what would he care WHICH of his teams is ranked high, as long as one was. Individuals coaches within a conference may not even like each other, causing them to be LESS devoted to members of their conference. Yes, a conference commissioner would be MORE biased in my mind.

[fleaflicker]

It's all in the way you see it. Coaches in the big conferences on bad teams (Baylor) all going to vote other Big 12 teams at the top. But the idea is that by representatives from each conference, it would balance out, like the coaches' poll.

[El-Moldo]

Right.

[fleaflicker]

But this is all idle chit chit. The BCS is an unfair system biased towards the 6 power conferences. What really needs to happen is for college football to have a 16 or 32 team field and use that as a playoff to the national championship game. At least, if they are serious about having one. They're not.