December 21, 2004
AP Pulls Out of BCS
Like...wow.
Cracks in the dam?
The Associated Press pulled its football poll from being used by the Bowl Championship Series to select the teams for the national title game and the three other BCS bowls.Kevin Weiberg, the commissioner of the Big 12 and coordinator of the BCS, said he has received a letter from the AP indicating it was concerned about the process and being a part of it.
"We respect the decision of the Associated Press to no longer have its poll included in the BCS standings,'' Weiberg said in a statement today.
Full article here
Comments:
Terence said:
posted on December 21, 2004 6:43 PM — 69.14.133.207 — link — abuse?
wow, the AP writers are a bunch of whiney cowards. When the BCS was created, the BCS committee wanted to base the BCS rankings directly on the AP/coaches vote. but the AP writers declined "no, we report the news, we don't create it."
then, last year when USC was shut out of the NC game, the AP writers cried "Our #1 is being left out of the NC game, what a travesty! we're going to keep voting them #1."
so the BCS dumps a lot of the sophistication to focus on the voters (which a lot of people said early on would lead to back-room deals and questionable voting). when the BCS ends up putting the voters' choices in the NC game, but the Cal/Texas voting occurs, the AP screams "there's questionable voting going on, this isn't right!"
regardless of anyone's opinion of the BCS itself, these AP writers are a bunch of prima-donnas and change their attitude more often than the BCS changes it's formulas..
posted on December 21, 2004 6:48 PM — 198.207.0.5 — link — abuse?Josh McClain said:
At least those "prima donnas" release how they vote, so they can be held accountable.
Can't say the same for the coaches.
Early in the year, Mike Stoops, at Arizona, just kept after the Tucson paper beat writer because he had Auburn ranked ahead of Oklahoma. It led to that reporter being interviewed in the Phoenix paper, saying how unfair it was because his vote was open to the public so he could be berated while the coaches were not subjected to the same thing.
I can't fault the AP for wanting to lend some credibility to it's poll.
posted on December 21, 2004 7:43 PM — link — abuse?
While this may say playoff to you, Josh, it says split national championships to me. The AP again has tried to force it's will on the BCS. The BCS gave the consensus #1 & #2 the title game. I could understand if the AP did this last year, but what the hell this year?
And don't get me started on the oxymoron of "media credibility".
posted on December 21, 2004 8:41 PM — 65.1.205.107 — link — abuse?
If you can't beat 'em...run away and hide...
posted on December 21, 2004 11:16 PM — 12.207.83.81 — link — abuse?
This is very simply the fruition of the BCS shifting the politics of college football away from the back-room good-ole-boy bowl operators to the poll voters. Never before did you have a push to make votes public like you do now. Never before did you have such berating of individual poll voters for their choices, because their choices meant very little, except for who they crowned as #1.
20 years ago, a Mack Brown could've backslapped and lobbied his way into a big-time bowl by sweet-talking the bowl operators. The only difference today is that he's playing to a different crowd.
An AP or coaches' poll vote today means much more than ever, since their votes dole out multi-million dollar BCS bids, in large part. The job of the press is to report the news instead of making it, so I can see why they would skip out of the BCS.
Terence said:
posted on December 22, 2004 12:11 AM — 69.14.133.207 — link — abuse?
Josh, I understand the current frustration with the Texas situation (although it was clearly pointed out ahead of time that the bid relied on the computers and that the final game Cal played would lower their strength of schedule enough to tilt the table in Texas' favor).
I'm actually a Michigan fan, who was somewhat in favor of releasing the coaches' vote. Just recently, our coach Lloyd Carr pointed out some of the reasons coaches aren't eager to release their vote. It has a lot more to do with providing 'bulletin board' material for other teams than media scrutiny:
"[the AP writers] don't have to go out there every Saturday … they're going to still get criticism. But you're a much bigger target as a coach"
very bottom of this page:
http://michigan.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=366755Jeff said:
posted on December 22, 2004 7:56 AM — 24.159.172.38 — link — abuse?
Lou Holtz voted fellow SEC team Auburn 3rd in the final poll.
schmed said:
posted on December 22, 2004 9:32 AM — 208.248.231.58 — link — abuse?
Not only is the AP taking its ball and going home, they've gotten really pissy about it:
"The Associated Press has not at any time given permission to the Bowl Championship Series to use its proprietary ranking of college football teams," the AP said in a statement Tuesday. "This unauthorized use of the AP poll has harmed AP's reputation and interfered with AP's agreements with AP poll voters. 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."
Next, the computer pollsters should band together and conduct the HAL Poll and award the annual Dave Trophy after bowl season. Hell, if they got various computer magnates to sponsor it, they could pre-empt the BCS by inviting teams to the Dell Bowl in Austin for a that $30MM payout they talked about last year.
Maurice said:
posted on December 22, 2004 4:13 PM — 208.17.179.33 — link — abuse?
I told y'all at the beginning of the football year it was going to be a BCS mess at the end of year. I do not blame the AP for pulling out the BCS. The BCS sucks ass anyway. It should have been Orange bowl Oklahoma vs Auburn, USC vs Utah, Texas vs Cal, V-Tech vs Georgia or Michagan
Brett said:
posted on December 23, 2004 5:10 PM — 24.236.96.169 — link — abuse?
I like your attitude Maurice, but I have a better scenario---Since Auburn actually made it through an entire SEC season schedule undefeated, Auburn should be awarded the National Championship RIGHT NOW, with no bowl game necessary, and Oklahoma and USC should play in the Orange Bowl for the right to be considered the SECOND best team in the nation.
Brian said:
posted on December 24, 2004 2:30 PM — 12.202.109.218 — link — abuse?
From Josh's comment:
"What should have followed.
'We also apologize that our system, the BCS, will not have the tiniest shred of legitimacy any further after this season.' "
As opposed to all that legitimacy it had before?
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Josh McClain said:
posted on December 21, 2004 6:42 PM — 198.207.0.5 — link — abuse?"We respect the decision of the Associated Press to no longer have its poll included in the BCS standings,"
What should have followed.
"We also apologize that our system, the BCS, will not have the tiniest shred of legitimacy any further after this season."
Prepare for the Playoff talk to begin. Big time.