The Trojan Empire looks at the "Secret Society"

by Paragon SC on Nov 7, 2009 7:21 AM PST Comment 8 comments

Here is another great take from the Trojan Empire...

Polls are at the root of all college football controversies. Be it National championships or individual player awards, opinion is the most significant factor, with performances on the field often taking a back seat. Over the summer, in an effort to quell concerns and criticism over fairness, the AFCA decided to make private the final regular season coaches ballot beginning in December of this year. But before we could ever reach that point, summer’s decision has already been reversed. The final ballot will remain in public view, but why should we even care?

The original agreement for a secret ballot was an admission of flaw. The thought was that secrecy would bring about a more fair and truthful vote, with selections hidden from public eyes and voters protected from any pending backlash for decisions made. But if there is already concern over the legitimacy of votes, the discussion shouldn’t have focused on the cloaking of opinions, as much as it should have centered on the panel forming them.

If you already believe votes are influenced by public opinion, why are coaches still voting? Why is this poll still crowning champions? Why was the discussion not about replacing coaches with men and women with no affiliations to programs, their destiny, BCS conference payouts, friendships, or monetary incentives that reward them bonuses for top-10 finishes?

This is THE reason why the system is so screwed up.

This really isn't new but T.E. sets the table perfectly...there is simply too much graft in this system. Petty jealousy, as well as the "you scratch my back and I will scratch yours" mentality sets a bias against certain programs or regions.

Heck, we all know the coaches watch very few, if any of the teams/games that they vote on...and most of the time the coaches don't even fill out their ballot so how can the polls be accurate...

Anyway, not to beat a dead horse but T.E. did a great job of laying out the argument succinctly...

Always great stuff coming from T.E.!

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of Conquest Chronicles' writers or editors. It does reflect the views of this particular fan though, which is as important as the views of Conquest Chronicles' writers or editors.

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What? The system upon which the BCS is based is flawed?

The hell, you say.

On ATQ I'm known as JSoCal Oski

It's spelled J-etc

by SoCal Oski on Nov 9, 2009 12:57 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

I was scarcely able to believe it myself.

by DC Trojan on Nov 12, 2009 11:29 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

I've always like the idea of laying out some principles

and then appointing a committee fo 15-20 each year to be responsible for ranking teams. This would replace the polls. Voters would be people respected for their knowledge of college football and have diversity of age and geographic region.

A couple of principles I would use:

1) Voting to be done on Monday, starting with week 3. There will be no voting before teams play 3 games.
2) Sunday will be used to evaluate and watch film of as many relevant teams as possible. Voters must commit to a minimum amount of time watching film and looking at statistics to determine their vote.
3) Voting will take into account the entire body of work for the year, and not be unduly influenced by the most recent game
4) Strength of Schedule will also be considered in rankings.
5) Teams/coaches/players performance in previous seasons will not influence current rankings.

Just a couple of thoughts. Wonder what others think?

"when you've seen how big the world is, how can you make due with this?"

by silverlakebruin on Nov 15, 2009 7:53 PM PST reply actions 0 recs