College Coaches Favor BCS Over Playoffs

What do you get when every college football coach in a room... votes of course.  The big shocker was that 73% of college football coaches want to keep the BCS just as it is.  Part of the reason that some coaches are in favor of the BCS is that there has not been an alternative proposal present with a playoff format and the old system had October handshake deals.  One would think that TCU's Gary Patterson would be in favor of a playoff since they had no legitimatize shot at the title this year. However, they are not in favor of a playoff and here is what they said about this while at the coaches convention last month:

"The biggest thing as far as TCU or Boise State or Utah, what's to say that if you went to a playoff it would be any easier for us?" [TCU coach Gary] Patterson said. "The other thing I brought up is injury. Say you've got a guy who has a chance to be a first-round draft choice like Colt McCoy. What happens if those guys have a chance to make millions of dollars? Well, I helped you get to 12-0, but I'm going to bow out of this playoff because I have to think of my future. What's going to be the answer to that one?"

Patterson has a point that it may be just as difficult or more to get into a national title game if there is a small playoff of four to eight teams.  The latter half seems crazy because these athletes are competitors and if they are currently not hurt will want to suit up and try to win a few more games for their school to win a national title.  Never have I seen a team have a star player sit out a bowl game to protect his draft status.

Ohio State's Jim Tressel had this to say about the BCS:

"Right now, we have a good system," said Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, whose team has played in three BCS championship games. "That's not to say we won't improve it. How it will improve over time we'll find out, but I wouldn't be in favor of scraping what we do. There are too many things to keep in mind, bowls, student athlete welfare, all the rest. I wouldn't start over."

Ha! student athletes need to be kept in mind.  What they do not want to exploit these quasi-professionals even more then they do to fill up the schools money bags.  Of course he likes the system he is in a two or sometimes three team league and is nearly guaranteed a shot at the title if they win out.

The final quote is from Oregon State's Mike Riley:

"I like the bowl system, I like the opportunity for a lot of teams to have a successful season and to get a chance to go to a bowl game. We don't need to limit that to whatever the playoff deal is. I've been involved in small college playoff systems. It was fun, it was great but it wasn't perfect. The system we have now is as close as we can get to a national championship."

How is a system that is based on rankings from computers, coaches who may or may not vote in their polls plus do not have the time to properly evaluate, or the harris poll voters who admit to not watching certain teams.  No system will be perfect but saying the BCS is the closest thing to crown a champion is just crazy.

There is a format where teams are seeded throughout and play a few extra games to determine a champion seems like a better idea then only letting two teams who were most likely ranked ahead of any others who have no chance of passing them.

And In other related coaches poll voting news 12% hate babies and puppies.