Final Coach Ballots to be Confidential

The American Football Coaches Association is making a number of changes to the USA Today coaches’ poll, which factors into the BCS formula. At the top of the list is the confidentiality rules. Coaches will no longer be required to reveal their votes on the final regular-season ballots.

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Before 2005, coaches could keep their votes confidential, but the BCS pushed for the rule change after 2004, when the Rose Bowl bid was questionable. The coaches voted to reveal their final regular-season votes, which have been printed in USA Today.

However, this has caused some awkward situations. Coaches have been criticized for voting against teams in their own conference or picking unpopular choices, and having to reveal their votes has made the entire process more political.

Now, coaches can once again keep their picks a secret. This wasn’t the only rules change, however. Some of the other changes include:

• Eliminating the “bonus voter,” which placed a non-human vote based on the ranking success of a conference’s schools based on the previous season.
• Continuing to allow voters to be selected randomly
• Continuing to allow coaches to vote for their own teams
• Adopting a “round to even” rule for conferences with an odd number of teams (for example, a conference with 11 teams would get 6 votes, not 5 1/2)

The Harris Interactive Poll, which is also a part of the BCS formula, will continue to publish voters’ choices. To read more about the AFCA changes, check out this post.