AFCA delays change to coaches poll at BCS request

Concerned in part with continuing attacks on the Bowl Championship Series, BCS officials successfully lobbied the American Football Coaches Association to delay a controversial change in the coaches poll by a year, CBSSports.com has learned.

The AFCA raised eyebrows on May 27 by announcing that its 16-member board of trustees voted unanimously to once again hide the final ballots of its 62 voting coaches starting in 2010. The AFCA has made those ballots public the previous four years.

The return to a lack of transparency upset BCS officials more than what was originally known. There are indications that the change could be a deal breaker, going forward, in the coaches poll's inclusion in the BCS. The poll is one of two human components in the BCS. The Harris poll is the other. There are also six computer indexes that are factored in.

The BCS has been under renewed pressure this year from Capitol Hill and from one of its own members (the Mountain West Conference). That was part of the reason the coaches were asked to delay implementation from 2009 to 2010. Opponents have enough ammunition against the BCS without it trying to explain how champions are determined, in part, by a secret vote.

The BCS also didn't want to scramble so close to the 2009 regular season to find a replacement poll if it dropped the coaches poll because of the change, one source indicated. Dropping the coaches poll seems to be an ongoing possibility -- call it leverage for the BCS -- if the AFCA follows through with once again hiding the ballots. The BCS adjusted in 2004 after the Associated Poll dropped out because of ethical concerns. The BCS then assembled the Harris poll to replace AP.

While not outwardly criticizing the change, BCS coordinator John Swofford released a cryptic statement in May: "The commissioners review all aspects of the BCS arrangement -- including the BCS standings -- at the conclusion of each season, and I know the AFCA's decision will be on the agenda for that review after the January 2010 games."

We know Kyle Whittingham voted Utah No. 1. A change to the coaches poll would keep that private. (Getty Images)

The coaches poll has been the foundation of the BCS' existence since the system started in 1998. At the press conference to announce the BCS that year, AFCA executive director Grant Teaff said the winner of the BCS title game would automatically get the final No. 1 spot in the coaches poll. Four coaches have deviated from that "mandate". In 2003 three coaches gave their final No. 1 vote to USC despite LSU beating Oklahoma in the BCS title game. Last season Utah's Kyle Whittingham voted his team No. 1 after his team finished as the only undefeated program in the country. Meanwhile, two one-loss teams -- Oklahoma and Florida -- played in the BCS title game.

It is because the ballots were public that we know Whittingham voted his team No. 1. He told CBSSports.com that he was not admonished by Teaff.

"We recognize Florida as the champions," Whittingham said. "We're not self-proclaiming the championship upon ourselves, but we sure would have liked the opportunity to find out."

Back in May, Teaff said the coaches showed they were a "team player" by delaying the change.

"Something that appears to all the world as so dramatically important, people need to think about it and do their research if they want to, which nobody has done but us," Teaff said in May.

The changes were made after a three-month study by the Gallup World Poll which was hired by the AFCA to study the coaches poll.

An AFCA spokesman said Monday, a main reason for delaying the change was so that the BCS television contracts could sync up. A new four-year BCS TV contract with ESPN begins in 2010.

"We just felt that we should wait until the next cycle starts," the AFCA's Todd Bell said. "I can't speak to the outside pressure or anything like that."

The BCS has endured perhaps its most contentious year. Unbeaten Utah was denied a chance to play for the BCS title. It went on to win its second BCS bowl in five years, defeating Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. There have been two Capitol Hill hearings this year as well as a playoff proposal from the Mountain West. The conference waited until the end of the second hearings chaired by Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch earlier this month to finally sign the new BCS/ESPN agreement.

Meanwhile, at least three coaches are on record as saying the final ballots should be public.

"Now," South Carolina's Steve Spurrier told CBSSports.com in May. "There's a chance for some real hanky panky."

"I think we should show our votes at the end of the year," TCU coach Gary Patterson said. "That takes accountability. Somebody had Utah 16th or 18th. None of those guys need to play them."

Missouri's Gary Pinkel had Utah rated lowest among the voting coaches at No. 15. Denied, at least philosophically, the chance to vote the nation's only undefeated team No. 1, the coaches voted Utah fourth in their final poll.