I'm not a fan of the Coaches Poll in college football or basketball and I think they should dump it. My reasoning?
ARE THEY QUALIFIED? It's tough for anyone to actually come up with a fully informed poll. Does anyone watch every game during every week? Of course not. You link together guesses by reading boxscores and seeing a few highlights to form a poll. That's tough for the AP poll, let alone the coaches' poll.
AREN'T THEY BUSY? Which brings me to the fact that I doubt any college coach has the time to even thumb through the highlights and build a ranking system. In college football, you are dealing with prepping for a single opponent which that coach would be overly qualified to rank. In college basketball, you have two or three games a week that you have to prepare for, travel to and from. Throw in the recruiting that all coaches must do as well and I just don't see how there is any time for any coach to make an educated decision.
AREN'T THEY BIASED? This goes out to the football coaches than basketball coaches. In basketball, the poll really doesn't matter. Yeah, it sparks pride and debate during the season, but it doesn't help teams get in the tournament, the seeding process or their success once they get there. In football, however, the coaches poll is part of the formula that determines who is in the BCS and which bowl they are in. So if you are a Big XII coach, wouldn't you rank Texas in the top spot so they have a shot at getting to the BCS title? As an ACC school, wouldn't you rank Miami and/or Virginia Tech a bit high to try to get one of them into the BCS? Many conferences see the huge money trickle down to them in a variety of ways so it pays to rank your conference members higher than someone else.
ARE THEY QUALIFIED? It's tough for anyone to actually come up with a fully informed poll. Does anyone watch every game during every week? Of course not. You link together guesses by reading boxscores and seeing a few highlights to form a poll. That's tough for the AP poll, let alone the coaches' poll.
AREN'T THEY BUSY? Which brings me to the fact that I doubt any college coach has the time to even thumb through the highlights and build a ranking system. In college football, you are dealing with prepping for a single opponent which that coach would be overly qualified to rank. In college basketball, you have two or three games a week that you have to prepare for, travel to and from. Throw in the recruiting that all coaches must do as well and I just don't see how there is any time for any coach to make an educated decision.
AREN'T THEY BIASED? This goes out to the football coaches than basketball coaches. In basketball, the poll really doesn't matter. Yeah, it sparks pride and debate during the season, but it doesn't help teams get in the tournament, the seeding process or their success once they get there. In football, however, the coaches poll is part of the formula that determines who is in the BCS and which bowl they are in. So if you are a Big XII coach, wouldn't you rank Texas in the top spot so they have a shot at getting to the BCS title? As an ACC school, wouldn't you rank Miami and/or Virginia Tech a bit high to try to get one of them into the BCS? Many conferences see the huge money trickle down to them in a variety of ways so it pays to rank your conference members higher than someone else.
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