BCS sets up replacement poll

The method for choosing this season’s college football champion has been worked out, but there are no guarantees it will prevent a repeat of last season’s madness.
Bowl Championship Series officials announced Monday that a newly created poll, to be administered by Harris Interactive, will replace The Associated Press in the BCS selection process. - College Football -
AP, citing a conflict of interests, pulled its poll from the BCS formula in December after some of its voters became embroiled in controversy over the complicated selection of Texas, instead of California, to play in the Rose Bowl. California had finished ahead of Texas in both human polls but fifth to Texas’ fourth in the final BCS standings.
Rather than revamp the 7-year-old BCS system or scrap it altogether, officials created another poll to replace the AP’s in the formula. - College Football -
“We have to have a rankings system to make this structure work,” BCS coordinator Kevin Weiberg said. “It’s not a playoff structure. ... We’ve tried to find balance between human polls and computer polls that can work.”
Voting in the Harris poll will be former coaches, former players, administrators and media members. The names of the panelists will not be revealed until Harris has completed its target goal of 114 commitments. - College Football -
Harris poll spokesman John Kennedy said Monday that more than 80 voters had already agreed to participate, adding, “We’re recruiting as we speak.”
Harris drew from more than 300 names that were presented for nomination by the 11 Division I-A conferences and independent schools, including Notre Dame.
To make the poll regionally balanced, it is anticipated that each conference will be represented by 10 voters. - College Football -
The Harris Interactive College Football Poll will make its debut Sept. 25 and will be released weekly through Dec. 4, with final ballots made public. Weiberg said Harris voters would be free to release their weekly votes if they chose.
The voting coaches in the other poll, whose credibility was attacked last season in the California-Texas controversy because they chose to keep their weekly votes anonymous, agreed in the off-season to make their final ballots public this year. - College Football -
The basic structure of the BCS standings remains intact.
The Harris poll joins the USA TODAY coaches poll – ESPN has withdrawn as a co-sponsor – and a computer component in the three-part BCS formula.
The polls will be weighted equally and calculated to a point total. The top two schools in the final BCS standings will play for the BCS national championship Jan. 4 in the Rose Bowl.
Weiberg reiterated Monday there was no movement among college presidents to establish a playoff. He acknowledged that the creation of a new poll did not diminish the possibility for more controversy. - College Football -

Chris Dufresne
Los Angeles Times