Juuuust About Right

I’m not a fan of the BCS system. I think it’s unfair and calculated to keep non-automatic qualifiers out of the championship game.

At the same time, I’m thinking the A.P. poll voters aren’t doing a half-bad job. In fact, better than ever.

The reason I say that is because back in the ’80s, I was an A.P. poll voter. There was no TiVo and far fewer games on TV. You voted based on what you read, and what you could catch on the TV highlights. It’s true that even today, voters don’t base their picks on a ton of research, because they’re usually busy all Saturday covering games of their own.

Still, they’re getting a lot more information to make their decisions.

As for a bias against smaller conferences, that is fading, too, in a sense. Utah broke back into the Top 25 this week, despite an unconvincing win over Colorado State. The 4-1 Utes are rated 24th, while 5-1 BYU is 18th.

What impresses me is this: BYU and Utah are in the rankings with one loss. Pitt, West Virginia, Rutgers, Wisconsin, Tulsa, Central Michigan, Idaho and Auburn all have one loss, too, but they’re not ranked. That’s because voters realized Pitt had Youngstown State and Buffalo on its schedule. And that West Virginia beat Liberty on the way to its 4-1 mark. And that Tulsa hasn’t played anyone but dogs, except Oklahoma, which beat the Golden Hurricane 45-0. And that Wisconsin played Wofford.

Wofford! (Woof!)

Liberty! (Give me death!)

My point is that the voters actually are paying attention. And that the Mountain West is doing smart scheduling, playing important non-conference teams, rather than Wofford and Liberty.

Which leads me to believe that at this point, BYU (18) and Utah (24) are right about where they should be.