This hemisphere has had two major votes in recent days. The results made one thing clear.
Venezuelans should run the BCS.
Maybe not the whole thing, but they should at least give tutorials to college football coaches.
Venezuela rejected a power-grab referendum by President Hugo Chavez. Not to get all geopolitical here, but I think most Americans agree that letting an oil-rich nutcase become dictator for life would not have been a good thing.
I know most Americans agree that letting the BCS dictate the national championship in college football is a bad thing. The reality is the system is entrenched for now.
We can either live with it or move to South America. But would it be too much to ask for voters to stop acting like a bunch of high schoolers electing the prom queen?
The day before Venezuelans defied their president, the 60 members of the USA Today’s Board of Coaches helped shape the title matchup.
There’s nothing patently wrong with Ohio State vs. LSU, though it didn’t go over well in certain precincts around Georgia and Southern California. The revealing part was in the ballot details.
Is Hawaii the best team in the nation, or are the Warriors unworthy of the top 20?
Yes.
That’s the answer you’d draw from the coaches’ ballots. New Mexico State’s Hal Mumme voted Hawaii No. 1. Dennis Franchione from Texas A&M had the Warriors No. 22.
Didn’t Franchione resign two weeks ago from the coaching/newsletter business? That aside, you’d think he’d had time to stay up and catch a Hawaii game. A lot of coaches try to be as objective and fair as possible. But some of America’s most detail-oriented individuals apparently can’t be bothered with things like records and scores and objectivity.
They are trumped by provincialism, pettiness and cronyism. Or maybe I’m being too critical and certain coaches just had too much holiday Gatorade before filling out their ballots.
For instance, Howard Schnellenberger had Florida ranked at No. 22, three places behind Cincinnati. Wonder if he still bears grudges from the Miami days?
Bobby Bowden had Oklahoma No. 10, four places lower than the Missouri team the Sooners had just beaten for the Big 12 title.
To balance that out, guess which coaches gave Oklahoma its two first-place votes? Bob Stoops was apparently very impressed with his team, as was his old friend Steve Spurrier.
Hey, at least Spurrier didn’t have Duke in his final poll.
BYU was as high as No. 12 and as low as unranked. Rich Rodriguez had the Cougars No. 22 and Utah No. 20. Hey, Rich, BYU won two more games than Utah and beat the Utes, 17-10.
All this would be even funnier if the votes didn’t help decide where $95 million in BCS payouts go. There’s so much money and interest that coaches started revealing their first and last ballots in 2005.
Is it any wonder they fought for years to keep things secret?
Coaches have knowledge and insight you can’t tap anywhere else. They also have more conflicting interests and ulterior motives than the media or any computer.
If they want a say-so, a few of them should start taking their votes a little more seriously. If they don’t, the BCS should give the job to somebody who will.
Does Venezuela have any football coaches?
