College football: New BCS poll to start month into season

NEW YORK - Bowl Championship Series officials have wanted to do away with preseason college football polls for a while.
In recent years, they've asked the coaches to consider waiting until after games are played to begin ranking the top 25 teams. They made a similar proposal to The Associated Press, which coordinates the media poll. - College Football -
Neither of the sport's two major polls made the switch.
Given the chance to create a new poll, the BCS got its way.
Called the Harris Interactive College Football Poll, it will rank the top 25 teams on a weekly basis, starting Sept. 25 - four weeks into the season. Plans call for 114 voters, and the panel will be comprised of former coaches, players and administrators, plus media members.
"In terms of the human polls that have been part of this system, we always felt that preseason polls are a weakness of the human polls in a sense that it is important to see the results of games played in that season before it is best to conduct a ranking of teams," BCS coordinator and Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg said Monday during a conference call.
Harris Interactive Inc., a marketing company hired by the BCS last month to coordinate the new poll, is in the process of compiling a panel of voters from 300 possible participants. Voters' names will be made public and all 11 Division I-A conferences and independent teams will be represented in the panel. - College Football -
Each conference nominated 27 people to be placed into a pool of possible poll voters, and each conference will have 10 of its nominees in the panel.
The season's first BCS standings will be released Oct. 17. - College Football -
Critics of preseason polls say highly touted teams get an unfair headstart in the rankings. Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville said the preseason rankings put his team at a disadvantage last year as it was trying to catch Southern California and Oklahoma - ranked No. 1 and No. 2 from the start of the season in both human polls. Auburn was ranked in the teens in both preseason polls last season.
"This allows for some games to be played ... rather than allow teams to be ranked purely on preseason expectations," Weiberg said. - College Football -
The new poll replaces the AP poll, which the BCS had used in its formula for ranking teams since 1998. Last season, however, the AP told the BCS it could no longer use its media poll.
In addition to the new poll, the BCS will continue to use the USA Today coaches' poll and a compilation of six computer rankings. Each of those elements count for one-third of a team's grade. The coaches will continue with a preseason ballot. - College Football -
The coaches also agreed to have their final ballots made public for the first time this season. The new Harris poll will take the same approach, releasing only the final ballots.

Associated Press