Coaches should not vote in polls

We waited three weeks for our first true rant. But now we have one: the fact that the football coaches vote in a poll which decides who plays in the BCS title game.

Conflict of interest? Probably not. At least not if the coaches did their job and paid attention to what was going on each week in college football. Some of them do. But a lot of them obviously don't, and its embarrassing.

Latest case in point:

Florida State 54, Brigham Young 28, in a game played at BYU, which gave the Cougars their first loss of the season. Florida St. also has a loss -- a last second defeat to Miami at home.

Sunday's Coaches poll: BYU is No. 21, FSU is No. 25.

If that weren't bad enough, a week before Houston went up to Oklahoma State and beat the Cowboys in somewhat convincing fashion (45-35). The next day's coaches poll: Oklahoma State is No. 7, Houston No. 27.

Since the AFCA won't allow the coaches poll to be released, we don't know which coaches were part of this travesty. But the AFCA needs to take a look at the ballots, pinpoint the coaches (or sports information directors who are voting for the coaches) and tell them to do a better job and pay attention or you won't vote any more.

The guess here is that most coaches would say, 'Fine, I don't need to vote.' And that is probably true. Coaches during the season have enough on their plates without worrying about who won the BYU-FSU game.

All of which leads to a simple conclusion: Have a playoff so the polls become meaningless and for entertainment purposes only.

EXTRA POINTS:

Cincinnati is the best team in the Big East and is probably going to go 12-0, which will get it to the Orange Bowl but no further. And Brian Kelly might not be coaching the Bearcats past this season if that happens since he will be become one of the top two or three coaching prospects to move up . . . The SEC likes to claim that it is the best conference in the country, with three teams in the Top 5 (Florida, Alabama and Mississippi) and four in Top 10 (LSU). Who's going to argue? . . . Rant 2 is guaranteed to come if Miami beats Virginia Tech this week, Oklahoma next week, starts 4-0 and is not No. 1 or 2 in the polls.