The coaches poll will continue in 2014; crystal football trophy will be replaced by new College Football Playoff trophy
The BCS may have reached its end, but the coaches’ poll will live on.
According to a report from CBSSports’ Dennis Dodd, American Football Coaches Executive Director Grant Teaff said on Monday at the AFCA convention that the poll will continue as the transition to the College Football Playoff takes place next season.
The poll goes back to 1952 and Cincinnati coach Tommy Tuberville told Dodd that part of the reason to keep the poll around is to “influence the playoff selection committee.”
“We’re not going to be able to sway them, but we might mentally be able to [say] ‘Hey, here’s what the coaches think: Michigan ought to be three and Ohio State ought to be five,'” Tuberville said.
Additionally, the well-known crystal football trophy given to the national champion “will now be presented on campus to the nation’s No. 1.” There will be a new trophy for the College Football Playoff given out at the championship game.
Teaff added that the coaches’ year-end No. 1 team will probably go to the playoff winner, although it has not been definitively decided yet.
“I haven’t talked to our coaches about it but common sense will tell you if you’re going to have four teams selected, the winner of that is going to be considered the best in the nation,” Teaff said.
The coaches poll ordinarily hasn’t been looked at as closely as the AP poll, but it will be interesting to see if the year-end coaches poll ends up differing from the teams selected for the College Football Playoff by the selection committee.
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