Coaches poll will continue in new College Football Playoff

The American Football Coaches Assn. announced Monday at its annual convention in Indianapolis that the coaches college football poll will continue in the new College Football Playoff.

The poll will go on despite having no role in choosing the champion in the four-team playoff.

The USA Today coaches’ poll had been been a key part of the standings formula that picked the top two teams in the 16-year era of the Bowl Championship Series.

It had a sketchy and sometimes controversial ride because the coaches were contractually obligated to award the BCS title to the winner of the top two teams in the final BCS standings.

This caused a firestorm in 2003 when USC finished No. 1 in both the coaches’ and AP polls at the end of the regular season.

After LSU defeated Oklahoma in the BCS title game and USC defeated Michigan in the Rose Bowl, 34 coaches were forced to switch their No. 1 votes from USC to LSU.

Three coaches, anonymously, kept USC at No. 1. The Trojans won the AP title that year.

Starting next year, a 13-member panel will choose the top four teams, but the AFCA decided to continue the weekly poll that began in 1952.

The AP poll, which began in 1936, will continue to crown a champion independent of the College Football Playoff.

The coaches’ poll will likely continue to be a rubber stamp confirmation of the championship game winner.

“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 considered the best team in the nation,” AFCA Executive Director Grant Teaff told CBSsports.com.

The AFCA hopes the selection committee will use the poll as a tool in picking the top four teams.