re: BCS Champion should be # 1

When the coaches' poll comes out doesn't matter at all. Why? 2 reasons: First, we the consuming public demand polls and we would still gobble up the Athlon, Lindy's, SI Power Rankings, etc, week by week (and even if you could somehow eliminate those polls, they'd be replaced in the blogosphere). Second, a delayed coaches poll would do exactly what the Harris poll does right now: piggyback on the non-offical polls out there which represent the national consensus. In fact, the polls actually come out about ten seconds after the end of each season as each columnist and outlet posts their "way-early" rankings for the next season. Throughout the spring and summer, those rankings are modified based on perceptions of recruiting, early-entry, injuries, etc. Georgia (and I am no Dawg fan) survived this process to emerge as number 1 in the first "official" rankings. Whether one agrees with the choice or not (and I don't), the manic interest in and information about college football produces more national dialogue about the rankings than ever before. Also, regarding number one not dropping without a loss: I don't know if I agree with this. More and more we see CFN, Mandell, Dodd, et. al. posting weekly power rankings that go into detail explaining why teams are ranked the way they are. I think this moe fluid approach is slowly leaking into the official polls, and I think we saw abundant evidence last season in the final poll, when voters decided that LSU and tOSU were the right two teams to play for the title. Wether you agree with that decision or not, you can't argue that it was the simple result of moving teams up one slot automatically. I think the Auburn experience has provoked some of these changes, and that's a good thing. It's funny how we put our P&G glasses on and say that an undefeated '08 LSU team would deserve the title game over an undefeated OU or USC because the SEC is so strong. Isn't that a version of the same thing we criticize? Deciding how good the teams are before a game is played?