KUAM.com-KUAM News: On Air. Online. On Demand.Poll Positions - four strategies for working the BCS

by Jason Salas 

Guam - Submitted for the approval of any and all NCAA FBS coaches, here's one analyst's humble suggestions on how to beat the Bowl Championship System by ensuring a high standing throughout the college football season, bettering your chances at earning a spot in the BCS National Championship Game.

Aside from the obvious tenets of on-field victory, here are four unspoken ways to bust the polls.

(1) Finish strong the previous season & have a kick-butt SID - make sure your team goes to a bowl game and blows out the opposition in the prior year; then lean on an aggressive sports information director that plugs you really well with the media such that you're in good standing when the AP Pre-Season Top 25 comes out. High seeding is key.

(2) Schedule tough opponents at the onset - forget the cupcakes leading-up to conference games. Book some top-notch competition on your schedule, then back your yak by performing on the field, beating other ranked teams early, and carve out a Top 5 seat. Progressive movement up the polls gets more and more difficult as the season goes on (2011 Auburn being one of the rare exceptions), so secure a top spot early and maintain it. BCS success assesses each team's total body of work, so mount a proper case from the get-go. This season and last, Alabama's scheduled FBS newbie Georgia State as its final regular season game…but only after a thoroughly brutal exhibition of the team's mettle.

(3) Forget conference championship games - while he still gets killed for it, I've always held that Bob Stoops had the right idea when he sandbagged the Big 12's big game in 2003 to Kansas State in order to have his Sooner stars be in top form for the BCS National Championship Game against LSU (which Oklahoma ultimately lost). Bragging rights are OK, but the bigger prize is at stake. Aside from a diminishing number of human pollster purists, the extra game means nothing to a team's BCS standing. And with conference realignment now the en vogue thing, it's even less meaningful.

(4) Ride the Coach's Charisma - Les Miles, Nick Saban, Pete Carroll and Mack Brown have done masterful jobs in recent history at lobbying for support for otherwise illogical blemishes on their teams' records, swaying support from the human polls, which still count for two-thirds of the total BCS formula. If your field general can convince the media that despite some hiccups his team's still top dog, this works wonders for last-second position surges. And, he'll get the legions of fans to flood the inboxes of the local writers...which more often than not can get voters to second-guess their logic.

In a nutshell, major shakeups don't happen too often and changes get tougher the deeper we get into a season. So it's key to get in at a high position early, defend your ranking, and make subtle pushes to improve upon them and keep the opposition at bay. 

Jason Salas is KUAM's resident BCS nerd and writes his weekly column "Poll Positions" every Saturday on KUAM.com. Watch college football all season long from the SEC on KUAM-TV11 and from Notre Dame on KUAM-TV8.