You may have heard that the AFCA decided they would stop publishing the final votes for the Coaches Poll starting next year.  It is more likely that you missed that the BCS strongly opposed this move.

This decision was one the coaches were eager to accept as soon as gallop made the recommendation.  Other recommendations, like reducing the poll to 15, were ignored.  The BCS opposed this because they want transparency in the voting process.

Personally, I was hoping this was the beginning of a rift between the coaches and the BCS that would lead the BCS dropping the coaches poll as a component of its formula and the AFCA taking their trophy and its credibility from the BCS championship game.

Well, that did not happen, as the coaches will make their final ballots public after all.

The final ballots need to be public if they are used to determine seedings or determine the BCS revenue distribution to mitigate against conflicts of interest that coaches representing schools with significant financial ties to other parties they could then have influence in the outcome of by their vote. 

More on the conflicts of interest currently present in college football after the jump (think: SEC refs)

As big of a conflict of interest as having coaches vote for which of their teams and conference members should be ranked high enough for a top bowl may appear, this is not the biggest conflict of interest present in the current system.

The biggest conflict of interest is the position of "Bowl Championship Series coordinator."  This position rotates among the conference commissioners who hold the office for two years at a time.  Chief among the duties of this office is to defend the BCS when critics arise, presenting real conflicts of interest in recent years as those critics come from the coordinator's own conference.

ACC commissioner John Swofford will be passing the reigns to first year Big East commissioner John Marinatto.  Having a commissioner at the helm who has never participated in any of the prior discussions at a time when political pressure is mounting is what lead to earlier reports that the BCS might hire a full time person to fill this role.  It  should be noted that the PAC 10 and BIG 10 have refused to take a turn at the helm. 

Some have speculated that former Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese might be a good fit for this job, but BCS Administrator Bill Hancock would be another excellent choice with experience an knowledge of what actually has happened in the past.

The most egregious conflict of interest is conference hired officiating crews.  Usually the home team is responsible for hiring the officiating crew and usually they hire the local talent.  Even worse, in conference games it is often the case that the winner of the game can significantly influence the expected bowl revenues and image of the conference as a whole.  Having officiating crews hired and trained by the conference presents a large possibility for moral hazard.

Think Pittsburgh vs. West Virginia 2007, Oregon @ Oklahoma 2006, Utah @ Arizona 2002.  Or the SEC scandals of 2009.

That Utah game is likely to be unfamiliar to you.  It made the ESPN highlight reals showing that Utah had made a catch, by NFL standards, that was called out of bounds.  A couple of weeks later it was disclosed that the umpire of that game was a long time Arizona booster.

Sometimes the local talent is good to the home team.  They are the ones that cut the check.

The Big 12, MWC and WAC have worked to form the College Football Officiating LLC.  C-USA has jumped on board.  I really see no choice for the SEC but to sign on if they want to maintain any sense of credibility for the future.

Conference maintained officiating makes sense for a sport with limited funding that can't afford the added costs of maintaining a national corp of officials.  College football brings in $2.3 billion a year directly to the member institutions plus significantly more to the local communities.  They can afford to organize a national officiating organization.

And the smaller, less wealthy, conferences already are.

Unfortunately the Fresno State-Wisconsin game in 2008 had indicators they might not be entirely above reproach.