Coaches Poll votes, revealed: Big 12 stifles Northern Illinois

Steve Berkowitz, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

Northern Illinois ended up getting a bid to the Orange Bowl on Sunday night despite the efforts of four Big 12 Conference's representatives in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll who did everything they could to help conference-member Oklahoma's position in the final Bowl Championship Series standings.

Among the 59 voters in the coaches poll, Oklahoma's Bob Stoops, Baylor's Art Briles, Iowa State's Paul Rhoads and West Virginia's Dana Holgorsen all either voted the Sooners No. 6 and/or the Mid-American Conference champion Huskies No. 24 in Sunday's final regular-season balloting. Stoops did both.

No other voter had Oklahoma higher than eighth, and only one, Michigan State's Mark Dantonio, had the Sooners that high .

Oklahoma ended up 11th in the poll, Northern Illinois 16th. That is where the Big 12's other voter, Texas Tech's Tommy Tuberville, had the teams.

OU was No. 11 in the poll last week, Northern Illinois No. 18. On Friday, NIU beat then-No. 19 Kent State in the MAC championship game to finish with a 12-1 record. On Saturday, the Sooners (10-2) defeated TCU to win a share of the Big 12 title, which Kansas State also claimed with a victory against Texas. Kansas State (11-1) beat OU during the season.

Northern Illinois was listed on all ballots, but the only coach outside the Big 12 to have the Huskies at No. 24 or lower was Michigan's Brady Hoke, who voted them 25th while voting Oklahoma No. 11. Vanderbilt's James Franklin had Northern Illinois 23rd and Oklahoma 11th.

In the BCS standings — which determine the participants in the BCS title game and help decide who plays in the Fiesta, Orange, Rose and Sugar bowls — the teams' voting-points totals in the coaches poll count for one-third of their BCS standings score. Teams' voting-points totals in the Harris Poll count for a third, and an aggregation of their performance in six computer rankings counts for a third.

A team not in one the six conferences whose champions automatically get BCS bids must be given a spot if it finishes in the top 16 of the final BCS standings and is ahead of one of automatic qualifiers. Northern Illinois finished 15th in the BCS standings -- ahead of Big East co-champion and BCS entrant Louisville (21st) and Big Ten champion Wisconsin (not in the top 25).

Northern Illinois substantially improved its score in each BCS standings component over where it stood last week. Last week, it was 18th in the coaches poll, 19th in the Harris and 23rd in the computers. Sunday, in addition to being 16th with the coaches, it was 16th in the Harris and 19th in the computers.

Boise State was ranked 15th in Sunday's coaches poll, same as last week, but the Broncos' low computer rankings resulted in them being No. 19 in the BCS standings, one spot higher than they were last week. Their victory Saturday over Nevada (7-5) gave them no help in the computers.

The MAC's six voters — including Northern Illinois' Dave Doeren — cast their ballots in a way that was not as helpful to the Huskies as the Big 12's votes were to the Sooners.

Doeren, Akron's Terry Bowden, Ball State's Pete Lembo, Kent State's Darrell Hazell, Ohio's Frank Solich and Toledo's Matt Campbell all had Oklahoma at No. 10 or No. 11. (Bowden and Lembo had OU 10th.)

Doeren, Bowden and Campbell had the Huskies 14th; Solich had them 15th; Hazell 17th and Lembo 21st.

Doeren has accepted the coaching job at North Carolina State, and Northern Illinois has said he will not coach the Huskies in their bowl.

Among the Big 12 voters other than Stoops and Tuberville, the voting went as follows: Briles had Oklahoma sixth and Northern Illinois 19th; Holgorsen had OU ninth and NIU 24th; Rhoads had OU sixth and NIU 20th.

In addition to Louisville and Wisconsin, No. 1-ranked Notre Dame, No. 2 and Southeastern Conference champion Alabama, Kansas State, Pac-12 titlist Stanford, Atlantic Coast winner Florida State and No. 3-ranked Oregon were set to qualify automatically under the conferences' and the BCS' selection rules. No. 4 Florida was seen as being all but assured of an at-large spot.

Oklahoma was seen as the most likely recipient of the final at-large spot in the BCS if Northern Illinois was not required to get one.

This is the eighth year USA TODAY Sports has published the coaches' last regular-season ballots. The final coaches poll of the season will be conducted the night of Jan. 7 following the BCS title game. Those ballots won't be public.

In other coaches poll final-balloting notes:

— The three voters to have Alabama at No. 1 ahead of undefeated Notre Dame were Middle Tennessee's Rick Stockstill, Texas Tech's Tuberville and Vanderbilt's James Franklin.

But while Stockstill and Tuberville had Notre Dame at No. 2, Franklin had the Fighting Irish at No. 4, behind two more SEC teams, Georgia and Florida. Franklin voted his team 16th; the Commodores finished outside the top 25.

— Although Boise State finished 15th, the Broncos were not listed on all ballots. Georgia's Mark Richt did not vote for them. Boise State coach Chris Petersen voted his team 14th, as did 18 other voters; no one voted the Broncos higher than that.

— Arkansas State's Gus Malzahn voted his Sun Belt champion team 17th; the Red Wolves finished outside the top 25. Malzahn had Northern Illinois at No. 18. Only three other voters — Louisiana Lafayette's Mark Hudspeth, Central Florida's George O'Leary and North Texas' Dan McCarney — had Arkansas State on their ballots.

— Arizona State's Todd Graham voted his team 20th; the Sun Devils also finished outside the top 25 as Malzahn was the only other voter to have Arizona State on his ballot.