Alabama coach Nick Saban had Stanford at No. 3 and Oklahoma State at No. 4 in his Coaches Poll ballot this week.

Last night, his team got into the National Championship game over OSU by the slimmest margin ever.

A lot of people thought Oklahoma State was more deserving, and pretty much everyone agreed that the Cowboys were, at worst, the No. 3 team in the country — which is why it's an outrage that Saban ranked them artificially low at No. 4.

The Coaches Poll counts for 33% of the BCS rankings. Since it's comprised of 59 coaches, Saban's individual ballot counted for 0.5% of the final BCS ranking.

His Alabama team finished second above Oklahoma State by 0.0086 points.

Saban's poll alone didn't vault the Crimson Tide above OSU. But this whole thing is dumb for a number of reasons:

It's ridiculous that not every coach gets a vote. Why should Saban get to screw over OSU by putting them forth, yet OSU coach Mike Gundy can't do the same because he doesn't have a vote?

Why should Saban get to screw over OSU by putting them forth, yet OSU coach Mike Gundy can't do the same because he doesn't have a vote? It's absurd that coaches of teams with a shot to go to the title game aren't asked to recuse themselves from the Coaches Poll. Look, most coaches are going to do what Saban did to give his own team a leg up. That's what they're paid to do! So why should these openly biased coaches be allowed to vote?

Look, most coaches are going to do what Saban did to give his own team a leg up. That's what they're paid to do! So why should these openly biased coaches be allowed to vote? There's no way in hell you can objectively put Stanford above OSU. The Cowboys won what was the best conference in the country statistically. They played the eighth-toughest schedule whereas Stanford played the 64th-toughest. The only reason Saban was able to get away with it is because the two teams have the same number of losses (1) — by EVERY OTHER METRIC, OSU is better.

It's fine if you think Alabama is the most deserving No. 2 team in the country. But it's ridiculous that a biased coach can deflate an opposing team's BCS rating. And it's even more ridiculous that the system allows him to.

You can see every coach's USA Today ballot here. >>