UTAH COACH PLANS TO BREAK RANKS

The controversy regarding the apparent ineligibility of the undefeated Utah Utes, who rolled the Crimson Tide at the Vandalay Sugar Bowl, for consideration for the BcS National Championship.Per USA Today, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham says that he’ll vote for his own squad as the No. 1 team in the final USA Today Coaches’ Poll.The only glitch? Whittingham would be violating the policy of the American Football Coaches Association, which requires all voters to cast their ballot for the winner of the BcS National Championship game, which will be played this year between Oklahoma and Florida.And, apparently, the structure of the voting prevents a guy like Whittingham from doing the right thing breaking the policy."Anytime a coach is 13-0, he certainly has strong feelings and should have,” AFCA executive director Grant Teaff said Sunday. “But that’s not what the system is and what we agreed to. . . . This poll is not, since 1998, to select the national champion. The winner of the game is the winner of the [BcS] trophy. Which means the coaches do not vote for No. 1, they vote for No. 2 down."We think it stinks. And we encourage Whittingham and all other voters in the poll to make the Utes No. 1, unless Oklahoma mops up the turf with Florida, or vice-versa.Even then, we’re partial to the Utes. They dismantled Alabama. Worse that Florida did, worse that Oklahoma could.So, yeah, the Utes are our national champs. We’ll see if anyone else is smart enough (or, as the case may be, dumb enough) to follow suit.