USA Today Coach's Poll/BCS Observations: Notre Dame

After looking over the coaches that are participating in the USA Today Poll, there were two things that immediately came to my mind; First, Why don’t all of the coaches in the BCS conferences vote? Second, Why is Notre Dame eligible to vote? Why should Charlie Weis, whose team is not in a conference, have a vote and Mike Stoops, whose Arizona Wildcats are in the Pac-10, does not? Take a look at this: This is the front page of BCSfootball.org, can you see anything wrong with the page? During my first glance at the page I noticed that it had the logos for every BCS conference across the header… ending with Notre Dame. I must have missed the memo when the BCS declared Notre Dame its own conference. Last time I checked there were still three independent teams: Army, Navy, and Notre Dame. First, I think that being independent is a joke and should not be allowed. I understand that Notre Dame is able to pull enough money, enough fans, and thus enough bias to survive without being in ... (link)