The University of Southern California was voted #1 in the Associated Press Preseason College Football Poll today. USC is followed by defending champion Alabama, then LSU, Oklahoma and Oregon, to round out the top 5. USC has returned to form quickly even during their 2 year bowl ban, for the Reggie Bush incident. What does this top preseason ranking mean? Not much really. It is based on an educated guess. Factors are used such as how the teams performed last year, how many starters are returning on offense and defense from last year, possible incoming freshman and improving stars, and the difficulty of the schedule of teams they play.
While taking all of these factors into consideration, gives you a pretty good idea of how well the teams will perform, it certainly isn’t foolproof. Two years ago, Auburn was not even ranked in the preseason top 25, and they went undefeated and won the national championship, with Cam Newton winning the Heisman Trophy.
Being highly ranked in the preseason poll certainly can help a team, if the team struggles during the year. In this case, the team will be over-rated the entire rest of the year, until they lose at least 5 games. Once again I will use Auburn as an example. Last year, Auburn has highly ranked starting the year, and was still ranked in the top 25 at the end of the year, with an 8-5 record.
There should be no preseason poll at all. I don’t think there should be any rankings in college football, until at least after week 4, or even week 5. By then, we have a lot better idea of how good the teams really are. If a team does come out of nowhere, and finish the season undefeated, they should still win the national championship, keeping the preseason polls, unless of course, they aren’t in a BCS conference. However, since TCU and Boise State are joining BCS conferences, this situation will be unlikely. The 4 team playoff will help, starting in 2014, but we should do away with the preseason polls. These polls don’t help anyone, except those teams who are over-ranked beginning the year.
