Eliminate Preseason Football Polls

I love college football. There’s nothing better then sitting down on a September Saturday morning for College GameDay at 7 a.m. and not turning the TV off till 10:30 at night when the late Pac-10 game is over. But I have a huge problem with the insistence of the preseason polls. Every year teams are ranked based solely on projections and tradition. The poll I have the most problem with is the USA Today Coaches Poll. The coaches that vote every week do not have time to watch and research every team. They spend all their time assessing and watching their own teams, rightfully so. More often then not, some graduate assistant or other team subordinate a.k.a equipment manager fills out the form and sends it in. I know the polls are not going away, not should they, but I believe that no poll should be conducted until after the 3rd week of the season.

By ranking teams before they even play a game it creates an unfair playing surface for all teams. This is where the saying, “If your gonna lose a game, lose it early,” comes from. A team that is ranked in the preseason Top 10 can afford to lose that 1st conference game and not drop off the rankings. While a team that was not ranked can start the year 5-0, just break the Top 25, say at #23, then lose a game and never be heard of again. Take for example, the 2006 Boise State team, they were not ranked until after the 3rd week at #25. If the rankings did not come out until the 3rd week it is not hard to imagine that they would have been somewhere in the 17-19 range with their demolishing of Oregon State 42-14 and road win at Wyoming. By allowing teams to start the season ahead of BSU it did not allow them a fair chance at playing for the National Championship. USC started the year at #6 and had worked their way to #3 in the country when they lost to the same Oregon State team that Boise St. beat earlier in the year. USC fell to #9 after the loss while BSU was back at #18, the place they should have been after week 3, not week 8.

Another prime example of the faulty preseason poll is in 2004 when Auburn started the year at #17, went undefeated through the entire schedule including the tough SEC, but did not get to play for the National Championship. Why did they not get to play in the title game? Because Okalahoma started the year #2 and USC #1. If the poll had not come out until after the 3rd week then it’s possible that Auburn would have been ranked ahead of either Oklahoma or USC based on their victory over LSU, which was much more impressive then any of the first 3 victories by OU or USC.

Another benefit to not voting on the Top 25 until after week 3 is that it will create much more interesting matchups for the first 3 weeks of the season. If coaches knew they weren’t going to be ranked until after 3 games do you think Ohio St. would schedule Youngstown St. and Akron as their first two opponents or Florida would play Western Kentucky and Troy to begin the season. Knowing that a high-profile win in the first 3 weeks could put you in the driver’s seat for a BCS Title game berth would spur better non-conference games and less cupcakes. Miami is sure as hell not going to open up against Marshall and Florida International if they know that USC is playing Arkansas and Nebraska.

Eliminate the preseason polls. Let the teams play the games before they are anointed the best in the land. The polls are what bring in viewers and get people talking. I have no problem with using the polls to decide who should play for the National Championship. I think to be fair to all teams, though, they do not need to come out until after every team has been given an equal opportunity to prove themselves.

2007 USA Today Preseason Coaches Poll

2007 AP Preseason Poll