Someone tell me again why we have a Pre-Season Poll

[cycloneworld]

This is why there shouldn't be a pre-season poll.

Pre-Season Poll:
1. USC (62) 0-0 1,622 NOW:12
2. LSU (2) 0-0 1,511 NOW: 2
3. West Virginia (1) 0-0 1,396 NOW:6
4. Texas 0-0 1,375 NOW:15
5. Michigan 0-0 1,371 NOW:13
6. Florida 0-0 1,276 NOW:17
7. Wisconsin 0-0 1,192 NOW:NR
8. Oklahoma 0-0 1,166 NOW:4
9. Virginia Tech 0-0 1,148 NOW:11
10. Louisville 0-0 1,031 NOW:NR
11. Ohio State 0-0 876 NOW:1
12. California 0-0 790 NOW:24
13. Georgia 0-0 782 NOW:10
14. UCLA 0-0 605 NOW:NR
15. Tennessee 0-0 571 NOW:22
16. Rutgers 0-0 560 NOW:NR
17. Penn State 0-0 542 NOW:NR
18. Auburn 0-0 519 NOW:18
19. Florida State 0-0 392 NOW:NR
20. Nebraska 0-0 377 NOW:NR
21. Arkansas 0-0 376 NOW:NR
22. TCU 0-0 283 NOW:NR
23. Hawaii 0-0 256 NOW:14
24. Boise State 0-0 187 NOW:19
25. Texas A&M 0-0 162 NOW:NR

Teams NR in Preseason Polls: #3 Oregon, #5 Kansas, #7 Missouri, #8 BC, #9 ASU, #16 UCONN, #20 Clemson, #21 Alabama, #23 Virginia, #24 Kentucky.

The Preseason poll didn't have 1/2 of the top 10 even ranked. And did not have 10 of the 25 teams ranked in the preseason.

LSU should thank the Pre-season polls otherwise they may not be sitting at #2 now. Now things may work themselves out so we don't have a BCS controversy but if Ohio State loses, things will get messy.

Why not just wait until week 4 to start publishing rankings?

[HandSanitizer]

Not only does a pre season poll suck. It hurts a team like Kansas big Time being NR and have to spend the whole time climbing the ranks. They should wait until week 3 or 4, but they will never do it that way. Everyone is in love with rankings.

[LindenCy]

I'm with you. It is a joke. Really they should wait till a couple games into the conference season. Because once you get a ranking it is yours to lose, thus cheating everyone who had bad PR or doesn't have "tradition."

[LindenCy]

Hey, did I miss something...what is this CyCash I just noticed?

[cys_av8r]

That's pretty easy....money. You get to sell a lot papers when you have a pre-season poll. That and it gives the guys on ESPN something to yammer on about for a couple of weeks.

[jumbopackage]

Why does it matter? It doesn't affect the BCS. It doesn't affect the outcome of the season. It's just for hype.

Don't pay attention to it, and it won't bother you nearly as much.

[cycloneworld]

Originally Posted by jumbopackage

Why does it matter? It doesn't affect the BCS. It doesn't affect the outcome of the season. It's just for hype.

Don't pay attention to it, and it won't bother you nearly as much.

Ummm, ranking account for 2/3 of the BCS rankings so it's kind of important. It really hurts teams that were unranked to start the season. See Kansas.

[jdoggivjc]

But we as fans would have one less thing to ***** about if we didn't have preseason polls...

[cloneu]

AP Top 25 Week 4
Week 4 Rank/ Currently
1. USC (43) 3-0 1,601 #12
2. LSU (22) 4-0 1,580 #2
3. Oklahoma 4-0 1,456 #4
4. Florida 4-0 1,417 #17
5. West Virginia 4-0 1,388 #6
6. California 4-0 1,263 #24
7. Texas 4-0 1,196 #15
8. Ohio State 4-0 1,193 #1
9. Wisconsin 4-0 1,030 NR
10. Rutgers 3-0 1,008 NR
11. Oregon 4-0 944 #3
12. Boston College 4-0 927 #8
13. Clemson 4-0 807 #20
14. Kentucky 4-0 708 #24
15. Georgia 3-1 631 #10
16. South Carolina 3-1 586 NR
17. Virginia Tech 3-1 568 #11
18. South Florida 3-0 539 NR
19. Hawaii 4-0 471 #14
20. Missouri 4-0 401 #7
21. Penn State 3-1 337 NR
22. Alabama 3-1 265 #21
23. Arizona State 4-0 206 #9
24. Cincinnati 4-0 164 NR
25. Nebraska 3-1 134 NR

Teams NR in Week 4: #5 Kansas, #13 Michigan, #16 UCONN, #18 Auburn, #19 Bosie St., #22 Tennessee, #23 Virginia

It does appear that after the 4th week the rankings are much better. But even then Kansas and UCONN still have no love as they have not played anybody by week 4. But that is college football and the pre-season polls will never go away. It is why people go crazy over reading mags like Lindys in June.

[ISUFan22]

Half of the current top ten was unranked preseason. Amazing...

[cycloneworld]

Originally Posted by cloneu

But that is college football and the pre-season polls will never go away. It is why people go crazy over reading mags like Lindys in June.

Which is why things will never change. Just like everything else, there is too much money to be made with the current system.

[everyyard]

the only reason is it is a way to give the teams with tradition, money, marketing, etc an inside track to BCS and better bowls. For example...see KU ranked behind several 1 loss teams still. In other words it is BS.

[jumbopackage]

Originally Posted by cycloneworld

Ummm, ranking account for 2/3 of the BCS rankings so it's kind of important. It really hurts teams that were unranked to start the season. See Kansas.

It's not at all important, and this thread illustrates just that. Half the teams in the poll weren't in it to start the season. USC isn't magically still in the top 10 just because they were there to start the season and then went and lost a couple games. The BCS math-based polls (what I'm calling them now instead of computer polls, since they aren't REALLY computer polls, they just happen to be calculated in an objective way based on an established formula) mostly agree with the top 15 or so teams, and none of those polls that I"m aware of are biased by the pre-season polls.

The only poll that really matters in the BCS is the last one of the season, and since we haven't seen that yet, there really isn't much point in getting worked up about these rankings.

As an aside, the AP poll is not used in the BCS at any rate, though the coaches and the Harris Interactive both still are.

[Wesley]

I thought Nebraska was going to win the North and maybe beat Oklahoma and Iowa was going to win the Big Ten and do NewYearsDay.

[bjwitt]

this is soooooooo true, but if you were ranked preseason you have such an advantage than if you started unranked, i think its riiculous