Preseason College Football Polls Must Disappear

Preseason college football polls must disappear. Because they are wrong and too many people rely on them to determine which football teams are good and which are bad. For example, if a team is left off a major Top 25 poll early in the season it has historically been tough to crack the Top 10 or Top 5 later in the season when such things are important.

Conversely, the opposite has been true over the years. Teams ranked near the top have been given the benefit of the doubt when we try to determine the best teams in the country. People who put together polls seem to guess about teams instead of actually watching their games.

Take the weekly coaches poll, for example. How many coaches do you know that watch other teams' games each week? None. They are too busy with their own games. So they have their Sports Information Directors fill in the ballots each week. Granted they probably watch a few more teams than their coaches over the season, but for 6-8 hours each Saturday they are working during their school's games with a lot of pre and post game work. That poll is worthless and teams are ranked based on reputation.

The Associated Press Top 25 is also worthless. Their preseason poll this year had Texas at the top followed by Penn State. That means the AP Top 25 poll suggested the college football championship would pit Texas vs Penn State in January. We have not made it to mid-October and yet, both Texas and Penn State have fallen from the entire Top 25 already. Preseason college football polls must disappear.

At least the College Football Playoff Committee waits until after Halloween to release its first batch of polls. But even then, does the committee use those other polls as a starting point? If you want the real scoop on who's good and who's not in college football, tune in each weekday to Craig Shemon and Company from 2-6 pm on ESPN Southwest Florida.