The Case Against Preseason Rankings in College Football

Recently, the best example of this is last season’s Florida State Seminoles, who started the season ranked No. 10 and then, after, at the time, it seemed like a fluky upset by Georgia Tech, Florida State quickly fell off a cliff. So this begs the question: Is it time to stop the Pre-season AP Poll?

Not the Only One

Again, this is not just a one-time thing. Last year’s Seminoles were overhyped, but they are far from the lone example. One of the more dramatic examples came back in 2012, when USC started the year off as the No. 1 team in the country, and then quickly fell flat on its face as well turning in a 7-6 record. 

Another example, albeit not as dramatic, is the 2007 Michigan team that came into the year ranked No. 5 in the country, and quickly became a laughing stock after losing to Appalachian State in one of the biggest upsets in sports history. Now, that Michigan team did end the year 9-4, but it was still a far cry from the national championship expectations that were placed on Michigan. 

All these examples are why the AP poll should no longer be in existence to begin the season. Now, for TV it’s fun, you have top five matchups that networks pump up to begin the season, but should college football (or college athletics as a whole) start their poll rankings after the “out-of-conference” schedule when it becomes a little more clear who is at the top of the heap and who is in for a rough season? Predicting how teams will do has become even more difficult in this day and age, with players moving from team to team.

This also allows teams to be ranked on a fairer basis, rather than a team that has a “weak schedule” to start the season in the top five, but their “quality wins” don’t look as strong, so they can stay atop the rankings. 

Who's Next?

Regardless of preseason AP polls or not, there will always be teams that get overhyped heading into a season, but at least there wouldn’t be a number next to said team that makes it seem ridiculous, and sports writers everywhere look dumb for ranking a team so high.

Now, what would be the solution since some people do decide what games they want to watch based on the top matchups that Saturday? Whether or not it’ll be based on a rivalry game that weekend or the preseason media polls that each conference puts out before the season?

There is drama to those preseason polls. If you’re a Miami Hurricanes fan, you could not have been more thrilled with how Florida State’s season went, and your team ended up finishing where the Seminoles were slotted. However, it may not have been as drastic on the national scale, but I’m sure those same Miami fans would have still been as ecstatic had Florida State only been ranked as the top team in their media poll.