Athlon Way-Too-Early Top 25 College Football Rankings for 2019

Moiraine said:
If you see us finishing 19-25, why is Athlon “high AF” to put us at 19? Polls are supposed to show how good a team is compared to the other teams. It means they think Nebraska will be the 19th best team this season.

If Nebraska ends up at 19-25, the people who had us unranked at the beginning were the wrong ones. 
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I think it means that they think Nebraska is the 19th best team right now. Which we could be, but there's no way to actually know that or even believe it that makes any sense. There's nothing to support such an idea. Where we end up at the end of the season is a completely different thing, because that factors in progress and momentum and a body of work. This factors in blind hypothetical potential.

Or it means something completely ambiguous and arbitrary and inconsistent and is really meaningless for anything other than driving clicks and ad conversion rates.

 
Moiraine said:
If you see us finishing 19-25, why is Athlon “high AF” to put us at 19? Polls are supposed to show how good a team is compared to the other teams. It means they think Nebraska will be the 19th best team this season.

If Nebraska ends up at 19-25, the people who had us unranked at the beginning were the wrong ones. 
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A preseason poll is somewhat predicated on what someone did the year before. Nebraska didn't look like the 19th best team in the country. I've never took the preseason poll as a prediction on where they thought they'd end up.

 
Undone said:
I don't think so. I've always assumed they're a predictor for the Week 1 polling.
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I guess the preseason polls mean different things to different people/pollsters.

If I were a voter, I would rank the teams the first week in how I would project them to end the season.  After the first week, I would then rank the teams based on the body of work during the season.  I guess my rankings would have the potential to fluctuate from week to week, but that's how I would do them.

 
B.B. Hemingway said:
A preseason poll is somewhat predicated on what someone did the year before. Nebraska didn't look like the 19th best team in the country. I've never took the preseason poll as a prediction on where they thought they'd end up.
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Agreed, and honestly I don't think we deserve a spot in the Top 25 after finishing 4-8.

If we have convincing wins after our first three games I'm pretty sure we'll be ranked. But I kind of doubt we'll be ranked preseason nor after Week 1.

 
B.B. Hemingway said:
A preseason poll is somewhat predicated on what someone did the year before. Nebraska didn't look like the 19th best team in the country. I've never took the preseason poll as a prediction on where they thought they'd end up.
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By Athlon’s wording, it’s a prediction for how they’ll end up. They talk about our path to possibly winning the west and our toughest opponents being at home.

I see all preseason polls as predictions, though. What is the purpose if that’s not what they are? Why not just have the previous season’s final poll and then the first poll after week one? Most/all of these preseason polls take graduations and schedule into account. They’re predicting how good they think the teams will be in the future because they don’t know how good they are right now. 

 
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Moiraine said:
If you see us finishing 19-25, why is Athlon “high AF” to put us at 19? Polls are supposed to show how good a team is compared to the other teams. It means they think Nebraska will be the 19th best team this season.

If Nebraska ends up at 19-25, the people who had us unranked at the beginning were the wrong ones. 
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Because we aren't the 19th best team in the country.  

 
Moiraine said:
By Athlon’s wording, it’s a prediction for how they’ll end up. They talk about our path to possibly winning the west and our toughest opponents being at home. 
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That's how I always view the magazine preseason rankings.  It's a prediction of the season and the end of the season rankings.

I understand that this may differ from how AP and Coaches poll voters may differ.

 
Moiraine said:
By Athlon’s wording, it’s a prediction for how they’ll end up. They talk about our path to possibly winning the west and our toughest opponents being at home. 
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Well, in that case it's too low :lol:

If a preseason poll is supposed to be a prediction why do teams fall when they lose? If Bama loses a early SEC game and you thought they were the best team in the country, and think they'll win the title even with the loss, than why drop them?

 
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ColoradoHusk said:
Aren't preseason polls predicting the "finish" to the season, not the starting point?  If that's the case then having NU in the preseason top 25 isn't all that crazy.
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It was my assumption that a preseason poll was an insight to where the teams will start the 2019 season.  If so, they are high AF

If it is their prediction that Nebraska will end up 19th to end the year, then I think they are geniuses.

 
Moiraine said:
You’re predicting Nebraska could be 19-25. Athlon is predicting 19. One of these is crazy AF to you for some reason. 
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I could see Nebraska ending up 19-25 if things go well.  I don't see how they could be considered the 19th best team in the country right now.

Do we need to continue to argue this?

 
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