There is absolutly no reason to have a pre-season poll. What until October, then maybe put out the first poll. But why in August before anyone has played? We all know what the marquee games are going to be before the season so why rate each team based on nothing? You know 90% of the picks are going to be east and west coast biased.
There is one really good reason for all the preseason polls.
People want to talk and argue about it. All the talk is a good thing for the game. However, people putting the polls together need to be willing to do radical reevaluations for the first few weeks, and not worry about who was where in the poll the week before, until about OCT anyway.