Pre-Season AP Poll

[Scratchtown]

The top 5 looked ok. After that, it might have been the worst rankings I have ever seen.

Sam kinda goes his own way. I really don't get the love for PSU from him or anyone for that matter. Penn St. is not going to be any better than 8-4 IMO. Arkansas? They are getting better but are still looking at about 7 games on their schedule that could go either way. Cal, Utah, Okie St. all are stretches IMO. The one I do agree with is Oregon. I see 9-3 for them this year.

Why? I know I'm an Oregon pumper but c'mon.

Oregon is replacing a QB and that is basically it. In terms of not "reloading" every other position they lost (which wasn't many) has quality guys in replacement. If Oregon is getting downgraded so harshly for losing a QB, then so should Bama, Auburn, Georgia, Baylor, Florida State, UCLA, Ole Miss (those are the ones in top 25).

Oregon, has ALL of it's weapons returning. They may not beat MSU, but they are not dropping 3 games this year. NO WAY.

Darron Thomas was 23-3 as a starter at Oregon and they weren't even close to as talented around him as they are around Vernon Adams. Ya. I'm biased. I don't care.

 

[The Dude]

Not necessarily agreeing with 9-3, but Oregon didn't just lose "a QB", they lost the best QB in the nation. So I get it.

All those other teams just lost a QB.

 

[Red Five]

Y'all do realize that this poll means absolutely nothing, right?

 

[Creed]

There are 10 SEC teams in the top 27.

I listen to a lot of the pre season talk (radio, TV, forums) and it is amazing how SEC teams get so much love. You'd think Arkansas and Tenn are on the cusp of winning the SEC. Auburn who was 8-5 last year and lost to Wisc is a National title contender. People just love Auburn's new QB - which I think has no experience. UGa is always a top 10 pre season team no matter what.

 

[TAKODA]

We all know the polls this time of year are simply space eaters but I agree with starting OSU at the top! That is the only thing the pollsters got right here!

The problem is that future rankings are based off of teams beating other teams that are "ranked" which comes from these preseason polls.

BRB and MattyIce;

My only point would be "If we are going to have subjective polls this early in the season, the only spot that should be easy to fulfill with a team is the #1 position and that would be with the team who won it all the previous year".

 

[BigRedBuster]

Y'all do realize that this poll means absolutely nothing, right?

I wish that were the case.

 

[BigRedBuster]

We all know the polls this time of year are simply space eaters but I agree with starting OSU at the top! That is the only thing the pollsters got right here!

The problem is that future rankings are based off of teams beating other teams that are "ranked" which comes from these preseason polls.

BRB and MattyIce;

My only point would be "If we are going to have subjective polls this early in the season, the only spot that should be easy to fulfill with a team is the #1 position and that would be with the team who won it all the previous year".

And, my point is that polls like this should not come out till well into the season because it ends up affecting the rankings of teams that win early games against "ranked teams" even though those teams might not deserve the ranking they have.

 

[Red Five]

Y'all do realize that this poll means absolutely nothing, right?

I wish that were the case.

Go on...

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

Y'all do realize that this poll means absolutely nothing, right?

I wish that were the case.

Go on...

It certainly plays a role. It's a big reason why the SEC West had such a big regular season last year. Texas A&M and South Carolina were both highly ranked in the pre-season and proceeded to get beat up by SEC West teams. It's why Alabama, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, etc. spent most of the year in the top 10. Remember when 4 SEC teams were in the first released college football playoff poll? Pre-season rankings were a huge reason why. It's also why they had multiple teams in the New Years 6 bowls.

Now luckily several of those teams lost and the season worked itself out, but the country was a few games away from having multiple SEC teams in the playoff due to pre-season rankings.

 

[Stumpy1]

Y'all do realize that this poll means absolutely nothing, right?

I wish that were the case.

Go on...

It absolutely does mean something and BRB mentioned what will and has happened. Look at Texas A&M last year, they beat a top 10 USCe team that was very overrated and it sky rocketed them into the top 15 and they progressed from there. Then come the 2 Miss. schools that went from mediocre to world beaters because they both beat overrated teams.

 

[Red Five]

Y'all do realize that this poll means absolutely nothing, right?

I wish that were the case.

Go on...

It certainly plays a role. It's a big reason why the SEC West had such a big regular season last year. Texas A&M and South Carolina were both highly ranked in the pre-season and proceeded to get beat up by SEC West teams. It's why Alabama, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, etc. spent most of the year in the top 10. Remember when 4 SEC teams were in the first released college football playoff poll? Pre-season rankings were a huge reason why. It's also why they had multiple teams in the New Years 6 bowls.

Now luckily several of those teams lost and the season worked itself out, but the country was a few games away from having multiple SEC teams in the playoff due to pre-season rankings.

The committee does not use the AP or Coach's Polls when doing their rankings. They use computer polls and various other metrics. Were the computer polls biased because of human rankings?

The SEC never had the top 4 in the CFB poll. They had 3 the first week, then never more than 2.

I don't think that it was luck that several of the SEC teams lost as the season went along. They had to lose because they had to play each other and the round robin wasn't complete until the end of the season.

If Auburn or Mizzou would have beat Alabama in one of the last 2 games of the season then the SEC gets shut out. If Alabama had lost and OSU beats Wisky 24-21, the probably the B1G is out as well and 2 Big 12 teams make it in.

As for getting into the NY 6 Bowls, all the major conferences had multiple teams, that is how its designed. The SEC had 3 teams make it compared to 2 for the B1G, Pac, ACC, B12. I'm not going to quibble with them getting 1 more team than the other conferences.

 

[Red Five]

Y'all do realize that this poll means absolutely nothing, right?

I wish that were the case.

Go on...

It absolutely does mean something and BRB mentioned what will and has happened. Look at Texas A&M last year, they beat a top 10 USCe team that was very overrated and it sky rocketed them into the top 15 and they progressed from there. Then come the 2 Miss. schools that went from mediocre to world beaters because they both beat overrated teams.

And where did those Mississippi schools end up? One was 10-2 and rightfully placed into a good bowl. The other was 9-3 with wins over a 10-2 and 11-1 team (and lost another game b/c they best player broke his leg and fumbled while going in for the game winning TD). Seems like a pretty good team to me.

Look, I hate the SEC as much as the next guy on here. But I am not going to get worked up about week to week rankings that don't mean anything. The only reason the polls exist in their current form is because of people like us who get worked up over them causing web hits and emails to various writers.

 

[Dr. Strangelove]

I stand corrected, the SEC had 3 teams (not 4) in the first poll.

However, I would argue that while the committee shouldn't take the polls into consideration, they undoubtedly had an impact on how they ranked teams throughout the season. Saying these polls don't matter is a statement that isn't based in reality.

 

[Minnesota_husker]

Preseason polls are the most useless thing for people to get worked up about(not claiming anyone in here is getting worked up).

It is the opinion of a bunch of journalists, who can guess what will happen about as good as you or I.

That being said, i dont mind the huskers not being in the top 25. I think they will be in the top 25 at some point this year and will end the year in the top 25, but i get that most writers want to see what they can do first.

SEC beats itself up. Bama and Auburn will be good but not sold on the rest till the prove they can go through the whole year and be consistent. The SEC has some great teams but they are so inconsistent in terms of what they bring to the table each week, hence the reason they all beat eachother.

 

[DomiNUs]

I partake in hammering away at the SEC and the obvious bias skewed their way by the media probably as much if not more than the average hater. For me it is enjoyable, and I get quite a bit of pleasure out of it. I never understood why there are so many out there, especially Husker fans, who defend the hype and bias shown to this conference.

It is true, the SEC is just like any other conference. They have a couple of really good teams, followed by some average teams, and then the cellar dwellers. Every year, this conference shakes out just like every other conference. The only difference between them, and everybody else is that the world wide leader in sports entertainment struck a deal with them. It is in their financial interest for the SEC to dominate all others, even if it is not real. eSECpn has fooled a fair amount of people though, because they own the perception of this conference. And if their perception is biased or skewed, then it is only natural that a fair number of people will believe it.

For the rest of us, get your fill of SEC hate here: SEC Exposed