Quote:The AP creates the polls purely to have something to talk about.  They could care less if SEC fans toot their own horn for having the best conference or if ACC fans get mad that the SEC has 10 teams in the top 25 to start out the year.  That's the point, to get people to talk. 

 

Besides that, it's all a pure guess at that point.  It's the main reason the playoff committee waits so long for their first poll to come out.  The AP has all the right in the world to put the poll out, it's the fans that need to relax and not give it so much importance.

 

I don't believe that's true.  ESPN splits all profits with the SEC (thanks to the deal with the SEC network), including playoff television rights.  If you don't think there's incentive to skew the rankings, you're either naive or biased yourself.  You only need to read the headlines to see it.  SEC teams get positive headlines in losses (e.g. Florida holds on to...) and other conferences get negative headlines (OSU struggles to beat...).  It's very common once you start to notice it.

 

Preseason rankings are a cancer in college football, and it needs to stop.  At least 5 weeks need to play before there is an official ranking, and as long as ESPN affiliates dominate the AP polling, even that isn't going to help.  It will prevent some of the more absurd leaps, like Ole Miss being ranked number 3 after beating Bama, only to lose to Memphis, Arkansas and Florida, but it still isn't going to stop that narrative that is being presented by the largest sports "news" network.  

 

All of college football needs to be redesigned, imo, but it's probably never going to happen.  To many hands in the coffer.  

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