Human Must Be Eliminated (college football voters anyway)

Every time I see a college football poll I am reminded that it is impossible to get enough qualified people to decide which college football teams, playing games against different competition, should be ranked each week and, later this season, chosen to play in a final four championship-deciding playoff. Keeping the big guys up top, even with mediocre performances from Florida State and Alabama, is fine as they have earned that and you do not want to blow up the rankings for one game. But what does Ohio State have to do to lose its top ten ranking? They crashed at the end of last season and then lost QB Braxton Miller. They struggled for most of the Navy game and are not a top ten team at the moment. Why are they ranked ahead of Baylor? And why is UCLA ranked ahead of Stanford? They were outclassed by Stanford last year and then looked awful against lowly Virginia this past Saturday. And sorry fans from the Palmetto State but neither South Carolina nor Clemson should be ranked. How did North Carolina move up after struggling with Liberty (yes that Liberty). All of this is the main reason why there should not be a preseason poll as that places teams in positions that then get used during the season's voting. Louisville was pretty good last year and looked very good in week one against a better opponent, Miami, than Liberty, yet UNC, not as good as Louisville last year, remains ahead of the Cardinals. This normally corrects itself but wins over over-rated teams--think A&M over SC--greatly effect the polls and computers. Humans, or at least the bad college football voters, must go.

Comparing Polls and BCS Rankings

With the release of the first BCS standings, the usual differences between computers and actual voters becomes clear.  The computers, of course, value actual results from the season in question while the voters place higher value on either what they predict will happen or on talent levels.  Therefore Alabama, who is considered the best team in the country, easily wins the voting polls but is only third in the computers averages due to a less-than-desired quality of opponent so far this season.  They remain the top dog in the BCS thanks to the dominance they have in the human polls.  The number two team in the polls, Oregon, however, is paying for a back-loaded conference schedule and poor out-of-conference group of victims and sits at three behind Florida.  None of this matters now since we have a long way to go but history does show us that some very deserving teams can be left out in the cold if they run out of time or opportunity to travel up to a top spot.  Or if they fail some BS "eye test" the supposed experts fall back on to give honors to their favorites over teams with better resumes.

View From Bennett Avenue

Well the Boise State poll drop has begun. Voters waited one week after the Broncos' win over Oregon State to begin the process that will result in their not making the BCS Title game if other power teams have the same unbeaten record. Boise, and TCU, need all of the other challengers to lose--and some lose twice--to be able to finish ahead of them in the minds of most voters.
It is somewhat laughable that the program that is currently passing Boise, Oregon, is the one member of the top ten that this edition of Boise State has proven that they can beat when sweeping a home-and-home series in 2008-09. After all, what does Boise have to do to stay ahead of Oregon in the polls beyond beating them twice? But wait, you say, Oregon has the best offense in the country this year and deserves the higher ranking. But Oregon averaged 47 points per game after three games before taking on, and losing to, Boise in 2008. And last year's Ducks managed only 8 points against this Broncos defense last year. Are they that much better one year later? Instead we should be discussing just how great the Boise State defense is and whether Oregon can score against them.
Broncos coach Chris Petersen did not rip into voters over the news. What can he do? Win all of his games? Well, yeah, but that will never be enough.

View From Bennett Avenue

Let me begin by stating that I am not a fan of preseason polls. That said, this is a blog covering college football so I had better comment on the recently released The USA TODAY/Coaches Poll. And so...Florida State? Why do the Seminoles have to be ranked every August. Just as writers covering the NFL must select the Dallas Cowboys as the favorites in the NFC East every year, so too must their college football brethren swoon for the Noles.

But Florida State is only ranked 20th and will disappear once Oklahoma blows them out in September. So let's discuss the top ten, featuring Alabama as no. 1. The Crimson Tide do return a boat-load of starters, although they did lose LB Rolando McClain, NT Terrence Cody and DB Javier Arenas from their defense and G Mike Johnson from their offense. They are trying their best to keep DE Marcell Dareus eligible as not only does he project to have a huge season but his four career starts are two more than any other member of the defensive line.

Ohio State, with many expecting QB Terrelle Pryor to explode this season, Florida and Texas round out the top four of national powers. These schools are perennial members of the preseason top five, even when they lose the type of future Hall of Fame QB that both the Gators and Longhorns lost.

The big news was with the five hole, occupied by Boise State. The Broncos play no. 6 Virginia Tech on Labor Day and so we will know a great deal about their chances of gaining a BCS title spot in week one. Trailing the Hokies by one spot is another non-BCS team in TCU, who also have a tough test week one in Oregon State. Good friends Oklahoma and Nebraska fall eight-nine, and that would be a great Big 12 conference title match-up in Nebraska's final season of conference play. Iowa completes the top ten; the Hawkeyes are the second of four Big Ten teams to be ranked in the top 14 with Wisconsin--my pick for the conference crown--coming in at 12 and Penn State opening at no. 14.

I feel that Auburn at 23 and Utah, tied for 24, are too low while Notre Dame is not ranked at all. They will finish the year in the top 20, mark my words. I also am bullish on Connecticut, Arizona and Missouri, who will all need to win in September to woo voters.

But that is enough already on preseason polls.