PRE SEASON POLLS

Nope, I don't have links for this year.

Was watching College Football on ESPN and they were talking about pre-season last year.

Interesting things.

USC was a strong #1. They finished 7-6.

Notre Dame was not in the top 25. They finished #4. We all can argue and complain about how they did it with smoke and mirrors and luck but the fact is they did it.

2 teams in the top 5 pre ended up in the top 5 Post. Alabama and Oregon.

Pre

USC
Ala
OU
LSU
Ore

Post
Ala
Ore (maybe)
Georgia
ND
??????????????? Can't remember.

So, preseason polls are just that. Garbage. lol And something to talk about during these long, and I mean LONG, weeks waiting for football.

The BCS formula made it so imperative that you got a high ranking early because it seemed at times it was impossible to climb up the polls even if you were winning. I wonder how the polls are going to effect the final four playoff system.

'eggo, joe just said that ND was not even in the pre-season top 25 yet they made the NC Game (moan...grumble...grumble). Granted, you need a lot of help as in ND's case but they did it.

When the subject of polls comes up I'm always forced to recall The Horror of 2007. We were pre-season #4 that year...

2ndComingOfBo wrote:

'eggo, joe just said that ND was not even in the pre-season top 25 yet they made the NC Game (moan...grumble...grumble).  Granted, you need a lot of help as in ND's case but they did it.

When the subject of polls comes up I'm always forced to recall The Horror of 2007.  We were pre-season #4 that year...

yeah I should have added a ND disclaimer. The only good thing about the BCS polls is that they don't come out until after the 6th week (I think). With the first few weeks being out of conference matchups normally teams are playing easy schedules and the preseason poll rankings transition fairly smoothly to the BCS rankings when they come out. Last year was definitely different. By the time the BCS polls came out ND was still undefeated and a few of the preseason top 5 teams had lost knocking them back in the polls. Also ND was the only eligible team to finish undefeated last year so that was the biggest reason they were top 2. I think if ND would have lost it would have probably been another 2 SEC team NC game.

And also remember, the BCS is now gone after 2013 (kinda)...

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/dennis-dodd/19383956/say-goodbye-to-the-bcs-at-least-the-name

2ndComingOfBo wrote:

And also remember, the BCS is now gone after 2013 (kinda)...

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/dennis-dodd/19383956/say-goodbye-to-the-bcs-at-least-the-name

yep. good riddance. don't let the door hit your arse on the way out either.

That brings up another good debate. How do you feel about an 8 or 16 team playoff? Maybe 10 team playoff with two playing games? Ideas? discuss.

We're going to have to start at 8 and will eventually transition to 16. Yes, we will go through play-in scenarios too (I think that I might like that version better).

There is a study out there the correlates preseason and postseason rankings, and they are a lot more accurate than you'd think. I've linked it before but I'm on m phone. You can find it with some google search skills.

I can't find the football article, but here is a good one from basketball stats guru Ken Pomeroy.

http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog/entry/the_pre-season_ap_poll_is_great