Quote:
Originally Posted by Bearcat
Preseason polls are just a killer with such a short season.
You can rank UNC #1 in CBB and if they kind of suck, they'll be gone in a few weeks or at the very worst when they hit non-con.
Football though, you assume 4 B1G and 6 SEC teams deserve to be ranked in the preseason and everything from that point forward is based on that ranking. Preseason rank Michigan State #15 for some reason. And then Purdue beats them in week 2.... well shit, Purdue must be pretty damn good, let's rank them! And then Purdue loses to unranked Indiana the following week... well shit, Indiana must be pretty decent, right?!?
Add to it a team like Ohio State not doing shit all season, but keeping their rank only because Michigan was highly ranked for reasons... or Bama being #1 by not playing anyone.
Not to say those teams aren't good, but it's all based on those assumptions made before the season started, and it's a huge domino effect that never really sorts itself out.
Of course, there's no great way around it, as you have to start somewhere... and they've tried computer rankings and what not.
I've always wanted 8 teams in a playoff and could see 12, where the top 4 get a bye and the other 8 are basically play-in games. Beats the current format of "assume Bama, Georgia, and OSU are amazing every year".
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Bama, Georgia, and OSU usually ARE the best teams every year. You know why? Because they get the best recruits. Look at how many Top 50 guys those programs pull in every year. Best talent usually equates to the best teams, just like in the NFL. There’s a reason the Chiefs are always a Super Bowl contender every year. They have a Mahomes. They have a Kelce. They have a Jones. Few teams can match that. And the ones that can (Bills, Bengals, for instance) are usually left standing there with them near the end in the playoffs.