The preseason ESPN college football rankings told us what we already knew. USF’s first three games are arguably the most difficult opening stretch in the country.
Boise State is No. 25, followed by Florida (17) and Miami (10).
That schedule was cooked up in a Frankenstein monster’s lab.
Obviously, no one has to tell us about the quality of those three opponents. But the cynic in me does wonder about the bigger picture of preseason polls to begin with.
The American joined the growing trend among college football conferences by not conducting a preseason media poll.
On3.com conducted an unofficial poll that had USF finishing fifth in the conference. Tulane is the projected winner. The Bulls did get one of 13 first-place votes, so there is that.
I would have had the Bulls no lower than third, but that’s just me.
Besides, I remembered that last year, newcomer Army was picked to finish fifth but stormed to the regular-season title and a bowl win over Oklahoma.
At their best, the polls are conversation starters to get juiced for the upcoming season. That’s about it, though. They are basically a waste of time.
The Big Ten started the ball rolling when it didn’t do a poll, and when Commissioner Tim Pernetti explained why the American followed suit, well, it made sense.
“We thought really long and hard about this,” Pernetti said at the recent American football days. “And I do think you see an industry-wide trend where people are moving away from this.
“I think the reason we're moving away from this now is, I think it's more difficult to actually put your finger on how this should look, given that rosters look dramatically different every year, the Transfer Portal has created a lot of uncertainty and chaos.”
But, he suggested, why stop there?
“You know, quite frankly, I think the national polls at some point should follow suit, because it's almost impossible to put something out there that makes logical sense without knowing what rosters look like, and a lot of that is unfolding in the summer,” he said.
“You know, maybe the national polls should start ranking teams after the first month of college football. Like, let's let the result on the field and the product and the results do a little bit of the talking.”
That might make sense, but even if the power conferences get all the preseason notice, these things usually work themselves out over the course of the season.
All 25 spots in last season’s Associated Press preseason poll went to power conference teams.
Georgia was ranked No. 1, followed by Ohio State, Oregon, Texas, and Alabama.
‘Bama was one of 16 teams in the preseason rankings to miss the playoffs. Six of the top 12-ranked teams missed the 12-game tournament, too.
Florida State began ranked 10th and finished with a hideous 2-10 record.
On the flip side, Arizona State was picked to finish last in the Big 12 but finished 11-3 and received a first-round playoff bye.
Boise State was 28th in the preseason ranking but also received a playoff bye.
SMU was in that “also receiving votes” category but made the field.
I just wonder what the polls would say if USF pulls off the upset against Boise. We’d all love to find that out, wouldn’t we?