The polls close after dinner: 3 o'clock

I hate preseason college football polls. In the college game, where about 30% of your team turns over every year, it’s impossible to try to predict a team’s potential before even playing a game. I know that most prognosticators look at how they performed last year, who they lost, what sort of recruits they brought in, etc. But it’s so inexact that it’s laughable to even try. Normally I wouldn’t bother even criticizing the preseason poll, except for one major thing: Where a team starts has a LARGE affect on where they may end up at the end of the season. Take 2004 as an example. Auburn went undefeated (no small feat in the SEC), but since they started the preseason ranked #17, they had a long hill to climb to the top of the polls. Meanwhile USC & Oklahoma, ranked #1 & 2 respectively in the preseason, just had to keep winning in order not to get jumped.

There’s another issue with preseason polls that bother me. Are they supposed to project where a team will finish the season? Or as a starting point based solely on talent and expectations before the first ball is even snapped? If it’s a projection, than I would take issue with anyone who puts Georgia #1. Their schedule has them playing at Arizona St, at LSU, vs. Florida in Jacksonville, and at Auburn. If they come out unscathed from those games, they deserve to be called the team of the century. But if we’re basing the polls on talent, then I can easily see Georgia #1 (although with all their suspensions and injuries they’ve had this preseason, maybe they shouldn’t).

So I’m not going to bore you with a preseason poll of my own. I will, however, post my picks for each conference winner, as well as my predicted BCS bowl games. I'll try to have updates each week, and by October maybe I'll even throw in my own weekly poll. The season starts Saturday for me, with VT heading to Charlotte to play ECU. A lot of national prognosticators are picking the Pirates to upset the Hokies. It should be a good game.

ACC: Virginia Tech
SEC: Florida
Big Ten: Ohio St.
Big 12: Oklahoma
Big East: South Florida
Pac 10: USC
MWC: BYU
CUSA: East Carolina
MAC: Miami (OH)
Sun Belt: Florida Atlantic
WAC: Fresno St.

BCS Championship Game: Ohio St. vs. Florida
Rose Bowl: USC vs. Wisconsin
Sugar Bowl: Georgia vs. South Florida
Orange Bowl: Virginia Tech vs. Missouri
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs. BYU