First it was #3 Oklahoma, the Sooners felled by the Cougars of Brigham Young. Beaten out in a game that unveiled Jerry World and gave us the "stache, 2009". That upset was followed by The #5 Ranked Oklahoma State Cowboy's loss at home to the (then) unranked Houston Cougars. Then came #3 ranked USC beaten by injury and a former coach, who has taken a winless team from the prior year and molded them into a Top 25 contender.
Which brings us to last night, an ESPN game featuring another top 5 team on the road. This time it was #4 Ole Miss getting upset by a Steve Spurrier-coached team whose offense is more closely resembling a pop-gun, than the old Fun n' Gun featured at Florida.
What does all this prove?
That pre-season rankings are worthless. 100% worthless.
For that matter, so are any rankings that may be out there that are generated absent a head to head matchup.
While it's true that arguments against the B(C)S system took a body blow after BYU and Utah got thier helmets handed to them by Florida State and Oregon respectively, the utter irrelevence of the pre-season polls is the main reason why the system still has its detractors.
Notre Dame? A paper tiger. Built on the hopes and dreams of the considerable influence of their alumni base.
USC? Overrated every year. Ranked high because they recruit, and because everyone really likes Pete Carroll. What's not reported is that Mr. Carroll performs as poorly in spotlight games as does Jim Tressell.
Ole Miss? C'mon. They've got a stout defense, one REALLY good offensive player (McClusker almost single-handidly won that game last night) and a QB (Jevon Snead) who couldn't beat out Mark Sanchez and Colt McCoy respectively. Oh, they have a coach. Who's widely acknowledged as a genius, but who hasn't won anything to speak of. (yet, I'm a believer in Houston Nutt, and think he will eventually win something, although not this year)
About the only thing that we "know" right now is that Florida deserves to be ranked number one. This is not because of their play on the field this year, but because they are the defending champions and bring a lot of talent back. You can't be the man until you beat the man...and so on. Outside of that all of the top 25 rankings are meaningless. Especially the
Which is why the B(C)S still is in scramble mode, because it's basing its rankings on a poll with no connection to what fans are watching on TV. It's a mess of a system designed not to find a champion, but to find the most profitable matchups for the networks. It's big business come to an amateur sport whose governing body is insistent on ignoring the business surrounding the games.
In short, it's a mess, much like pre-season rankings.
I'll start ranking teams after week 5, when conference play is well underway and we have a better idea of who's where in the pecking order.
