In Defense of 'Resume Rankings'

New readers may not be aware of our controversial status in the Blogpoll. Controversial because many see our philosophy as unorthodox. First let me declare that Mergz and I believe that the current way college football is structured is FUBAR. The most important of college sports is also the one that relies on popularity and speculation to crown its champion. Let me also declare that it is impossible to accurately rank the top 25 teams out of 120, especially a couple of weeks into the season.

So Mergz has decided to try to remove as much subjectivity as possible out of our rankings for the Blogpoll (understanding that there will always be some). To that end the preseason Blogpoll is based on rankings of recruiting classes from the previous four years. Certainly there is subjectivity there, it's based on talent evaluations by third parties but for us it's a mechanical exercise.

Then, when the season begins, we start with a resume method. The teams with the most impressive resumes are ranked higher than those with less impressive resumes. And there is subjectivity here too. But there's one thing that isn't subjective: head-to-head results.

(Continue to Saurian Sagacity)

BYU Should Be No. 1, Period

If the people voting in the coaches poll were interested in rewarding performance on the football field, their rankings would look much different than they do.

As I’ve written before – and, like it or not, will write again – the coaches poll – one-third of the formula used to determine who gets to play for the BCS championship – is hopelessly tainted by preseason polls.

Each subsequent poll, beginning with the one released Tuesday after the first weekend of play, is merely a tweaking of worthless preseason expectations rather than a fair-minded evaluation of performance and performance only.

If voters had watched the first weekend of games with an open mind, their rankings would look something like this:

(Continue to More From Les)

Inside the 2009 Preseason AP Poll

The 2009 Preseason AP Poll was released on August 22nd along with all of the individual ballots. Once again Pollspeak salutes you, Associated Press, for having the stones to stay transparent. Before I get to the ballots, it’s interesting to note that every general point I made about the Preseason Coaches’ Poll (Inside the 2009 Preseason Coaches’ Poll ) holds true for the AP as well (although some minor details are a different):

* There are no Big East Teams in the top 25. This is the first time that has happened in the BCS era. Pittsburgh received the most votes (103), which puts it in the 28th spot.

* LSU had the largest jump of any team. The Tigers were unranked at the end of last season and jumped to No. 11 in the preseason, not quite as high as the Coaches’ No. 9, but it still shows a lot of faith that LSU will field a much better team in 2009.

(Continue to PollSpeak)