I have never been more convinced...

[JungRebel]

That there should be no such thing as preseason polls. Start ranking the teams 9 to 10 weeks into the season. Perhaps at some point we'll have a playoff like the NFL has, where the polls mean little to nothing, each team knows exactly what it has to do to play for the championship, etc. I admit coming up with a system like that is beyond me but there must be someone smart enough to do it.

ETA: the speculation as to who will be ranked where upon the first ranking 9 to 10 weeks into the season would be great for sports talk, the conversations would have to revolve around who beat who, how they looked doing it, and NOT based off of teams' "potential."

 

[ColonelJohnSartoris]

That there should be no such thing as preseason polls. Start ranking the teams 9 to 10 weeks into the season. Perhaps at some point we'll have a playoff like the NFL has, where the polls mean little to nothing, each team knows exactly what it has to do to play for the championship, etc. I admit coming up with a system like that is beyond me but there must be someone smart enough to do it.

ETA: the speculation as to who will be ranked where upon the first ranking 9 to 10 weeks into the season would be great for sports talk, the conversations would have to revolve around who beat who, how they looked doing it, and NOT based off of teams' "potential."

I disagree. You're just upset that MSU is #1!!1!**


I'm fine with rankings, though. They help paint the narrative of entertainment throughout the year and give the games excitement. If we didn't know the relative ranking of teams, we wouldn't know which games to watch from week to week.

 

[FQDawg]

The only way to make early-season polls go away...

is to completely ignore them. Don't click on the links, don't read the stories, don't post about them, don't tweet about them.

As long as people are paying attention and talking about polls, they'll continue to exist.