Josh Pate: The AP Poll is a complete disaster

[QuaoarsKing]

I think he really nails it. I've had a few conversations with voters over the years, and this attitude of "I don't have time to follow every game because I'm covering my own team" is common.

A lot of people will say it doesn't matter, but it does. Unlike Missouri and Auburn, we won't be included in any kind of "top 25" coverage or highlights this weekend. That's exposure we're missing out on.

If every voter had carefully considered us and at least not ranked Arizona State ahead of us (for now - it's possible that they could deserve to be ahead of us in the the future when there are more data points, but not this week), then fair enough. But most of the voters didn't put any thought into their ballots, and that's ridiculous.

 

[aTotal360]

There shouldn't be any sort of "official" poll until week 4.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

There shouldn't be any sort of "official" poll until week 4.

This.

 

[bulldognation]

There shouldn't be any sort of "official" poll until week 4.

Nobody knows for sure what’s going to happen with any specific team in the day and age of NIL and transfer portal until they’ve had a chance to play.
See Alabama, Texas week 1.
There’s too much bias and journalists can be lazy.

 

[The Cooterpoot]

There shouldn't even be an AP poll. Those guys are so bias they're blind.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

There shouldn't be any sort of "official" poll until week 4.

I agree, but if that's all they fixed, most of the same problems would still be there.

One "soft fix" I propose is once every ballot is submitted, each voter gets an email that tells them rankings that are way off from the consensus, or ones that aren't directly opposite of head-to-head results. So the voter who appears in this video would have been told "hey you ranked Florida #14 and didn't rank USF at all, but did you remember USF beat Florida yesterday?"

If a voter insists on standing by his/her ballot, fine, but a lot of them would probably correct them upon reminder (since they don't care anyway).

 

[mcdawg22]

Someone pointed out it’s week 3 and ND is #8 without winning a game.

 

[Chesusdog]

There shouldn't be any sort of "official" poll until week 4.

100% agree. Preseason rankings are completely worthless. They should just hold off and let the first few weeks of the season play put, then fire up the CFP rankings. AP and USA Today are irrelevant anyways, since CFP committee ultimately decides.

 

[The Peeper]

100% agree. Preseason rankings are completely worthless. They should just hold off and let the first few weeks of the season play put, then fire up the CFP rankings. AP and USA Today are irrelevant anyways, since CFP committee ultimately decides.

I agree but then they couldn't sell all of those worthless magazines w/ worthless polls in them and the worthless pods wouldn't have anything to discuss on their worthless shows.......

 

[anon1758050382]

Assuming we get to 4-0, State is going to be ranked pretty high just based on other people losing and State having a P4 win.

 

[11thEagleFan]

So I’ve heard of Josh Pate but color me unimpressed. This guy took 10 minutes to say what he could’ve said in 10 seconds. If I’m going to listen to a national show about sports, put me down for Dan Patrick or Rick Neuheisel. If we’re going local, Brian Hadad is killing it (his partner’s name on T&L escapes me, but he is good too).

 

[AttalaDawg72]

So I’ve heard of Josh Pate but color me unimpressed. This guy took 10 minutes to say what he could’ve said in 10 seconds. If I’m going to listen to a national show about sports, put me down for Dan Patrick or Rick Neuheisel. If we’re going local, Brian Hadad is killing it (his partner’s name on T&L escapes me, but he is good too).

Josh Pate has the best show for general college football in the country right now. Him not being a pompous ahole or a homer of certain teams also is good too.

 

[Howiefeltersnstch]

He is gonna get canceled by the powers that be

 

[patdog]

It would be nice to be in, but I can easily see why we're not. And I can see why ASU is ranked higher than us. One game doesn't change everything that's happened the last 2 years. And theoretically, if you lose to a team in the last 30 seconds of a game on the road, you probably are the better team on a neutral field. Rankings will take care of themself. If we beat Tennessee to go 5-0, we'll be top 15. But yeah, poll voters are lazy. So nothings changed in the last 50 years.

 

[aTotal360]

Preseason rankings are completely worthless.

I used to think that too, but they do unfortunately hold weight. It takes unranked teams 2-3 weeks longer to work their way up the polls vs a team that is already ranked in the top 15. If everyone is fighting to get into the top 12, those extra weeks could screw you.

Leave everyone unranked until after week 4. It gives everyone roughly the same starting position.

Ultimately, there is no perfect system because there are a billion teams and you only play a handful of them, so there has to be a lot of subjectivity in the equation.

 

[Felonious Junk]

Assuming we get to 4-0, State is going to be ranked pretty high just based on other people losing and State having a P4 win.

At 4-0 we would barely crack the top 25 if at all.

 

[Chesusdog]

I agree but then they couldn't sell all of those worthless magazines w/ worthless polls in them and the worthless pods wouldn't have anything to discuss on their worthless shows.......

Let me rephrase. The polls should not be recognized or acknowledged by the NCAA or CFP committee. They are fan fiction.

 

[cowbell88]

There shouldn't be any sort of "official" poll until week 4.

These are old antiquated ways, before the CFP poll. This is the only one that matters and comes out in week 6. All the others are just fluff.

 

[MSUDOG24]

So I’ve heard of Josh Pate but color me unimpressed. This guy took 10 minutes to say what he could’ve said in 10 seconds. If I’m going to listen to a national show about sports, put me down for Dan Patrick or Rick Neuheisel. If we’re going local, Brian Hadad is killing it (his partner’s name on T&L escapes me, but he is good too).

Indeed. Seems Josh needed some content so he scraped that woman off the internet and went on an 11 minute pointless rant calling everybody from the AP voters to the CFP committee and AD's stupid. Funny part was someone having to tell him there was a media guy on the committee. (we might need to check Josh's credentials). Concludes with I don't know what to do about.

Ralph Russo writes a weekly update on the AP poll for the Athletic I find interesting on how he thinks about his voting. He also has a pretty compelling argument why the preseason polls are important to help provide historical perspective on relative perception going into the seasons. If nothing else, it also provides content for the always fun guessing game "ranked in the 10 to start/unranked to end" or vice versa and we've now had the chance to say we beat a "ranked team" for the past 4 days.

Just part of what makes CFB, leave it alone.

 

[anon1768925248]

These are old antiquated ways, before the CFP poll. This is the only one that matters and comes out in week 6. All the others are just fluff.

It helps generate buzz and tv viewers prior to the CFP poll coming out. Casual viewer is more likely to tune into #5 vs # 8 in week 1 if there is a number beside the team name.

 

[DoggieDaddy13]

We are winning our next two very winnable games.

Therefore, we will be in the Top 25 when we play Tennessee. Just like the networks want. If Tennessee plays UGA close, they will still be in the top 15. If they could somehow beat UGA, they will be in the Top 5.

Golden opportunity.

Golden!!