pre-season rankings

it's a month til the season starts, but people are going crrrrrazy about college football already. including us ladiezzzz.

pre-season rankings

pre-season rankings are basically who you should look out for (in theory) in the coming season.

today USA Today came out with their top 25 picks, and my team is at the top.

take a look-see:

sometimes pre-season rankings are an absolute joke (Auburn was ranked 23ish before the 2010 season and went on to win the BCS National Championship, fabulous) while other times they're pretty on point (USC was the last team to start and end the season no. 1, in 2004. of course, they later had their championship title removed and they aren't allowed to go to any bowls because they effed up and decided to break all these rules. BUT ANYWAYS). basically, they should be taken with a grain of salt because EVERYTHING changes once games start and we start to see which teams are awesome and which teams suck balls.

polls

every week after all the games are over, USA Today and Associated Press come out with polls that show their top 25 teams for the week.

the USA Today poll is also known as the Coaches' poll. it compiles the votes from the Board of Coaches, which is made up of 59 division one football coaches. the more votes a team gets, the closer it's ranked to number one. easy as that. 

what's important about the USA Today poll, other than the fact that it's the only useful thing to come out of that Godforsaken publication, is that it's used in the BCS ranking system. which is incredibly important, because the BCS decides who plays in the five best bowls. a lot of people think the BCS is bullshit because it's so subjective and that NCAAF should employ a playoff system like they do in the NFL. but whatevs.

Associated Press poll has sportswriters from publications across the country rank their top 25 teams. these voters are made public. and they're not allowed to choose their faves - apparently, if AP thinks you're effing shit up on purpose, you're outta there. 

fact: before 1998, the AP used to decide who played in the national championship. 

so now that that's done with, let's break down the pre-season's top 25, shall we?

we shall.