USA Today released its Coaches preseason college football poll, which has the Internet and the sports talk shows buzzing. And that’s OK, as long as you realize that the preseason poll and the one that will come out after the bowls and playoffs in January will bear little, if any, resemblance.
And I know what some of you are thinking: Who better to rank the teams in the preseason than the coaches themselves?
Answer: Just about anybody.
Rick Cleveland
The coaches are biased in favor of their own teams, their own conferences and their own sections of the country. They see less football around the country than practically anyone because they are so wrapped up in their own teams in their own leagues. Not that they actually make the selections themselves, at least not many of them do. Most delegate the poll picking to someone in their sports information offices or someone on their operations staff. How do I know this? Because coaches often have told me just that.
As for the accuracy of the preseason coaches poll, let’s take a quick look at last year’s. Here’s what you need to know about that….
Stay updated on Mississippi sports. Sign up for Rick Cleveland’s monthly newsletter.
Processing… Success! You’re on the list. Whoops! There was an error and we couldn’t process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.
Alabama was picked to win the national championship, garnering 55 of a possible 66 ballots for the No. 1 team in the country. But Bama lost twice in the regular season, both times to teams (Tennessee and
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Read original article by clicking here.