USC Opens at Number 1
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by Nejoshi
As much as we hate to admit it, college football’s preseason poll that recently was released will have an overwhelming effect on the happenings on this year’s season. The USC Trojans easily grabbed the top spot in the inaugural 2007 USA Today Poll, grabbing 45 out of a possible 60 place votes to clear the second-ranked LSU Tigers by a comfortable margin of 109 points.
College football has received its fair share of criticism for its counter intuitive method of using subjective tools to determine its football champion, and no element is more a part of that tainted method than the human polls. Because voters use their preseason polls as a template for how they vote the entire season, it makes the recently released poll a profound element of who will be taking the field in the BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans on January 8, 2008.
Need evidence? Just look at what the polls did three seasons ago when USC and Oklahoma were ranked 1 and 2 respectively in the opening preseason poll, while the Auburn Tigers, a team with potential in the tough SEC, was ranked all the way down at 18. We all know what happened as all three teams finished undefeated, and the Tigers were left out of the National Championship party simply based on an inferior preseason ranking. All of Auburn’s impressive wins in the SEC – including victories against Tennessee twice and LSU – were overlooked in favor of what the coaches and media thought preseason. Auburn’s impressive 13-0 season was lost amid what the preseason poll said, and the Tigers were left without any part of the national championship, despite one of the most impressive regular seasons in memory.
Although the computer polls are convoluted and harder to understand than the straightforward human polls, they are essentially the same thing. The brain trust of the BCS put the onus on coaches and the new Harris Interactive Poll to determine whom the best teams of college football are. Two thirds of the BCS is determined by the two “human” polls, with the other third comprised of the average of several computer rankings.
USC inherited the top spot on the heels of last year’s impressive 32-18 Rose Bowl Game triumph over Michigan, who starts at the #5 spot in the poll. Their poll position puts them at prime position to make it to New Orleans for a shot at the national championship. Led by John David Booty, a trendy preseason Heisman Trophy favorite, USC will be fielding a juggernaut on the offensive side of the ball. On defense, the Trojans will be as strong as ever with 10 starters returning to a team that was the team’s strength for long portions on the 2006 team.
Even though the preseason polls are largely overlooked as unimportant in the general public’s eye, at least one team that was ranked in the top two of the preseason poll has managed to make it to the national championship. These teams have managed to make it there due to a favorable preseason ranking, just worrying about winning games instead of having to impress the voters.
The BCS has proved to be an ever evolving process that has changed to due to inaccuracies over its past, but when a team like Boise State, which finished last season as the only undefeated team in the nation, is left out of any shot at the national championship, there is something inherently wrong is wrong with the system.
The Broncos begin the upcoming season at #23, hoping to continue their reign as college foaotball’s most prominent mid-major. Only two mid-majors have managed to crash the BCS party, with the Broncos one of them. Boise State scored fans across the country with their amazing 43-42 win over Oklahoma in last year’s Fiesta Bowl, and will definitely be one of the teams on the radar for another BCS bid this year.
The 2007 college football season kicks off Thursday August 30, with several games on the plate, including #2 ranked LSU traveling to SEC foe Mississippi State. The top-ranked Trojams begin their season on September 1 against the Idaho Vandals, a cupcake opponent from the WAC.
