Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I believe that anyone with experience in this area over time would realize "Hey, I really can't do any better than anyone else, I may as well just sort of hoof it and do whatever strikes my fancy."  Maybe first timers spend effort looking at returning production etc. and put a lot of thought into it and learn over time it just doesn't help.

It's more guesswork than real analysis, and guesswork is often as good as any "real analysis" because not enough information is possible.  Their name will generate clicks, not their accuracy and predictive abilities, and they know this.

I will agree that newcomers probably put in a ton of effort because they think it matters.

I don't think it's lazy. I do think it's pointless. Especially in the free agency era. 

It might be one thing in the old system to look at teams that maybe did well last year and are low on returning starters, or teams who did poorly last year but were young, and really understand how the teams are likely to do this year with the departures/returnees. You have some young team maybe that finished 6-6 last year but you could see noticeable development through the year and you put them in your top 25 as a "surprise" team. Or you have a team that you think got lucky in a few very close games last year to finish at 10-2, returns their skill players but loses a bunch of big uglies in the trenches, so you fade them and don't include them at all. 

Seems to me now that it's more and more a crapshoot. You have to try to project a bunch of players based on what they did (or didn't) do at their LAST team, coming into a new system, based maybe on a spring game and coachspeak. I have to think in this new era of CFB, getting it right more often than not means getting lucky. 

Utah could end up being the best team in the Big 12, but that doesn't mean they are a top 10 team.

I predict Miami, aTm, Nebraska, KSU, Iowa and oSu will not finish in the top 25. 

Of those, Nebraska has the best chance to be there in the end, IMO, due to schedule. It's pretty soft, but the people doing the rankings are always swayed by records. They could easily be 7-0 before heading out to Columbus. I could see 9-3/10-2. But that doesn't mean they will make MY top 25.

We don't know what Bama is gonna be, post Saban. I mean, the GOAT. Could be a tough transition for them. Schedule is not a cakewalk by any stretch.

Sure, but the other tactic is to throw in a real outlier, like say Purdue at 20th, with some kind of bogus rationale.  You get non Purdue fans riled up over it.  

In 10 months, nobody remembers or cares.

I truly think any "expert" who spends more than an hour on these things is an idiot, or a pompous know it all who would try and get a prostitute in some west African country and negotiate, or try to, price.

College football's 15 toughest schedules in 2024, ranked (247sports.com)
College football's 15 toughest schedules in 2024, ranked (247sports.com)