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

Folks do find polls interesting.  They complain about them, of course, they think their team should be 11th instead of that ridiculous 14th.  It's another aspect of entertainment.  I don't even know where UGA is ranked.

I don't know when they started but I see ESPN now ranks baseball teams (MLB).  It gets amusing when some team barely makes the playoffs as a WC and then "gets hot" and runs the table and they sorta have to move them from 8th to first when clearly they are not that great.

But they are the playoff champions ... of the world.

youre starting to sound like OAM

As I've gotten older, I've grown more fascinated with the fact that they don't count and many people just cannot ignore them in a real way.

Oh, but they do count.  In the old days (BCS era and before) they definitely counted, and USC/LSU and Neb/Mich can attest that they counted.  Hell, UCF still counts theirs.  

What I'm getting at is we should place less emphasis on the polls.  When they preview a game, it should only be something like 2-0 Alabama vs 2-0 Texas, or 4-2 Auburn vs 6-0 LSU.  The media should do away with presenting the polls as some kind of rock of Gibraltar stereotype.  I realize that it is asking a lot, but if we're truly going to go to a 12 team playoff, or more, what real reason do the polls serve?  

Oh, but they do count.  In the old days (BCS era and before) they definitely counted, and USC/LSU and Neb/Mich can attest that they counted.  Hell, UCF still counts theirs. 

What I'm getting at is we should place less emphasis on the polls.  When they preview a game, it should only be something like 2-0 Alabama vs 2-0 Texas, or 4-2 Auburn vs 6-0 LSU.  The media should do away with presenting the polls as some kind of rock of Gibraltar stereotype.  I realize that it is asking a lot, but if we're truly going to go to a 12 team playoff, or more, what real reason do the polls serve? 

The AP poll hasn’t counted since 2004. The BCS died a decade ago. No poll even put UCF No. 1. Even the CFP rankings are just silly filler. Every poll that has come out since 2014 is functionally for funzies (for us)


But you’re talking about the media doing away with presenting them in such a way. First, I don’t think it’s presented has hard and fast. It’s just for hype. And that’s the issue. The polls exist for two main reasons: they allow channels to hype games and people really, really consume them. So the producers keep making them. The only way to make that stop is to stop demanding polls by caring about them. If everyone gave them an “oh, that’s nice, whatever,” they’d start drying up and fading away.

I think the "Average Fan" likes rankings (I should start a thread about stupid rankings...).  Fans of teams that received votes but didn't make 25 are looking up hoping X Y and Z lose and they beat Q badly enough to slide up to 18, or 21.  Then there is the claim your team ended ranked 18 of the last 20 seasons, or beat 3 ranked (at the time) teams that season.  The last one is absurd of course.  "Hey, we beat 5 ranked teams (3 of which ended up with losing records and another ended up 7-5)."

The AP poll hasn’t counted since 2004. The BCS died a decade ago. No poll even put UCF No. 1. Even the CFP rankings are just silly filler. Every poll that has come out since 2014 is functionally for funzies (for us)


But you’re talking about the media doing away with presenting them in such a way. First, I don’t think it’s presented has hard and fast. It’s just for hype. And that’s the issue. The polls exist for two main reasons: they allow channels to hype games and people really, really consume them. So the producers keep making them. The only way to make that stop is to stop demanding polls by caring about them. If everyone gave them an “oh, that’s nice, whatever,” they’d start drying up and fading away.

There is more than one poll, and some put UCF at #1.  The polls may not count directly toward anything but don't tell me they have a huge indirect influence on the overall status quo WRT College Football, helmet teams, etc.  
The polls are kinda like paper money. On their own, they're worthless.  But because of social agreement between you and me and the US gov't we accept it for payment.  

We don't need the polls anymore, they serve no purpose other than tradition and CFB is about the only place they are even used.  

What other gems have you mined for the congregation today? He didn't suggest anything remotely close to that,are you taking peyote buttons and playing with ouija boards again?

Great, 2 more of you are being oblivious.

Okay, the premise was that the 4 conf champs of the SEC, B1G, ACC, and XII get in the playoff.
2 of them are champions of very strong leagues and the other 2 are champions of weak leagues.
The 2 weak league champs had an easier path to the playoff than the strong league champs.

That is akin to their running 70m (easier) vs 100m (tougher).
Sorry, I have to spell out things for kids all day.  Doing it for adults in my free time isn't fun (honestly, not a shot at you, just a fact).