Coaches rank Ohio State No. 1 and Texas No. 2

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2539278

And don't forget, YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT THE SCHE-GULE GUYS! They both meet in week 2. [/woody paige]

 

After looking at that poll, I think people are overlooking West Virginia again.

 

Yeah, they're definitley a top 5 team. I also think that Notre Dame should've been ranked higher than USC.

 

What day is the AP poll to be released?

 

What does the future schedule have to do with where teams are ranked right now?

 

No way in hell Texas is the second-best team in the nation. Not without a QB who hasn't taken one snap and Ramonce Taylor smoking out somewhere. Nor is USC the third-best, unless Booty reincarnates into Carson Palmer.

Notre Dame is probably about right, as is Ohio State. (Interestingly, the Domers end the regular season at USC on the Saturday after Turkey Day.)

OU was probably rated a little high before Bomar was booted, but now they certainly are. My prediction: Thompson will last the first game against UAB, and the first half of the Washington game before he gets pulled.

I can't really quibble with the rest, but I think Texas Tech is a sleeper. TCU vs. Tech is gonna be a treat.

 

Inky, you've just hit on the crux of a wonderful debate. Is the preseason poll a measure of where the teams are now? If so, on what is that based? How spring practice went?

Or are the polls projections of how they will finish?

I know writers who say it's a prediction, and I know other writers who say it's a measure of where they are now.

 

Aug. 19

 

Of course this was the coaches' poll, which really becomes the SIDs' poll because coaches tend to be busy this time of year.

 

When I've done basketball polls in the past, I've always voted based on how I think teams will finish. Isn't that also the point of preseason All-American teams?

 

Gotta parrot Colin Cowherd here: Iowa's schedule is cake; they'll finish in the Top 5.

 

Good point. Besides, I lost what little respect I had for the coaches' poll when said coaches gave Tom Osborne a retirement present that was worth so much more than just a gold watch in 1997.