Poll: Preseason football polls ... prediction, or current state of affairs?

Inspired by the thread on the USA Today coaches poll.

On what do you base your preseason vote, or if you don't have one, on what would you base it? Where you think teams will finish? Where you think teams are at this moment?

 

I voted other. It should be based on the hotness of cheerleaders and nothing else.

Seriously, it should be based on a combination of how we think they're going to do, based on their roster and their schedule.

 

Well, perhaps I worded it poorly and too simply, but if you vote a prediction of how the teams will finish, wouldn't that assume you are taking into account their rosters and their schedules?

 

Yes, you're right. Prediction. It's not a current state of affairs, legitimately, because you haven't actually played or proven anything.

 

I agree. But you'd be amazed at how many college beat writers I know who say it's not a prediction but a "starting point."

The difference in opinion is part of the basis for why I think the AP poll is outdated and either should go back to its origins -- the first poll runs after three or four games -- or go away. Thankfully it's no longer part of the formula for deciding who plays in the championship game. If the voters can't agree upon what the preseason poll means, isn't that a serious flaw?

 

I'm amazed by a lot of things college beat writers say.

 

How about "waste of time?"

 

Doesn't this illustrate how silly having a preseason poll is? If voters can't agree on what they're voting for, then what's the point in having one?

 

I voted for "A measure of teams' relative strength going into the season." You can't see how things are going to happen during the season -- injuries, suspensions, etc. The best you can do is rate the teams, based on how they enter the year, then allow teams to decide the rest on the field, where it should be decided.

 

How can you measure teams' relative strength when you have nothing but practice and intrasquad scrimmages to go on?

Polls should hold off until the end of September.

 

Returning starters, key losses, personnel issues, off-campus issues, spring practices ... it can be done with the proper amount of research.

 

On all 117 teams? Or just 50? Or just the usual suspects from year to year?