[Update]: Here's hhow the final preseason BlogPoll looks. Texas is right in the same vicinity according to SB Nation writers as they are according to the coaches and the AP. --GoBR
What's the preseason without another attempt to make a bunch of guesses (or merely follow the established consensus) in determining the best 25 college football teams in the country?
I'm back again to give it another stab at doing the week Top 25 poll for BON. As the season progresses, I will do my best to have a bias towards on-the-field results rather than through predetermined sorting, so September's polls could look rather odd as some teams won't really have serious chances to impress voters until conference play begins. By the end of the season, though, I would imagine my ballot will more or less resemble whatever conventional wisdom exists.
In the meantime, the official BON Preseason Top 25 ballot and a fun reader poll wait for you after the jump.
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This isn't meant to be a protest. It's a simple recognition of the reality that preseason rankings are not only worthless in their seeking to rank teams based on nothingness but are also potentially harmful in their tendency to set teams in a predetermined order which can be hard to break from (see: USC-OU-Auburn 2004) regardless of what transpires on the field.
So I turned in a blank ballot. I suppose it's better than my other idea: ranking all SEC teams in the 1-14 slots and leaving the rest of the ballot blank.
We'll be back after Week One with an attempt to sort through the mostly-meaningless slate of opening weekend money games. Peter or Wescott or someone more knowledgeable than I will fill out next week's ballot, as I'll be offline for a few days as I move into a greatly-expanded Hopkins Horn Manor, and I'll return after Week Two with the full slate of randomness and sheer ignorance (Texas To The Big 10!!!) you've come to expect of me.
In the meantime, please use the comments section to discuss who you anticipate will be in Miami playing for all the marbles this January. (The options in the poll are based on the Top 10 in both the preseason AP and USA Today polls.)