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SEC Football: It’s time to do away with preseason rankings

By Ryan Sweigart

NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 19: Head coach Hugh Freeze of the Ole Miss Rebels watches from the sideline during a game against during the first half of a game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Vanderbilt Stadium on November 19, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - NOVEMBER 19: Head coach Hugh Freeze of the Ole Miss Rebels watches from the sideline during a game against during the first half of a game against the Vanderbilt Commodores at Vanderbilt Stadium on November 19, 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images) /
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Nothing gets arguments going quite like rankings. Where your school should be, why your rival should be lower, and so on.

Related: Six SEC teams in preseason coaches poll

Last week, the USA Today preseason rankings were released, and we are still a few weeks away from any football being played. These rankings might seem harmless, but they prematurely shape the way fans and the media perceives each school and the quality of wins early in the season.

Let’s take last year for example. The first weekend of the season saw preseason #5 LSU take on unranked Wisconsin. Wisconsin won a snooze fest 16-14 and the next week landed in the top 10. Wisconsin beat a good team, no doubt. But I don’t think anyone would argue that at any point in the 2016 season, LSU was a top 5 team.

Texas beat Notre Dame 50-47 in overtime last season. The Irish were preseason no. 1 and finished the season 4-8. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
Texas beat Notre Dame 50-47 in overtime last season. The Irish were preseason no. 1 and finished the season 4-8. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) /

Last year, the Big Ten was undoubtedly a strong conference. And whether or not Penn State should’ve gone to the playoff over Ohio State is another story (although it would have been tough to have a worse performance than the Buckeyes). However, the outcome of the LSU/Wisconsin game definitely shaped the perception of the Big 10 moving forward simply due to preseason rankings.

Alabama and Clemson were the clear no. 1 and no. 2 last year, for just about the entire season. It was easy to predict and imagine a rematch of the previous year’s title game, and it ended up being true. However, the rest of the preseason rankings didn’t mean anything. USC and Washington finished the season no. 3 and no. 4. Washington started at no. 14, while USC started at no. 20.

Ole Miss started was no. 11 in the preseason top 25 and ended up being a sub .500 team. Tennessee started in the top 10 and the only championship they won was that of life. Notre Dame was no. 10, until they got Texas’d and the Irish finished the year with 4 wins.

Ah, what a time. Texas, the unranked dog at home beating a “top-10” Notre Dame team in an OT thriller. Texas the next week made a Wisconsin-esque jump to no. 11. They finished with 5 wins and Charlie Strong was canned. Neither Texas nor Notre Dame should have ever sniffed a top-10 ranking last year.

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Preseason rankings are a thing of the past. Back in the day before the playoff, and even before the BCS, rankings were integral to crowning a national champion. Without them, it was much more difficult to determine who was the best team.

But now, we have a committee that ultimately decides which schools get to have a shot at the national championship. They should be putting the best four teams into the playoff, based off of what they see on the field. Preseason rankings have the ability to skew perception way too early in the season.

Seeing where your school stands before the season may give you hope and I admit, they are fun. But let’s hold off on rankings until week 4 or 5. That way we get a good idea on who’s for real and who’s not and try to avoid another “Texas is back!” episode.

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