The advent of NIL and the transfer portal has already made gauging the "best" teams in early August nearly impossible, and as the jaw-dropping 2025 Indiana Hoosiers championship season demonstrated, the modern era has created more surprise teams than in the past.
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era → make → past
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page → contain → partners
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News → sign → wager
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that → create → newsroom
And one prominent offensive coordinator thinks we should get rid of them entirely.
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we → think → them
Miami Hurricanes OC Shannon Dawson recently addressed the preseason polls, specifically addressing how they consistently seemingly favor one specific conference.
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they → address → conference
A conference that already more often than not gets the benefit of the doubt from poll voters.
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that → get → voters
"First of all, there should be no such thing as preseason rankings," Dawson said during a press conference.
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Dawson → say → conference
"That’s the most ridiculous thing on the planet.
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That → ’ → planet
That is the stupidest thing, because people weigh those things way heavier than they should.
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they → weigh → things
"You shouldn’t have a ranking until October.
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You → have → October
How do you know?
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you → know → ?
(Texas) A&M was ranked in the top-five, but how does that look right now?
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that → rank → five
If anything, it isn’t predictable for the future, it’s the past.
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it → ’ → future
I did.
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I → do → ?
It's impossible to argue with that, because it's true.
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it → argue → that
And despite A&M, and others, looking far worse than their preseason expectations, the first few weeks of games and rankings reflect that initial set.
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weeks → look → set
Texas A&M loses to LSU, which must mean LSU is good, because A&M was a preseason top-5 team.
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A&M → lose → LSU
Missouri was ranked in the preseason, for some reason, which must mean Mississippi State is also good, because they beat a preseason top-25 team.
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they → rank → team
Obviously the preseason poll doesn't only affect one conference; Big Ten teams like Michigan, Penn State and Washington have looked far worse than preseason polls suggested.
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polls → affect → Michigan
On the other hand, though, Nebraska and Wake Forest have received little attention and respect from voters, despite deserving it, because they didn't start the year in the top-25.
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they → receive → top-25
Dawson continued, specifically calling out the SEC and how those teams fluctuate from week-to-week.
"
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teams → continue → week
So we sit here and look at schedules, and obviously everything is SEC, SEC.
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everything → sit → schedules
Well look… they have all of their teams in the top-25.
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they → look → top-25
That’s just the way it is.
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it → ’ → ?
We can’t sit here and say, ‘hey, we play X number of top-25 teams’.
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we → sit → teams
We don’t know that.
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We → know → that
We’ll count those chips up at the end of the year.
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We → count → year
"That’s why there shouldn’t be rankings, because you give people talking points that are idiots.
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that → ’ → points
They don’t know what they’re doing.
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they → know → what
It's like Dawson's been reading a certain OutKick writer's columns complaining about the polls each week.
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Dawson → read → polls
Voters are humans, and humans are biased.
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humans → bias → ?
They don't always watch all the games, and some have even forgotten to rank elite teams like Miami periodically.
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some → watch → Miami
Some, like ESPN's Heather Dinich, post about the importance of winning "SEC road games," as if that some sort of remarkable achievement.
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that → post → achievement
Her specific example, Kentucky, beat a bad Texas A&M team and a bad South Carolina team.
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example → beat → team
Why should that be rewarded by placing the Wildcats at No. 17, just because it's the SEC and those teams have big stadiums?
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teams → reward → stadiums
At the end of the day, using a blend of analytics and efficiency driven rankings would lead to a better result than trusting voters.
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using → use → voters
Especially before anyone's even seen teams play on the field.
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teams → see → field
But because there are vested interests who want preseason polls to continue, they will.
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they → be → ?
Many valuable college football traditions have gone by the wayside in the modern game, but somehow not that one.
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traditions → go → game
The Aporia
