Quote Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg View Post
Absolutely absurd & shows how dumb the entire ranking system is in college football.
College football team rankings with the press is all a popularity contest. As someone who at one time was a member of the sports press, I can tell you how the system works.

Votes are taken by the AP or UPI or USA Today either late Saturday or early Sunday. If a sports editor was like me and had to work Saturdays to put out a paper on Sunday, there really isn't any opportunity to watch any other games than those in your local area -- and only if those games were played before your work shift started. In the three years I was a sports editor I saw a total of ONE college game in person. As the one in charge I had to be at the paper putting it together while the reporters were at the actual games.

It was even worse if the games took place at night -- I would have to wait until 1 or 2 in the morning before the game stories came over the wire.

Rankings are based on reputation and fan base support. You could see it in how Parrish Alford didn't even vote for MSU this go around. The smaller, less reputation schools get notice only when they are making noise -- like when State was No. 1 -- and how fast they dropped when the team lost to Bama. I guarantee you most of the voting media was waiting for State to slip up and then they could downvote them.

If making a poll choice between a team you follow and one you know about you go with the one who has the most attention -- especially in high school polls when a paper in one location of the state knows nothing about teams in the other sections -- like the voting sports editor at the Sun Herald trying to logically compare Gulfport (a team he knows) vs South Panola (which he knows only in passing).

Poll rankings may be great for good feelings, but the only polls that matter in the end are wins and losses.