Just caught this article, not sure how old it is though: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/preview07/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=2980407 The point system itself seems pretty objective, only problem is garbage in garbage out... Still it kinda validates (not truly causal) what many say about starting high in the poles helps you in the end. Later, Fur
It was posted and buried within this thread: http://www.tigerforums.com/showthread.php?t=56912 However, this article hits on something very broken with the system. The preseason poll should not be a "predictor" for where a team is going to finish the season. When a person uses there preseason poll to try to predict where a team will finish, they take the schedule into account. This is unfair. What happens if you think Team A and Team B are equally talented, but Team A plays a tougher schedule? Do you put Team B higher because they are more likely to win out? This is a double penalty to Team A. If both teams go unbeaten, Team B will finish on top because they were given better poll position, even though Team A has put together the better resume. Preseason polls should have no look at a schedule involved. Ideally, they should be only a gauge of how good a team is right then.
I like (and was suprised) that he pointed out that two unranked preseason teams for the last ten years have ended up in the top ten every season. That number seems very unlikely, yet shows what is great about CFB.
For all this talk about ND being overrated by all the ND haters, ND isn't even on the list of overrated teams. And, in fact, the article pointed out that LSU has been more overrated in that timespan.
