The defending national champion should be #1 entering the season. They should remain there unless they are beat or their performance shows they don't belong there. We saw last year what being #1 during the season means: It puts you in the title game and that's all.
Not saying this is the case with Bama, but if a team loses a large number of people who made them #1 they should not get the automatic bid to start #1 the next season.
This is true. Each season is a new campaign, and I don't think the NC should automatically get top billing.
As you can see from our schedule, the pollsters know their football. They knew we had players with crazy talent coming back. They knew that even our young guys get reps in critical situations in ball games. They knew that these athletes are getting incredible coaching and are playing in the toughest conference and in the biggest arenas, on the largest stage. So if your team is the national champ, has players that can leap tall buildings and are so fast they can hit the light switch and be in bed before it gets dark, then go ahead and vote them #1 in the preseason poll.
And when they give up 6 sacks versus Western Kentucky, you think about dropping them a notch or two . . .
Can't remember which announcer said it, but they said if the defending national champ is in the top 5 to start the year, that they should be able to "defend" their championship. Meaning, they should start the year #1. The qualifier being, if they are a top 5 team to start with. I actually agree with this. However, if another top 5 team appears to be better or has beaten better competition, I find no fault in vaulting that team over the defending champ after a game or games.
Preseason. Once the season begins, so begins the "eye test." Apparently, it's USC who are straining the retinas at this moment. Alabama, more of a teaching moment. As R-Kansas just demonstrated, it takes but a moment to lose a ton of preseason good will.
