It's A Mess

After another week of "upset" Saturday, we saw three top 10 teams fall in the rankings after humiliating loses. Penn State, who was ranked 5th in the AP Poll, loss again to Iowa for the 7th time in the last eight meetings between the two teams, and dropped to 15th in the nation. Cal, who was ranked 6th, was man-handled by Oregon at Autzen Stadium, and dropped to 24th in the nation. Miami, who was ranked 9th, was blown out by Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, and dropped to 17th. The rankings have been a mess with the exception of the the top three teams in the nation: Florida, Texas, and Alabama. Those three teams look like they'll be standing there by the end of the regular season. But are all the "upsets" because opponents have gotten better, or is there something with the rankings system?

The rankings are overrated, especially the first few weeks of the regular season. At least one top 5 team has lost every week since the season began, Penn State and Ole Miss(who lost last Thursday) being the latest victims. Teams themselves are overrated, and undeserving of the rankings they are set in the preseason and the first couple weeks of the regular season. National polls should not be sent out until after the fourth or fifth week of the season. For most teams the first three games are not against tough opponents nor conference opponents. The first third of the season can be categorized as Cinderella upsets, or "exhibition games" for Heisman hopefuls to pad their stats. Plus, Florida State seems to be playing flip-flop with the top 25 rankings. They lose to Miami in the first week, the drop from the rankings. They beat BYU, they jump to 18th in the nation. They lose to South Florida then dropped once again out of the rankings. The national polls are just a mess for the first four or five weeks of the season every single year.