Preseason polls historically have not been kind to G5 programs like BYU Football.
Every year before the season starts the Associated Press and Amway Coaches Poll release their preseason top 25. Many people like to brush these off as interesting but not important until the games actually start, similar to spring practices, fall camp and other preseason activities. In fact, in a poll I conducted on twitter, 72% of you said preseason polls don’t matter.
72% of you are absolutely wrong.
The reality of these polls is that early season games carry a lot of weight that may or may not be artificial. While we can probably predict that Alabama will go 11-1 or better and that UMass likely won’t have any one score games, much of college football is a mystery. Nobody saw Coastal Carolina who was projected to finish last in their division last year go undefeated in the regular season.
Nobody saw Penn State starting off their season 0-5 or BYU defeating Navy by a billion points when they came in as underdogs.
The point is, while these polls are fun, they cause a lot of issues and offer zero solutions. While there are dozens of reasons why that is, I’m going to present the top four and then provide the solution to this problem.