The Associated Press released its preseason college football poll this week. We now know how everyone voted in it.
Ohio State emerged as the No. 1 team in the nation in the new poll after receiving 40 first-place votes from the 69 voters. They were already the No. 1 team in the previously released Coaches’ Poll, so it wasn’t much of a surprise.
Oregon similarly came in second on this poll after taking 14 first-place votes. They were second in the Coaches’ Poll too.
Georgia got third place in the ranking despite not receiving even a single first-place vote from the other 15 voters. Indiana received eight first-place votes but were relegated to sixth.
Notre Dame got six first-place votes, including the vote of ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis, and ranked fourth. Texas came in fifth and national title runner-up Miami came in seventh while receiving one first-place vote.
Here is the full list of AP voters and their preseason poll picks.
Does it matter?
Fans have been arguing for some time now that preseason polls are meaningless since there’s usually very little data over which players are even going to be playing, let alone how good they’ll be, before the first week is played.
Outside of the top five teams, which are all bringing back their Heisman-contending quarterbacks, it’s incredibly difficult to project which teams will be good.
And if there’s no data to support most of the rankings, the metrics of “ranked wins” early in the season becomes a little skewed.
Ultimately, preseason polls really only have value as a thought experiment and effort to predict how the season will play out.
But if these preseason polls get used to try and post hoc justify decisions when it comes to the College Football Playoffs, then it becomes less fun and more infuriating.
