# Way too early College Football chatter **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 6, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504 "2014-07-06T23:24:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2014, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/1 "2014-07-06T23:24:59Z")
Consider your favorite conference, not the whole country, and indicate which team has the best chance of winning the conference. Which publisher’s pre-season rankings make the best sense to you? Which games are must-see for you on Opening Weekend? If it were up to you which teams would start the season in the Top Ten? ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/2 "2014-07-09T23:38:45Z")
To break this out of the 0-replies category, here’s a look at one set of [Preseason Rankings.](http://www.collegefootballpoll.com/preseason_comparison_2014.html) Are you amused yet? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8797f3/32.png) [@The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Universe_Lashes_Out)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/3 "2014-07-10T00:15:23Z")
All I can tell you is the answer to none of those questions involve the Florida Gators, so long as Will Muschamp is our head coach. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/4 "2014-07-10T01:36:17Z")
Here’s the [SEC Schedule](http://espn.go.com/college-football/conferences/schedule/_/id/8/sec-conference). Week 1 features some great games: Texas A&M @ South Carolina and Boise State v Ole Miss (neutral field) both on Thursday West Virgina v Alabama (neutral field), Wisconsin v LSU (neutral field) and Clemson @ Georgia on Saturday. Probably won’t be a great game, but Southern Miss @ MS State is significant, because these teams haven’t played in years. Southern Miss is sort of the odd man out in Mississippi college sports. Ole Miss and State get most of the money and “glory”. They also very much do NOT want to lose to Southern Miss. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/5 "2014-07-10T02:09:19Z")
Before anyone start bitching about preseason polls giving teams an unfair advantage, let the record reflect that Auburn was UNRANKED going into last season. And they got to the National Championship game. So the moral of the story is: **JUST WIN, BABY, JUST WIN** ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/6 "2014-07-10T02:28:16Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > **JUST WIN, BABY, JUST WIN** The 2004 Auburn team and Tommy Tuberville sigh wistfully… ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/7 "2014-07-10T02:46:37Z")
'Noles starting at #1, 'natch. Here’s hoping for a safe and uneventful 12-0 season (and another title!). ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/8 "2014-07-10T02:47:09Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > The 2004 Auburn team and Tommy Tuberville sigh wistfully… Maybe if they had played at least one BCS team (non conference) in the regular season they could have got to play in the BCS game (Louisiana Monroe, The Citadel, and Louisiana Tech) ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/9 "2014-07-10T02:56:07Z")
I’m surprised OU is rated that high preseason. Should be TOP TEN, sure, but not TOP FIVE I’m kind of liking Ohio Sate and Baylor this year. They should be interesting to watch. Who is in the running for the crown? I think we won’t be able to tell until midway. Florida State vs Oklahoma State (neutral field) looks like a possible fun game 8/30 [Six First Ever Matchups](http://www.fbschedules.com/2014/05/six-first-ever-college-football-matchups-2014/) ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/10 "2014-07-10T04:53:42Z")
Okay, ACC - Florida State Big10 - Ohio State PAC12 - Stanford SEC - Alabama And there’s your playoff teams. Oh, the Big12? Sorry, when they actually have 12 decent teams again then I’ll give a shit. Until then it’s the Big2andahalf conference. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/11 "2014-07-10T12:00:23Z")
Pete Carroll into [SoCal’s Hall of Fame](http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nfl/story/_/id/11191715/pete-carroll-seattle-seahawks-coach-inducted-usc-trojans-hall-fame). Incredible. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/12 "2014-07-10T12:33:18Z")
Hey, y’all! It’s great to see so many of you turning out this early in the season. If you will, take a look at [Week 1 CFB – Who stays in the AP Top Ten?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=700540) from 08-26-2013 and see that we have several weeks before that time this year during which time we should be able to come up with some improvements over last year’s fun with the games. Also look at [NCAAF Scores & Schedule – Top 25 FBS](http://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/scoreboard/) as a source for our first poll’s data. I welcome suggestions on how to broaden the appeal of these things. We had a good solid group of regulars last year and I’d like to hope we can attract more participants this time. Ideas? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/13 "2014-07-10T12:51:53Z")
> [@Zakalwe](#): > > Okay, > > ACC - Florida State > Big10 - Ohio State > PAC12 - Stanford > SEC - Alabama > > And there’s your playoff teams. > > Oh, the Big12? Sorry, when they actually have 12 decent teams again then I’ll give a shit. Until then it’s the Big2andahalf conference. I know! Worst since just before raiding the old SWC. ACC looks interesting this year. I think I may be watching a lot of them and SEC, if I can find the feeds online. Will be asking here for that a lot ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/14 "2014-07-12T03:16:54Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > I welcome suggestions on how to broaden the appeal of these things. We had a good solid group of regulars last year and I’d like to hope we can attract more participants this time. > > Ideas? College football is a niche market on this board. I think you’re getting participation from most of the fans, there just aren’t that many of us. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/15 "2014-07-12T03:30:09Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > College football is a niche market on this board. I think you’re getting participation from most of the fans, there just aren’t that many of us. Afraid you’re right, **Oak**. I looked back at last year’s polls by week on the Top Ten teams and the total number of participants (albeit with 8 who contributed 5 weeks or more) was 42, with 25 only showing up one week. How do you feel about starting early, even before the AP Preseason rankings come out, and using last year’s final BCS rankings as a way to select the Top 10 or 25? That link three posts back could be the basis for the first poll if we went that way. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/16 "2014-07-12T03:54:49Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > That link three posts back could be the basis for the first poll if we went that way. I just looked at that link. Wow. I want some of whatever they were smoking. Hard to argue Florida St and Auburn 1-2, but Michigan State, South Carolina, and Missouri at 3-4-5? WTF? South Carolina and Missouri might not even be 4-5 in the SEC. Auburn, Bama, LSU, Georgia, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M are all going to be good this year… ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/17 "2014-07-12T04:02:56Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > I just looked at that link. Wow. I want some of whatever they were smoking. Hard to argue Florida St and Auburn 1-2, but Michigan State, South Carolina, and Missouri at 3-4-5? WTF? South Carolina and Missouri might not even be 4-5 in the SEC. Auburn, Bama, LSU, Georgia, Ole Miss, and Texas A&M are all going to be good this year… It was BCS, believe it or not. Much magic. But when you look at such things as [Preseason Prediction Accuracy (2013)](http://preseason.stassen.com/prediction-accuracy/2013.html) it’s easy to see that the preseason rankings are precious little more than crapshoots. Even the AP and Coaches. But you have to start somewhere, I guess, unless you want a bodacious poll of all of the FBS teams, even though something like 60 of them will have losing seasons. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/18 "2014-07-12T15:24:53Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > Here’s the [SEC Schedule](http://espn.go.com/college-football/conferences/schedule/_/id/8/sec-conference). > > Week 1 features some great games: > > Texas A&M @ South Carolina and Boise State v Ole Miss (neutral field) both on Thursday > > West Virginia v Alabama (neutral field), Wisconsin v LSU (neutral field) and Clemson @ Georgia on Saturday. SEC teams playing in Georgia and in Houston TX against teams from Idaho, WV and Wisconsin strike me as being neutral fields in name only. Twenty years ago Notre Dame hoops used to play an annual game Kentucky on a supposedly neutral court in Louisville KY. Same thing. Not really neutral at all, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/19 "2014-07-12T16:52:16Z")
Whether it’s kosher or not, maybe we could add our own comments and observations on [this old article and its predictions about the AP Preseason Rankings](http://www.collegefootballcafeteria.com/rankings/2014-college-football-preseason-rankings/) here instead of at their website. If you choose to do so, why not tag your remarks with “Cafeteria” just in case they Google us. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504/20 "2014-07-12T17:01:14Z")
> [@The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](#): > > All I can tell you is the answer to none of those questions involve the Florida Gators, so long as Will Muschamp is our head coach. Sigh. Hey, now now… as a Georgia fan, I say you should give The Operative… I mean Coach Muschamp some time. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/way-too-early-college-football-chatter/692504.md?page=2)