Penn State is still in the top ten? Really?

[ProudUte]

Not only are pre-season ranking worthless – they cause problems.  Penn State all but lost to App State.  Do they deserve a top ten ranking?  I don’t think so.  I can see if we were 6 weeks into the season and they had 5 solid victories under their belt.  You could say, “This was an aberation, they have already shown what they can do.”  But, they have shown nothing.  But, because they are Penn State and they still managed to win – they take no significant hit in the polls.  This is nonsense IMO.

If Utah struggled with App State – we would not get any votes and probably rightfully so.

I am not suggesting Utah should be ranked right now.  I just don’t know if they deserve it or not.  They still have to prove they deserve to be there.  Other rankings that seem unjustified after week one are:  USC at 12, Michigan State at 13 and Miami at 22.  Everything else seem fair enough based on the little we know right now.  If Boise gets by OK State, they will likely be undefeated and end up in the top ten.  They will remain that way because they have no real competition after that game.

[Ute Bc]

Could not agree more.  If you have to go to OT to beat App St. you are NOT a top 10 team.  I really wish they had no pre-season rankings until the first 4 games have been played.  

[Wilson’s Mustache]

Rankings are a combination of perception and reality. Do they deserve to be in the Top Ten? Probably not after that game, but the reality is they are still probably a top 10 team realistically or at least a top 15 team. 

Did they play like it, absolutely not, but crazy things happen. Think of the teams Utah has lost to in the past. Plenty of teams they shouldn’t have struggled with and did.

Yes, this is the flaw of pre-season rankings. Especially when its purely done by humans. At least the BCS incoporated computer rankings.

[Stone]

This is why I have no qualms with Utah being given a share of the national championship in 2008. The polls are so biased and weighted toward traditional powers that they lose credibilty. This is why the majority of fans hated the BCS. Until the championship is decided wholly on the field via a playoff, any team that wins every game on its schedule has a valid claim as national champion.

[pedro]

It’s all BS.  FSU, who went 7-6 last year ranked 19 to start the season.  Based on what?  WV, who by my recollection, got waxed by some little old team from Utah in the Heart of Dallas bowl started the year and also finished 7-6 started the season at 17th and is now 14th after beating a badly overrated FSU?  WTF?  

Yet the lowly Utes, who also finished 7-6 and beat one of the aforementioned teams to end 2017 started off unranked and still reside there.  

[KiYi-Ute]

To be fair, the WV team we beat was without their legitimate Heisman contender in Will Grier, who sat out with injury. Now that he’s back and healthy, their preseason ranking makes sense to me.

[TheJuggernaut]

Honestly who cares about the rankings at this point, the only rankings that matter are the CFP Committee rankings, and those don’t come out until week 9, at which point there will be plenty of data to base rankings on.

Penn St plays both Ohio St and Michigan St before the first CFP rankings come out, so we’ll see if they’re really a top ten team or not.

[Tony (admin)]

Fans

[TheJuggernaut]

I’m a fan and I don’t see any reason for all the hand wringing over the rankings. They simply don’t matter at this point.