Despite shortcomings, college football preseason polls serve a valuable purpose

The preseason edition of the Coaches Poll top 25 came out this week. And as usual, we're hearing the same chorus of complaints that these rankings should be abolished.

To hear coaches talk about it, these polls create unearned gaps in perception between the teams valued in the preseason and those that are not. Rapidly changing rosters have only made pinning down the best teams even harder.

Earlier this year, the Big 12 became the latest conference to get rid of its formal preseason media poll. The Big Ten has not done one in years, and other Group of Five leagues follow suit. They don't want preseason perceptions tainting final poll results.

"When the CFP comes out, that's when the first AP and USA Today poll should come out," Kansas State coach Chris Klieman told CBS Sports. "The narrative tells you everything, and unfortunately, that's not great for the Big 12. It's probably not great from the ACC. You know, it's just not."

College football rankings: Texas leads the way, Penn State tops Ohio State in preseason CBS Sports 136

The argument isn't wrong, but it's incomplete. While preseason polls have plenty of frustrating shortcomings, they're vital tools that provide real benefits for the sport.

Now let's be clear, bigger brands have advantages in the preseason rankings. According to a Stassen analysis, between 1989 and 2003, USC, Texas and Oklahoma were the most overranked preseason teams in the country. The top five power conference schools who were most underranked in the preseason polls all play in the Big 12 (Utah, TCU, Cincinnati, Kansas State and BYU).

However, it's naive to think that eliminating the polls will simply mean the general public will view all 136 FBS teams as equals heading into the season. Ironically, getting rid of rankings would likely consolidate perception around big brands even more.

Klieman's Wildcats are a perfect example of a team that will actually benefit greatly from preseason polls in 2025. They open the season in Dublin, Ireland against Iowa State in Week 0. The battle will have major Big 12 and College Football Playoff implications and should be one of the best early season matchups in the country. In the Coaches Poll, it's a highly-rated matchup between No. 20 Kansas State and No. 21 Iowa State. We can quibble that the 'Cats should be higher, but it's a meaningful national game.

To the contrary, Alabama opens the season on the road against Florida State in Week 1. On paper, that sounds like a marquee battle of historic powers. In reality, it's an inconsistent post-Nick Saban Crimson Tide playing against a Seminoles squad hoping to recover from a disastrous 2-10 campaign in 2024. In the Coaches Poll, it's No. 8 Alabama vs. 48th-place vote getter Florida State. The game is, honestly, irrelevant.

Think about it from the perspective of those who market and broadcast the game. How can you really sell to the casual fan that Kansas State-Iowa State is a bigger and better game than Alabama-Florida State? The rankings create that context. Without them, the pendulum would actually swing further towards big brands.

And let's be clear, it's not the job of coaches to worry about the rankings. All they should want is to put their team in the best position possible. The polls aren't for them, though, and their perspective should only be one of many.

In addition to improving the entertainment and marketability of the sport, rankings are a critical piece of historical context. Let's go back to Florida State last season. The Seminoles had major expectations coming into 2024 and were seen by most as a national contender. Instead, they went 2-10 and became the first AP Top 10 team in history to lose two games before the first in-season ranking. Without the preseason poll, there'd be no real way to understand or explain how astonishing Florida State's collapse was.

This year, Texas enters the season ranked No. 1 in a preseason poll for the first time. Despite the Longhorns' blue blood status, the rankings give true context to just how much anticipation surrounds their 2025 campaign.

To look the other direction, 2021 Cincinnati entered the preseason poll at No. 8. It allowed them to shoot up the rankings and build enough credibility to earn a trip to the College Football Playoff. There are many such other cases that help build stories and draw attention to teams that would otherwise fly under the radar.

College football is so often about seeing incredible things happen for the first time ever. We need more pathways to build that legend, not less.

To circle back to our top test case, the Big 12 eliminated the preseason poll after Arizona State went from picked last place to winning the league. In between, it took 10 games for Arizona State to reach the AP Top 25. They didn't reach the top 10 until appearing in the College Football Playoff against Texas.

Would Arizona State have finished higher in the final College Football Playoff rankings if they started in the AP Top 10? Maybe. But preseason poll didn't hurt the Sun Devils' case nearly as much as early losses to Texas Tech and Cincinnati.

Arizona State had to fight their way to the top because their resume wasn't any good until the month of November. And it only improved because the Sun Devils had other highly-ranked teams on their schedule to beat and move up. Going from picked last to the College Football Playoff should be a moment we celebrate and talk about forever, not an albatross.

"Sports are about controversy," Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham told CBS Sports. "How do you have controversy if people don't pick polls?"

And ultimately, that's the point.

College football is an entertainment product and the polls exist to serve and market the sport we love so much. The perception gap will always be a frustration and problem in college sports, where there are 136 teams in FBS playing such disparate schedules. But ultimately, the preseason polls help us tell the story of the game far more than they hurt.

Can you imagine a college football world without clear expectations and underdogs? Frankly, it's one I don't want to live in.