ROUNDTABLE: POLL ME OVER, ROMEO

So this week’s Blogpoll roundtable is, natch, about polling. Not a snap taken in live action yet, so it’s clearly still open season on second- or third-order discourse. This week’s Table is courtesy of The House Rock Built. I’d offer them “mad props,” but I’m not a nationally syndicated sports-talk radio host.

1. What’s the biggest ripoff in this preseason poll? Either pick a team that’s offensively over or underrated, or you can rag on a particular voter’s bad pick (hey, we’re all adults here, we can handle it).

I don’t get the love for Cal. I mean, I’m as guilty of overrating them as anyone, I guess, but (a) when has a Tedford team ever proven itself to be ‘elite,’ and (b) what makes us all so sure that this year is different? It’s still another case of “run quarterback subroutine.” We’ll all drool over their offensive numbers, and they’ll still lose three to five games. I can’t imagine them winding up in the top 10 at the end of the season, and I hate myself because I’ve got them at #11 right now.

2. What shold a preseason poll measure? Specifically, should it be a predictor of end-of-season standing (meaning that a team’s schedule should be taken into account when determining a ranking), or should it merely be a barometer of talent/hype/expectations?

A preseason poll should measure the aggregate opinion of a bunch of truly sanguine thinking about which teams are adequately prepared to compete in their conferences. But it usually measures popularity of coaches, recruiting classes, and traditions. In other words, one thing that has something to do with a team’s performance on the field, one thing that might be an influence, and one thing that almost drives me to follow curling instead; namely, Traditional Powers Hegemony.

3. What is your biggest stretch in your preseason ballot? That is to say, which team has the best chance of making you look like an idiot for overrating them?

I don’t think anybody’s a stretch on my ballot even though I’ve already expressed some concerns about Cal. I’m well aware that some people are honked that I left Georgia off my initial ballot. I don’t know what to say, other than that last year I left Louisville off my initial ballot, and it turned out I was basically right. (Though, like everybody else, I had Tennessee way too high.)

4. What do you see as the biggest flaw in the polling system (both wire service and blogpolling)? Is polling an integral part of the great game of college football, or is it an outdated system that needs to be replaced? If you say the latter, enlighten us with your new plan.

The biggest flaw in any poll is inertia. It’s hard to be humble enough to admit that you’ve severely overrated a team when that team goes out and stinks it up in their first couple games. You also always run the risk of voters voting for the uniform rather than the team in the uniform.

Still, I hope the polls never go away, for the same reason that I hope there’s never a playoff in Division I-A: I don’t want it settled on the field. 12 games are not enough to sort out who’s the best out of 117 teams. You have to have subjective evaluation as part of the process.

5. You’re Scott Bakula, and you have the opportunity to “Quantum Leap” back in time and change any single moment in your team’s history. It can be a play on the field, a hiring decision, or your school’s founders deciding to build the campus in Northern Indiana, of all godforsaken places. What do you do?

Easy. I make Ronnie Harmon hold on to the flippin’ ball.