way too early polls

[Deleted]

I searched a bunch of them. On average we are 5th. Pretty much a consensus with Fsu at 1 Bama at 2 and Oregon at 3. Stanford or Auburn was usually 4

Couple polls had us at 9 or 10 which is fair based on how we finished but I'm thinking 5 or 6 is more accurate.

[ohstatefan]

Sounds generous considering all the issues we had on defense last year and that we've lost most of last year's OL

[victor2111]

Seems pretty fair to me. 5-10 range. brand name and bring a lot of talent back.

DL should be nasty. You would expect LB/DB play to improve(can it get worst?). Offense does lose quite a bit but still talented.


I was expecting #7-#8 to start the year.

[cwerph]

Senior QB returning with a stable of play makers in one of the most prolific offenses in the country. Defensive changes, one of the best (if not the best) DL in the country. Lost 2 games in 2 years. Easy schedule again. Starting anywhere in the top 8, win games and watch the seas part to the top 4 and the playoff.

Sounds good to me.

[Deleted]

Easy schedule?

[cwerph]

May 23, 2014 16:44:07 GMT -5 @theref said:

Easy schedule?

VT is VT in name only. Navy? C'mon, man.

Most of the conference is Dolly Madison - Add Rutgers and Maryland, a PSU team loaded with freshmen and sophomores and no depth, . MSU graduated half their defense. Wisconsin, meh. scUM at home.

Yeah, pretty easy.

[Deleted]

May 23, 2014 16:52:03 GMT -5 cwerph said:

May 23, 2014 16:44:07 GMT -5 @theref said:

Easy schedule?

VT is VT in name only. Navy? C'mon, man.

Most of the conference is Dolly Madison - Add Rutgers and Maryland, a PSU team loaded with freshmen and sophomores and no depth, . MSU graduated half their defense. Wisconsin, meh. scUM at home.

Yeah, pretty easy.

First let me preface by saying strength of schedule is way overrated. I believe strongly in very little seperation between good, very good and elite. I do believe some in winning how you should but over all wayyyyyy overrated.  That being said and for debate on this topic;

www.fbschedules.com/2014/04/2014-college-football-strength-of-schedule-ncaa-method/

collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/23/ranking-the-new-college-football-match-ups-of-2014/

www.sbnation.com/college-football/2014/2/26/5401692/2014-college-football-out-of-conference-schedules-best-worst


Msu ranked in top 10 by everyone and we play there.
Wisconsin ranked around 15 by everyone
Some polls have scum 25 - 30
Navy has lately been giving top teams fits and wiining some of them. They get the enough respect as not being a cupcake.
VT is predicted to be down but still no cupcake when your talkin Beamer and Foster
Cincy is predicted to contend for their conference title


We have a top 15/20% tough schedule

[ohstatefan]

Probably the toughest OOC schedule we've had since 2009.

[WANG]

I hate preseason polls, they are worthless.

It's also tough to try and predict how difficult the schedule will be as of right now.

[Deleted]

May 27, 2014 6:56:17 GMT -5 WANG said:

I hate preseason polls, they are worthless.

It's also tough to try and predict how difficult the schedule will be as of right now.

 

I don’t think the AP’s college football preseason poll should be interpreted as a prediction, as much as it should be interpreted as an indicator of a school’s strength and talent heading into the season

[WANG]

Yeah, but how can you evaluate a product that has not played ONE snap of real football yet? It's a pure crap shoot, that's why you have teams ranked near the top that end up out of the polls by the season every year.

If it were just for fun, that's one thing, but since in years past it was used to determine BCS rankings, it really stuck in my craw. Luckily they aren't going to be a measuring stick for anything anymore, but I still don't like them.

[Deleted]

Love them and I read a few years ago that they were around 80% accurate as far as finishing ranked. The ncg had at least one team that was pre -season top 10 almost every year and the other team was ranked as well. In general they were more right than wrong was the jist of the article. And when I said they above I meant ap poll. That was what the article about. Ap poll only which is the one I relief on. Where people start bashing is that 33% meet or exceed their pre- season ranking. But 80% finishing somewhere ranked is impressive.

[ohstatefan]

May 27, 2014 7:12:31 GMT -5 @theref said:

May 27, 2014 6:56:17 GMT -5 WANG said:

I hate preseason polls, they are worthless.

It's also tough to try and predict how difficult the schedule will be as of right now.

 

I don’t think the AP’s college football preseason poll should be interpreted as a prediction, as much as it should be interpreted as an indicator of a school’s strength and talent heading into the season

I agree that's how they should be viewing their votes. However, I've read many writer's justification for their rankings that include saying that team X is ranked this high partially because they have a soft schedule and therefore have a good chance at going undefeated. So many voters are using this as an end of season prediction.

Preseason polls should be worthless, but too often they seem to be used as a starting point for determining the next week's poll. If you start out ranked below #10, you pretty much need to win out and for most of the teams above you to slip up, maybe more than once, to have a shot at the Championship game.

Now that there are 4 teams that get a shot, some of that gets resolved, but not enough, IMO.

[WANG]

What OSF said. People put waaaaaaay too much stock in preseason polls and are unwilling to move people down a large number, even with poor performances.

For example, pretend that FSU starts this year #1 and runs the table, but due to a weak conference and bad OOC schedule (again, this is just hypothetical, not saying the ACC is bad) they have just an awful SOS. Additionally, they are unimpressive on offense and give up more points than they should. Voters, generally speaking, are going to be unlikely to move them off of their #1 spot simply because they started the season ranked there and never lost.

If voters were more fluid with their rankings from week to week, I wouldn't have a problem with preseason polls, but unfortunately that is not the case.

[Deleted]

May 27, 2014 10:29:45 GMT -5 WANG said:

What OSF said. People put waaaaaaay too much stock in preseason polls and are unwilling to move people down a large number, even with poor performances.

For example, pretend that FSU starts this year #1 and runs the table, but due to a weak conference and bad OOC schedule (again, this is just hypothetical, not saying the ACC is bad) they have just an awful SOS. Additionally, they are unimpressive on offense and give up more points than they should. Voters, generally speaking, are going to be unlikely to move them off of their #1 spot simply because they started the season ranked there and never lost.

If voters were more fluid with their rankings from week to week, I wouldn't have a problem with preseason polls, but unfortunately that is not the case.

This. Remember when we backed into the NCG.

Not sure how tough are schedule is this year. Navy gave us a fit a few years back. MSU seems like the toughest game but we barely beat scUM last year.