Polls are Useless

[Phil C]

Polls are useless and merely opinions and subject to having great errors. Thank goodness we have playoffs in 3A football where champions are decided on the field instead of opinions and not like NCAA Division 1 football that chooses to live in the past and not have a "real" playoff system but instead just has two top teams (which are opinions) and leaves off several capable teams. If 3A football did that then instead of a playoff system it would be like Burnet - Sinton playing for the state championship and bye bye Everman. But fortunately we have a playoff system that decides on the field. I know this is football but I can't resist pointing out this fact to show the uselessness of polls especially nationwide in high school sports where no teams from Texas will play any team from Ohio or Michigan, etc. in a playoff system. I don't know who the poll was but ESPN said Oak Hill Academy High School was rated No. 1 and that LeBron James High School Akron St. Vincent St. Mary was rated No. 23. The No. 1 team got beat 65 -45 on national tv. This was not a one or two point game but a blowout and left the pollsters looking somewhat foolish. I know that there is no way in high school that you can have a nationwide playoffs due to time and expense limitations. But the point is that the poll is useless unless you get a playoff system and they are merely opinions and one's opinion is as good as anothers. Sorry to have rambled so long.

[sinton66]

I agree with you Phil. Polls are absolutely meaningless. :)

[pinecone]

I completely agree regarding high school football. The competition can make a team look very good when in reality the winning team may have won by a blowout but could look very bad against a better team. Some states may not have the competition level we have in Texas, and a fairly good team just look awesome. But if they played in Texas, sooner or later some great team would take them down.

College polls are better than they were back in the days when media coverage was limited and sports writers only liked the teams they saw often. Colleges use them for recruiting purposes so some colleges are probably happy with the current system. Sometimes it is not always the best team that wins, but that is the way the ball bounces. Playoff systems always have their cinderella teams that get lucky, play with more enthusiasm for a couple of games and win it all.But year in and year out, the best team on a given day usually wins.