The latest Top 25 college football poll released by the Associated Press looks mighty similar to last week’s AP football poll. That’s because the top 14 teams remained locked in place. The irrelevance of the AP Top 25 remained unchanged as well.
Yes, Alabama, victorious over Colorado State, remained atop the Southeastern Conference and all of college football. Inactive Oregon retained the No. 2 spot while Clemson kept a hold of third place, beating NC State in a Thursday night showdown. Ohio State’s 76-point shutout/annihilation of FAMU was good enough for No. 4, Stanford stayed at fifth, knocking then 23rd-ranked Arizona State out of the Top 25. LSU, Louisville, Florida State, Georgia, and Texas A&M all defeated their opponents to retain last week’s spot. All these results and more can be found practically anywhere around the web .
What remains elusive is the credence given to this opinion poll of sports writers, which hasn’t affected the college football scene since 2005. Okay, so it does award its own trophy to its chosen champion at the end of the year. Sure, the national champions used to be determined by polls, but, since 1998, the Bowl Championship Series has shaped the landscape of postseason college football. True, upon its inception, the BCS relied upon the AP Top 25 in order to determine which teams would play for the national championship. That is until 2004, when, amid controversies, the AP withdrew itself from the BCS equation and was replaced by the Harris Interactive Poll . As the BCS itself is in its last year, to be replaced in 2014 by College Football Playoff , what’s left of the AP Poll’s former relevance?
Oklahoma State University coach defended the AP Poll in 2012, saying it would stick around because it was based around sports writers, as opposed to the USA Today Coaches Poll and others like them.
“The other polls there is always so much debate on who should be on them — what the criteria is for why people are voting. I think that there’s a trend moving towards fans are kind of tired of it. But I would never see the AP going away,” Gundy said.
What do you think? Does the AP Football Poll have any relevance or do you feel the same as many fans do ?
