College football's silly season

There they go again.

The coaches have voted Ohio State as the No. 1 college football team in the country.

They declared defending national champion Texas is No. 2. And Notre Dame and USC are tied for No. 3. This despite every Division I-A school having the same record: 0-0.

Naturally, USA Today, sponsors of the coaches poll, is dutifully publicizing these rankings as if they mean something.

That's just plain silly.

Every season, some team that is ranked high in the preseason turns into a total fraud. Last year it was Tennessee, who were ranked No. 3 before the season began, then gagged to a 5-6 record.

The preseason rankings are almost always filled predominately by BCS schools. This year's poll is no exception - TCU at No. 21 is the only team from outside the power conferences.

While silly, these preseason rankings sadly carry some weight. A team that is ranked high in the preseason can afford to slip up once or twice during the season and still retain a high ranking. But a team that is lower ranked - or not ranked at all - has to play catch up all season and has little room for error.

The college football bowl system is already unfairly weighted toward the teams in the BCS conferences. It's a shame that the coaches and USA Today persist in perpetuating the problem with these farcical preseason rankings.