We're often caught up in the offseason hype and early season non-conference games to the point that we forget that rankings at this point are meaningless. Yes, meaningless. They're fun to look at and debate about, but right now, number 10 or 20, or unranked means nothing.
Here's my biggest problem with preseason rankings: fans and analysts alike tend to read too much into the early season scores. Let's take the Wisconsin-Arizona State 20-19 game as an example.
Wisconsin came into the game 2-0 and ranked number 11 nationally. Arizona State also came into the game 2-0, but unranked. Both faced inferior opponents in their first two contests.
So essentially both teams were undefeated, beating opponents they were expected to beat. The only difference? A preseason ranking that suggested Wisconsin should win handily.
Many things are taken into account when determining a preseason ranking. Returning players, recruiting class, perceived strength of schedule, etc. But ultimately all of those things are speculative. Preseason rankings are wrong just as often as they are right.
That's the beauty of the regular season. Teams have the chance to prove their worth. I think back to the 2002 National Champion Ohio State Buckeyes. They started the year ranked 13th and worked their way into the top 5 after winning their first five games. The Buckeyes won their Big Ten conference games by an average of 12 points, and that includes 28 and 31 point wins over doormats Indiana and Minnesota.
Ohio State wasn't given a chance in the National Championship game against Miami (FL). If I recall correctly, their was a 14 point line in that game, the largest ever for the BCS Championship. A lot of that had to do with the fact that Miami was probably the most talented team of the last decade. The other factor was the that Ohio State squeaked by a bunch of "bad" Big Ten teams.
Ohio State didn't blow teams out. They didn't win pretty. For this, they were slapped with the "Overrated" tag for pretty much the entire season. They did finish the season undefeated and went on to beat that Miami team to win the BCS Championship, by the way.
The point being, that Wisconsin fans, pundits, or whoever else has an opinion shouldn't read so far into a "close call" victory against a supposed lesser team. Ohio State had plenty of them.
Similar to the 2002 Buckeyes, Wisconsin's very nature prevents them from blowing out most teams. An ideal drive for their offense is pounding the ball up the middle, sprinkling a few passes in there, and taking eight minutes a drive to score. You're not going to blow teams out or win pretty by running the ball en route to an eight minute drive.
Wisconsin fans should be more concerned about the fact that they were unable to keep up with Arizona State's team speed. Ohio State and Michigan possess similar speed in the skill positions and could potentially run all over a Badger defense that looked flat-footed and slow to react on Saturday.
For now, let's try treating college football like the NFL. A win is a win. When a team loses they will be properly dropped in the rankings. If they win, accept the win and move on to next week, regardless of the margin of victory.
When Big Ten play gets underway, we may very well find out Wisconsin has been overrated all along. By the same regard, maybe Arizona State is underrated.
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