Imagine going to school and receiving a weekly report card about your work during that week. 

Micromanaging each student’s weekly effort at school seems like a big waste of time for the teacher, student, and parents.  It would likely have almost zero meaning by the end of the school term.

Welcome to the early season college football polls!  This is where well-intended subjective decisions are made to tell American fans who the top 25 football teams should be.

Every week, the Associated Press and the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) poll their voters to determine their respective top 25 teams.

The Associated Press has about 60 sportswriters and media representatives participating in its weekly college football poll.  We hope that anyone selected for one of those coveted spots will do their homework and provide a relatively unbiased guess as to the top college football teams.

The AFCA poll consists of 67 current college football coaches. 

Can you imagine how much time those emotionally and physically spent football coaches will take on a Sunday morning to do this?  I wouldn’t want to get up early, read how well other college football teams had been doing, and then go cast a vote on the Top 25 by midday Sunday, would you?

Both of these two primary polls advise their members to assign the #1 team with 25 points and then continue downward until the #25 team receives just one point.  The votes are then tabulated, and the polls are released on Sunday afternoons during in the college football season.

How much do we REALLY know after the games played during Week #3?

Some teams have already played one or more games against vastly over-matched opponents (who simply want to receive a big paycheck and hope that no players were injured in the game).  Perhaps a few of those groggy coaches or media members might be impressed by some of last weekend’s blowout wins. 

Most are not.

Let’s take a look at the AP Pre-season Top 25 rankings and see how those teams were ranked after Week #3:

1. Texas – Now #8 (2-1)


2. Penn State – Now #2 (3-0)


3. Ohio State – Now #1 (3-0)


4. Clemson – Now Unranked (1-2)


5. Georgia – Now #5 (3-0)


6. Notre Dame – Now #24 (0-2)


7. Oregon – Now #6 (3-0)


8. Alabama – Now #8 (2-1)


9. LSU – Now #3 (3-0)


10. Miami (FL) – Now #4 (3-0)


11. Arizona State – Now Unranked (2-1)


12. Illinois – Now #9 (3-0)


13. South Carolina – Now Unranked (2-1)


14. Michigan – Now #21 (2-1)


15. Florida – Now Unranked (1-2)


16. SMU – Now Unranked (2-1)


17. Kansas State – Now Unranked (1-2)


18. Oklahoma – Now #11 (3-0)


19. Texas A&M – Now #10 (3-0)


20. Indiana – Now #19 (3-0)


21. Ole Miss – Now #13 (3-0)


22. Iowa State – Now #12 (4-0)


23. Texas Tech – Now #17 (3-0)


24. Tennessee – Now #15 (2-1)


25. Boise State – Now Unranked (1-1)

Seven college football teams (Clemson, Arizona State, South Carolina, Florida, SMU, Kansas State and Boise State) have already been bounced out of the AP Top 25.  Some may return prior the College Football Playoffs and a few currently-ranked teams may drop out by season’s end.

Why bother ranking the major college football teams until they have have played two or more major opponents?

The LSU Tigers are ranked #3 this week primarily because of two wins (at Clemson and Florida) over teams considered to be worthy competition.

LSU’s opponent this Saturday finds the Tigers hissing at the Lions of FCS member Southeastern Louisiana.  This weekend’s cat fight in Baton Rouge kicks-off at 6:45 PM CDT on the SEC Network.

You can’t blame LSU for scheduling a few cupcakes.  This is what happens when college football teams are now playing 12 regular season games.

Notre Dame (0-2) appeared to have been rewarded this week with a #24 ranking this week after playing their first two games against power schools Miami (FL) and Texas A&M.  The next ten games for the Fighting Irish will feature only one team (#25 USC) ranked in this week’s AP Top 25.

Notre Dame fans will claim their worthiness to be in the 12-team College Football Playoffs if the Irish should vanquish their next ten opponents – regardless of how weak those teams actually are.

The majority of this week’s AP Top 25 teams have played just one quality opponent through the first three outings of the season.

Does Artificial Intelligence know the best teams at this point of the season?

I took the question to one of the so-called geniuses of artificial intelligence today.  X.com’s “Grok” gave me his list of this week’s Top 25 teams. They are remarkably similar to the AP and Coaches’ polls.

However, “Grok” ranked South Carolina at #17 and Vanderbilt at #24.

I asked, “But Vanderbilt completely destroyed South Carolina 31-7 last Saturday night in Columbia, South Carolina!  How can you place 3-0 Vandy below 2-1 South Carolina after last week’s game”?

The AI provided a rambling answer about the strength of schedules and other statistical mumbo-jumbo instead of admitting, “You may have a good point there, SwampSwami!”

AI is not ready to take my place (at least, not yet).

Watch for the return of the SwampSwamiSports.com Top 25 rankings coming by no later than Monday, October 6!

There simply isn’t enough statistical evidence to determine the best teams in America until college football units have played at least five games on their schedule.

Winners and Losers from College Football’s Week #3

Winners:

Miami Hurricanes – Despite Ohio State’s #1 ranking based on last year’s finish, the 3-0 Miami Hurricanes have dispatched two very good teams (Notre Dame and South Florida) in their first three games.  Miami remains at home for the fourth consecutive game to play the wounded Florida Gators (1-2) Saturday at 6:30 PM CDT on ABC.

Vanderbilt Commodores – Quarterback Diego Pavia put on another clinic in Vandy’s 31-7 shellacking at formerly unbeaten South Carolina last Saturday. 

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