Not So Fast My Friend

As we all know, Lee Corso's blessing is usually a sign of bad things to come. Unfortunately for the California Golden Bears, his prediction for them to win the National Championship resulted in an early season dismissal from the elite of college football.

On Saturday, the Tennessee Volunteers had an offensive resurgance in Knoxville, with a little help from an old friend, David Cutcliffe. Vols' QB Erik Ainge looked like a Heisman candidate, throwing for 300 yards and 4 touchdowns in the embarrassing victory over the highly touted Golden Bears.

What we didn't know was that Kirk Herbstreit was equally capable of delivering the kiss of death. Immediately preceeding Corso's California selection, Herbstreit named Miami as the preseason favorite to win the title this year. Marked as the top team in "Herbie's eyes," Florida State did their best to chop them down to size with a victory at Miami.

So, here is the lesson, kiddies. Don't listen to ESPN. They hurt national contenders and cause cancer (probably). Corso's Cal, and Herbstreit's Miami are down the drain, so let's see who they mark next for college football death.

Brainlock Once More at ESPN

Jason Whitlock should not be allowed to vote in the Associated Press college football poll. Recently on ESPN.com, Whitlock released his voting, providing explanation of his reasoning. That said, his number one team to begin the year is West Virginia. Okay, before Mountaineer fans get all over me, let me say that I do not consider picking West Virginia as the number one to be wholly unreasonable. But Whitlock emphasizes that his choice is based upon the weak schedule West Virginia will face in 2006. There's where the boneheadedness comes in, friends.

In case it isn't obvious why, allow me to explain. Year after year, there are complaints that Team X or Team Y's record is inflated by a weak schedule. With the way scheduling works in NCAA football, this is inevitable. Now you have a guy like Whitlock actually rewarding such a school for having a weak schedule. In essence, this becomes a double whammy. Not only does the school, in this case West Virginia, get the opportunity to inflate its record on cream puffs, but now they have writers inflating their ranking based on the prediction that it will inflate its record on cream puffs.

Polls are supposed to rate the relative strength of schools going into the season, not how the writer expects them to finish. These polls exist because there is no way each of these schools can play one another to determine objective strength. Voting based on how one believes a team will finish at season's end defeats the purpose of having a poll in the first place.