It's good to see that there was a healthy mix of both agreement and disagreement with our AFC Rankings. Preseason banter is entertaining and helps pass the time before the kickoff to the season, but in the end it's just speculation. Ultimately, the players will step on to the field and decide for themselves who the best team is. This is the way competition should be. Each and every team begins the year on a level-playing field: each team has a shot to win the Super Bowl.
This is not necessarily the case in NCAA Football. TCU and Boise State, both good teams, really have no shot at winning a National Championship, even if they do go undefeated. Why? For one, their schedules don't give them enough opportunities to move up in the BCS standings. Why not just schedule tougher games then? Well, it's not that easy. More importantly, many teams simply aren't in the preseason narrative about who will be playing for a National Championship. In other words, the big media giants aren't telling us that they are stories worth following. ESPN and other mainstream media outlets were too busy talking about Oklahoma and USC a few years ago to notice anything else around them. Auburn was not in the preseason narrative and consequently had too much ground to make up in the polls to land themselves in the BCS Title game, even though they went unscathed in the ridiculously tough SEC. Granted, many years it is clear as to who the two best teams are (see last year), but too often this is not the case. I love how egalitarian the NFL is and it's one of the main reasons I prefer professional football to the college game. Everything is decided on the field. For more discussion on the impact of the MSM on the college football narrative, start here. What are your thoughts on the NFL vs. College Football?Filed under: