College Football Polls: Something's Gotta Change

College football polls just don't work so early in the season. There are teams like Southern Cal who start high and barely move with a single loss. Then there are teams like the South Carolina Gamecocks who don't even break the AP Top 25 Poll with a win over #4 Ole Miss. South Carolina's only other loss was a close one to a ranked Georgia team in Athens.

This type of situation is nothing new, unfortunately, but it is clear that something needs to change.

College football polls should be scrapped until the season is well on its way. Do away with pre-season rankings entirely and don't put out the season polls until between Weeks 4 and 6 of the season, even if it does take away from the drama that ESPN analysts thrive on. The best part is that putting these polls off for a few weeks will not impact the traditional powerhouses if they are as good as advertised.

Pre-season rankings are meaningless. Why rank an unproven team? Pre-season polls do nothing but promote the favorites, even though they are just as unproven in this season as the team in spot 100.

These pre-season polls put other teams at a disadvantage. A team that doesn't start high in the Top 25, but goes undefeated is never going to make the BCS Championship Game. Senator Orrin Hatch out of Utah got it right when he called for an investigation of the BCS. Perhaps it shouldn't be done on taxpayer money, but something needs to happen.

The early polls are just as bad. Teams in the first few weeks of the football season are still unproven, with wins coming against vastly inferior opponents. No team deserves to be in the Top 5 for beating a weak San Jose State.

These polls can kill another team's chances of making the BCS Championship Game. We've seen it before - an undefeated team sitting out of the Championship Game while two teams with a loss each go head to head. Any poll that puts an undefeated team beneath teams with a loss at the end of the season needs to be reconsidered. Some are calling for a playoff system, but revamping college football polls could take care of this problem.

The powers that be in the college football world need to take care of this polling problem soon before a lot of money is wasted by switching to a playoff system. After all, why buy a new car because your old one needs an oil change? Make the change and all college football teams will start out on an even playing field.