A way too early top 10 of the Way Too Early Top 25 polls

With last night’s national championship game, yet another college football season has come to close. So what should we do now? Move on to another sport? Focus on our jobs or families? No silly, it’s time to rank teams for season that’s eight months away!

Virtually every major sports publication (plus a lot of less than major ones) checks the #ContentCreation box by putting out a “Way Too Early Top 25” at the close of the season. But not all polls are created equal, and we are here to sort through the madness and bring you the Way Too Early Top 10 Way Too Early Top 25 Polls.

It should be noted that several of these were published before the national championship game. So way WAY too early.

Also receiving votes: FanSided

As is their custom, FanSided turned this Top 25 poll into a one-team-per-page slideshow, so we didin’t actually read the poll, but Michigan State is #25.

10. Yahoo! Sports

It’s easy to say that the reason I put this one last is because they ranked A&M the lowest (I mean, that IS the reason), but it’s not the only issue with this ranking. Syracuse, who won 10 games and was one of only two teams (‘sup) to give Clemson a run for their money, is way too low at 21. Southern Cal at 19 following a 5-7 is laughable (USC IS BACK!). Michigan in the top 10???

9. 247 Sports

Kentucky is nowhere to be found. Northwestern and Washington State are unranked while the teams they beat in their respective bowl games are both in the top 20. UCF at 16 and A&M at 14 also seem low and Oregon in the top 10 seems high. But you have to admire the guts to put Notre Dame at 12.

8. USA Today

Pros: A&M at 10, Notre Dame at 13, Army at 20
Cons: Texas at 5, Michigan at 7, Southern Cal at 15, and at 25...Baylor.

7. Sporting News

You have the Aggies at 11, but otherwise a very unremarkable list. You’re the Iowa of polls. Fittingly, Iowa makes the list at 17.

6. Athlon Sports

You put A&M in the top 10(!), but used a logo we haven’t used in more than a decade. Polls are meaningless without proper #branding.

5. Sports Illustrated

Notre Dame in the top five is a major knock, but the Aggies at 11, three spots behind Texas, sends you a few slots up the list.

4. The Dallas Morning News

More than any publication on this list, the DMN has a vested interest in stoking the Aggie/Longhorn debate, and Texas at 9 and A&M at 11 does that quite nicely.

3. ESPN

A major upset as “the worldwide leader” fails to make the title game. Not much wrong with this list (well, Notre Dame at 5, maybe), and Texas at 8 and A&M at 9 once again ensures some (un)healthy online debate between the two schools over the offseason.

2. Orlando Sentinel

“I’m confused. Why are you including this random Florida newspaper’s ranking?”

“OK. Got it.”

1. SB Nation

Regardless of some of it’s flaws, you have to admire a poll that completely omits Notre Dame by mistake and decides to just roll with it. Also, nepotism.