The AP Poll is out and they appear to have copied the Coaches Poll’s homework

The Associated Press released their Top 25 preseason poll today, and just like the Amway Coaches Poll, Texas A&M comes in at #13, with the Texas Longhorns just behind them at #14. But that’s far from the only similarity.

The AP poll ranks 24 of the 25 teams ranked in the Coaches Poll, opting for Tennessee in lieu of Virginia Tech. The two polls also have identical top fours and only one difference in the top 14 (LSU moved from #5 in Coaches to #6 in AP).

It would be one thing if we saw this kind of alignment in November, when team resumes are reasonably fleshed out and a clear pecking order has been established. But the preseason polls should be the wild west, with vastly differing opinions and conjecture about which teams are going to rise to the top. Having two polls which so clearly mimic one another basically negates the needs to even have multiple polls.

Yes, college football, on a season-long level, is fairly predictable, and the big dogs tend to finish the season at the top. But it isn’t THIS predictable, guys. Heck, the AP Poll only has one team in its top 10 who didn’t finish last season’s final top 10 (Minnesota). Let’s hope the season turns out to be way more exciting than the people who make the polls predict it to be.