Kicking System Blog

October 2nd, 2009

From Yahoo Sports, Mike Silver

As you may have noticed earlier in this column, it’s pretty clear how I feel about last Saturday’s debacle in Oregon – and the prospect of taking it out on ‘SC. Alas, I’m not on the practice field or in the locker room with the now-24th-ranked Golden Bears, so I can’t tell you how they’ll handle the worst loss of the Jeff Tedford era. That’s why sophomore kicker David Seawright makes the big bucks. (Memo to NCAA investigators: Don’t worry, that was only a joke. He’s not getting paid a dime. Who do you think we are – USC?)

Rankings are meaningless.

Well, they really aren’t. Under the current construction of college football, rankings – along with the style points and politicking that follow – play a crucial role in the supposed success of a team. Remember 2004, Cal fans?

However, teams have to play as if the polls are meaningless. Coming off our first defeat of the year (and the subsequent stomach-lurching 18-slot freefall in the AP Poll), this mindset is of vital importance in our efforts to get back on track.

At the risk of adopting a new take on the adage of age being just a number, I offer a similar analysis with respect to the ranking of college football teams.

Each week, the sporting world witnesses a collection of teams set out to upend the arbitrary nature of rankings. Last Saturday, Oregon showed that they considered the voters to be wrong and, on that day, proved it.

But to get caught up in the ranking system places an unnecessary risk on the potential success of your football team. To allow the opinions of others to define a team’s value impedes the crucial levels of focus and drive necessary for success.

We are no worse today than we were last Friday, despite the larger number that now precedes our name. If anything, we’ve improved from our experiences.

Although the opinions of others have been altered, we cannot (and will not) change the opinions of ourselves. The beauty of college football is that we have another opportunity to prove ourselves against a worthy opponent this Saturday, and we’re more energetic, focused, and hungry than ever.

The best news, however, remains that no matter what the sports media or computer systems say about how good our team is, we still find ourselves on top where it really matters.

After all, at least some rankings are meaningful.