Our long national nightmare—the college football offseason—is almost over, and the release of the preseason AP Poll is our surest sign.
It is a rite that has signaled the start of autumn for decades, through every kind of postseason setup imaginable—the old bowl system, the Bowl Coalition, the Bowl Alliance, the BCS and the CFP. Even when it doesn’t mean anything, technically speaking, it still goes a long way toward shaping public perception of the nation’s best teams.
