{"id":420791,"date":"2026-10-07T01:24:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T01:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/420791\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T01:24:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T01:24:17","slug":"miami-hurricanes-coach-comes-out-in-favor-of-ending-preseason-college-football-polls-blasts-sec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/420791\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Hurricanes coach comes out in favor of ending preseason college football polls, blasts SEC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There may not be a better season than 2026 to exemplify the problems with preseason polls in college football<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The advent of NIL and the transfer portal has already made gauging the “best” teams in early August nearly impossible, and as the jaw-dropping 2025 Indiana Hoosiers championship season demonstrated, the modern era has created more surprise teams than in the past.<\/p>\n

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Preseason polls then, despite being a part of the college football process for years, are less useful than ever before. And one prominent offensive coordinator thinks we should get rid of them entirely. He’s probably right.<\/p>\n

Miami Hurricanes<\/a> OC Shannon Dawson recently addressed the preseason polls, specifically addressing how they consistently seemingly favor one specific conference. A conference that already more often than not gets the benefit of the doubt from poll voters.<\/p>\n

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\"Mario <\/p>\n

Miami Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal reacts on the sidelines against the Pittsburgh Panthers during the third quarter at Acrisure Stadium on Nov. 29, 2025. (Charles LeClaire\/Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

“First of all, there should be no such thing as preseason rankings,” Dawson said<\/a> during a press conference. “That\u2019s the most ridiculous thing on the planet. That is the stupidest thing, because people weigh those things way heavier than they should.<\/p>\n

“You shouldn\u2019t have a ranking until October. How do you know? (Texas) A&M was ranked in the top-five, but how does that look right now? If anything, it isn\u2019t predictable for the future, it\u2019s the past. Go look at the top-10 last year. I did. Five of them weren\u2019t even in the (end of season) top-25.”<\/p>\n

It’s impossible to argue with that, because it’s true. And despite A&M, and others, looking far worse than their preseason expectations<\/a>, the first few weeks of games and rankings reflect that initial set. Texas A&M loses to LSU, which must mean LSU is good, because A&M was a preseason top-5 team. Missouri was ranked in the preseason, for some reason, which must mean Mississippi State<\/a> is also good, because they beat a preseason top-25 team.<\/p>\n

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\"SEC <\/p>\n

SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey speaks to the press during SEC Football Kickoff Media Day at the Tampa Marriott in Tampa, Fla., on July 20, 2026. (Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Obviously the preseason poll doesn’t only affect one conference; Big Ten teams<\/a> like Michigan, Penn State and Washington have looked far worse than preseason polls suggested. On the other hand, though, Nebraska and Wake Forest<\/a> have received little attention and respect from voters, despite deserving it, because they didn’t start the year in the top-25.<\/p>\n

Dawson continued, specifically calling out the SEC<\/a> and how those teams fluctuate from week-to-week.<\/p>\n

“So we sit here and look at schedules, and obviously everything is SEC, SEC. Well look\u2026 they have all of their teams in the top-25. Guess what. Good for you. At the end of the year, half of them won\u2019t be in the top-30. That\u2019s just the way it is. We can\u2019t sit here and say, \u2018hey, we play X number of top-25 teams\u2019. We don\u2019t know that. We\u2019ll count those chips up at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

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“That\u2019s why there shouldn\u2019t be rankings<\/a>, because you give people talking points that are idiots. They don\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing. Play the game. Play every week.”<\/p>\n

It’s like Dawson’s been reading a certain OutKick writer’s columns complaining about the polls each week. Ahem.<\/p>\n

\"Missouri <\/p>\n

Missouri Tigers wide receiver Naeshaun Montgomery (0) congratulates Missouri Tigers running back Jamal Roberts (20) on his touchdown during a SEC conference game between the Florida Gators and the Missouri Tigers held on Saturday October 3, 2026 at Faurot Field at Memorial Stadium in Columbia MO. (Photo by Rick Ulreich\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) (Rick Ulreich\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Voters are humans, and humans are biased. They don’t always watch all the games, and some have even forgotten to rank elite teams like Miami periodically. Some, like ESPN’s Heather Dinich, post about the importance of winning “SEC road games,” as if that some sort of remarkable achievement. Her specific example, Kentucky, beat a bad Texas A&M team and a bad South Carolina team. Great, so what? Why should that be rewarded by placing the Wildcats at No. 17, just because it’s the SEC and those teams have big stadiums?<\/p>\n

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At the end of the day, using a blend of analytics and efficiency driven rankings would lead to a better result than trusting voters. Especially before anyone’s even seen teams play on the field. But because there are vested interests who want preseason polls to continue, they will. Many valuable college football traditions have gone by the wayside in the modern game, but somehow not that one.<\/p>\n

Ian Miller is a writer at OutKick.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There may not be a better season than 2026 to exemplify the problems with preseason polls in college…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4640,47427,123,125,5079,124,10622,105742,110],"class_list":["post-420791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-betting","tag-college-football-bowl-season","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-hurricanes","tag-miami-news","tag-ncaa-fb","tag-outkick-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}