Why Rush to Separate Rank, File?

Putting out a weekly college football poll in September is like hanging Christmas lights in June, yet every year we go through this weekly Georgia Bulldog-and-pony show of whetting the public’s pigskin appetite.

While the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals was postponing the California recall election this week, I wish it could have issued a cease-and-desist order for the Associated Press and ESPN/USA Today coaches’ polls.

Early-season polls do a disservice to the people who vote in them and the establishments that sponsor them.

We need some ground rules.

No meaningful college football poll should be released until:

* Kansas State is finished playing all Division I-AA opponents.

* Notre Dame cracks the top 100 in total offense.

* Jeff Sagarin says the statistical data are safe for analysis.

No legitimate forecast of college contenders can be made before Halloween, yet our panel of AP pencil-pushers and the whistle-toting coaches insist on making snapshot assessments for the benefit of ... whom?

You say college rankings are just for fun. That’s fine for basketball, which has weeks to kill before meaningful basketball is played; also, its champion is ultimately determined by a tournament.

The AP and ESPN/USA Today polls, however, are integral to the championship process, by far the most influential component in the bowl championship series rankings that determine the national title-game participants.

There is a credibility question here, yet the polls continue to strain credulity.

This week, seven schools that appeared in the AP’s preseason top 25 are no longer in the poll: Seven. Auburn (preseason No. 6), Maryland (15), North Carolina State (16), Notre Dame (20), Wisconsin (21), Colorado State (23) and Oklahoma State (24).

Golly, if only we could have seen these guys practice first.

Those are just dumb writers, right?

Wrong.

Eight schools that appeared in the ESPN/USA Today coaches’ preseason top 25 are already out.

Early-season rankings expose voters and their inherent biases as traditionally successful schools continue to receive favored-program status and thus start the season with a huge advantage.

This would explain how Iowa, co-champions of the Big Ten Conference last year, could start the season out of the top 25 while Michigan, which did not win the Big Ten, started the preseason at No. 4.

Because of this anomaly, Iowa (3-0 and No. 18 in the AP with a bullet!) has to claw its way up through the ranks through no fault of its own other than the fact it is Iowa.

Same story for Washington State, co-champion of the Pacific 10 Conference, which started the season unranked. Cougar Coach Bill Doba called it a “slap in the face.”

Truth is, despite three 10-win seasons since 1997, Washington State will never get anyone’s benefit of the doubt.

And how on Earth can Texas be ranked ahead of Arkansas this week in both polls after the Razorbacks just beat the Longhorns in Austin by 10 points?

Because we thought Texas was better than Arkansas in August?

And how in shamrock city can Notre Dame, crushed by Michigan, still be ranked No. 23 in the coaches’ poll?

I’m as guilty as the rest when it comes to overselling some teams and undercutting others, but because I don’t vote in the AP poll I’m not affecting any team’s ultimate BCS status.

The best thing for college football would be for the writers and coaches to delay their polls until mid-October, when the true picture comes into focus.

Of course, that’s never going to happen. Early rankings may mean nothing, but they drive news in multicolored newspapers and make for great reading over the campus-pub urinal.

In 1998, Kansas State even had T-shirts made after the school reached No. 1 in the weekly coaches’ poll. Never mind Kansas State ended up in the Alamo Bowl that year.

The smartest thing the BCS did was delay the release of its all-important standings until October to allow factors such as strength of schedule to kick into the formula.

But you know how it is with lists ... everybody has got to have one.

Look-Out Weekend

The national title won’t be won this weekend, but it could be lost if several teams with Sugar Bowl aspirations don’t pay close attention:

* No. 2 Miami at Boston College. You may know Boston College hasn’t defeated Miami since Doug Flutie’s famous heave back in 1984, but consider this: Miami has won the last four games in Chestnut Hill by a total of 18 points and all four games were decided on either the last or next-to-last play. Boston College fans figure to be so “juiced” up for this night game that Coach Tom O’Brien wrote an open letter in the school newspaper urging proper decorum. Yeah, right.

* No. 3 Michigan at Oregon. Lloyd Carr has to hope his players haven’t read the glowing press clippings following last weekend’s 38-0 victory over Notre Dame. There are few tougher venues for opponents than Autzen Stadium, while Oregon’s uniforms are so disorienting Michigan might think it’s at the remake of “Soylent Green.”

* Colorado at No. 10 Florida State. With Miami and Virginia Tech joining the Atlantic Coast Conference next year, Florida State Coach Bobby Bowden said he’s going to quit scheduling non-conference games like these ... but he still has to play this one.

* Bowling Green at No. 5 Ohio State: The Mid-American Conference strikes again? Bowling Green already has defeated Purdue, leads the nation in offense at 575 yards a game and, since 2001, is 6-0 against BCS schools. This could be lethal for an Ohio State team that has lived on the edge for two years and may have to play without injured quarterback Craig Krenzel.

* Texas A&M; at No. 8 Virginia Tech. Dennis Franchione may have left Alabama without saying goodbye, but no one said the man couldn’t coach. The most important player in tonight’s ESPN game, however, might be Hurricane Isabel.

Hurry-Up Offense

* Transitions can be awkward ... ask Donny and Marie, or the Rolling Stones, or Notre Dame. The Irish are stuck in the netherworld of where they were and where they want to be. Second-year Coach Tyrone Willingham is implementing his West Coast offense with a run-pass quarterback, Carlyle Holiday, recruited by former coach Bob Davie.

Last week’s 38-0 loss to Michigan was more wake-up call than wake up the echoes. Notre Dame is 3-4 in its last seven games, and this week ranks 116th nationally in offense. Willingham has a decision to make: Stick with a senior quarterback who helped him to a 10-3 record last season or go with a young quarterback, Brady Quinn, who is a better fit for the offense. Willingham is sticking with Holiday and his No. 97-ranked pass rating for this week’s game against Michigan State. “Carlyle has still identified himself as the best quarterback,” Willingham said.

For what it’s worth, Willingham has a history of rescuing teams from disastrous early-season defeats. In 1999, Stanford opened with a 69-17 loss at Texas but recovered to win the Pac-10 title.

* Don’t look back, somebody with a Southern accent might be gaining on you: It has been almost two years since Joe Paterno broke Bear Bryant’s major-college record of 323 victories, but the Penn State coach is in jeopardy of losing his all-time mark to Florida State’s Bowden.

With 335 victories, Bowden has closed towithin two of Paterno’s mark of 337 at a time when Florida State’s program appears on the rebound while Penn State’s may be in decline.

“Is he creeping up on me?” Paterno joked this week about Bowden. “That sneaky son of a gun.”

If Penn State (1-2) is as mediocre as it has looked so far, Bowden might pass Paterno this season. This battle could go on for years, however, as the 73-year-old Bowden and 76-year-old Paterno have no plans of retiring soon.

* They’re mostly good kids, really. A survey of 5,474 players representing 66 Division I-A colleges reports 97% of respondents said they had not received any illegal inducements during the recruiting process.

The study, sponsored by the American Football Coaches Assn., reports 90% of players said they had not used drugs since attending college, but two-thirds indicated they drink alcoholic beverages.

Sixty-two percent of the respondents recommended more financial support, with many saying it was difficult to live on scholarship money alone.

“The media and public often stereotype the college football player in unflattering terms,” the AFCA report concludes. “While our survey suggests that this is not true, changing the public’s perception is a difficult job.”

It should be a lot easier once Maurice Clarett turns pro.

* News item: Texas players announce they will boycott the media until after Saturday’s game against Rice.

Reaction: If you count last week’s stunning loss to Arkansas, that makes two weeks in a row Texas players have had no answers.