They have pre-season rankings because it sells magazines and gets fans to talking about the sport. You can read Athlon or Street and Smith or whoever, and it's the same clutter. I remember when Lou Holth was coaching the Irish, he said he made a point to see what their ranking was in the magazines. He summarized it like this - if they pick Notre Dame #1 they actually think the Irish will win; top five and they think the Irish are REALLY good; top 10 and they think the Irish are okay; 10-20 and they think the Irish are mediocre; and 21-25 they think the Irish will be 3-8 but rank them just so Irish fans will buy the magazine.It's good to be #1. Better than #51. Luckily for us though, CNS has talked about this being clutter for season. Rankings shouldn't come out until October. You never really know what time you have until that time and even then you may not know. I still understand the polls too. You need something to gauge the competition. This will be a different Bama team. This isn't the Stanley Cup that gets passed around. There is a trophy given every year. We won't be defending anything. I never understood title defense in college sports. Still, it feels great that Bama is #1 in the discussion.