Utah ahead of BYU?

So the latest USA Today coaches poll places BYU at #24 and Utah at #18. This just goes to show you how pointless preseason polls are. Rather than argue why BYU should be higher (which I actually don't believe), I would like to argue that Utah is severely over ranked. Here are the rankings of the bottom ten including last year's schedule:

15. Georgia Tech ... 9-4 ... 559 ... 22

16. Boise State ... 12-1 ... 542 ... 13

17. TCU ... 11-2 ... 461 ... 7

18. Utah ... 13-0 ... 404 ... 4

19. Florida State ... 9-4 ... 371 ... 23

20. North Carolina ... 8-5 ... 293 ... nr

21. Iowa ... 9-4 ... 257 ... 20

22. Nebraska ... 9-4 ... 236 ... nr

23. Notre Dame ... 7-6 ... 194 ... nr

24. Brigham Young ... 10-3 ... 178 ... 21

25. Oregon State ... 9-4 ... 165 ... 19

So throw out last year's Utah team. These polls are about performance this year. Of course this is a coaches poll, so some of these guys may have very little to go off of except last year's schedule. The MWC coaches poll placed Utah in third overall in the conference behind BYU. So the coaches of our own conference who know Utah best don't even think Utah should be ranked so high. Why do I care? Am I just on some vitriolic rant out of blind hatred for the Utes? Partly, but these rankings do matter. Utah has a fairly soft schedule until late in the year. Oregon in week 3 could be a real challenge, but other than that they should win their first 9 games. But in college football, it's not just your performance week to week, but your overall position in the rankings. It is rare for teams to make giant leaps by winning a big game. It is also rare for a team to move down in the rankings for winning a game, even if their performance was unimpressive. By starting at #18 and winning game after game, the Utes could find themselves very highly ranked. This is especially true when on considers the hype and excitement surrounding the team following last year's Sugar bowl.

The whole preseason ranking idea is ridiculous. It is very similar to a race in which everyone has a different starting place. No one knows this better than BYU who benefited greatly from strong preseason hype, an overly high preseason ranking, and a soft beginning schedule. There is no way BYU should have climbed as high as #7 last year, and no way they should have ended the year anywhere in the top 25.

I propose that no rankings be released until week 4 at the very earliest. This will give everyone a chance to see what team's are made of before they can be biased by the rankings. Under the current system, wins and losses have a greater impact than they should. Better to look at a team's overall performance. This will be easier to do by waiting later in the season to release the official rankings. This is already the way the current BCS rankings are done. Several weeks into the season, the first rankings come out. But because the other polls are a factor in determining the BCS rankings, it is little help.

Finally, let me officially express my confidence that Utah is ranked far to highly, and their performance on the field will indicate that. There is no reason for a team missing as many crucial pieces as last year's team should be ranked so highly. Many of their strongest assets from last year are now missing. They don't even know who their quarterback is going to be! I imagine a team with a very good defense and little to no offense. Utah has had abysmal quarterback in the past (I know I used to be a fan), and it could happen again. Lucky for them, a few meaningless wins will go far considering their inflated #18 ranking.

Quote of the Day

The following quote from a NYTimes article is one more reason to move to Korea.

Na Deuk-won, who owns a school in Seoul that trains back-scrubbers and bathhouse masseuses, says enrollment has jumped 50 percent this year, to 180 students, because of a sudden influx of university graduates and laid-off office workers.

“Even in a recession, people need their back scrubbed,” Mr. Na said.

That's exactly right. Even in a recession, people need their back scrubbed.

Police Sketch

I've always wondered how accurate those police artist sketches are. The recent manhunt and eventual capture of a serial killer in South Carolina allowed me to do a nice before and after comparison of the sketch artist's rendition and the actual person. I'm glad they didn't have to rely on the sketch artist to catch this guy. I'm just glad they got him before we take our trip to Charleston next week.

A Tribute to Dikembe

I thought I would introduce some of you to Dikembe Mutombo, the oldest player in the NBA at the time of his retirement a few weeks ago. I will always remember his reaction after defeating the Seattle Supersonics in the opening round of the playoffs (the first time an eight seed had defeated a one seed). He fell backwards onto the court, gripped the ball tightly near his face, and screamed for joy. I was ten years old at the time, but I can still remember how passionate he was about that win. He has been well known for his humanitarian efforts in his native Africa. I found it interesting that the church is on board with one of his recent projects. He's been playing basketball as long as I've been watching it. It's sad to see one of the last players of my childhood gone for good.

More Protests

Some more Iranian election protests took place right in front of the Barlow center. Since I didn't have much to do, I followed them for a while and took pictures and video. I was headed to an art museum and I was pretty sure they were headed to the White House so my plan was to go to take the train to the museum, spend some time there, and then run over to the White House to see the end of the protest. Unfortunately I was a little late, and by the time I showed up the protest was over. Luckily, some news sources picked up what I missed.

Iranian Revolution

On Sunday I ended up in a peaceful protest of Iran's recent elections. I was on my way to church when I realized I forgot a few important things. I turned around to pick them up, and on my way back I ran head-on into the protest pictured below. When I picked up my stuff I of course had to walk back through the all the protesting Iranians. I ended up stuck in the middle since they were headed in the same direction as me. I thought about picking up a sign and chanting along, but my Farsi is a little rusty. So here is a picture of the DC version of the Iranian civil unrest.

Update

After loading my last post, I went to the bio of the artist who created those BofM computer graphics and it made me feel a little bad (though not enough to remove the post). Reading through the bio, I'm convinced that the man's motives are pure, but you've got to admit that Lehi looks a lot like a Gandalf the Grey conjuring some magical spell.