"It's no longer about your sex appeal, your preseason hype and how many of your fans click on websites for votes anymore," Fitzgerald said. "It's gone. ... If you haven't played anybody in the nonconference schedule, are you going be that impressive when the [first] vote comes out?"


I think it still has to do with sex appeal so to speak until you have an 8 team playoff. The mid season rankings could really help the first half of the season out in terms of quality of games played.

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/104382/b1g-coaches-see-playoff-as-equalizer