the talent level of the teams going into the season (which is the reason the SEC gets such love). Whether you like them or not, they do serve a function that is necessary to a league with over 100 teams that only play 12 games. NTM that at least 3 of those games are likely against opponents of a much lower caliber. Unless the college landscape gets pared down to less than 50 teams it will need the preseason rankings.

The truth is that there is not a great way to rate all of the teams in such a large league with so few games played. This is likely the reason that the CFP committee is wanting the P5's to play P5's out of conference. It helps them gauge which conferences are stronger than others and provides some sort of hierarchy that they can work with.

If you don't like the starting point of pre-season rankings, do you like the CFP rankings? Do you think they're accurate?