Columnist Ron Kantowski: Let’s make college polls wait and see

Thursday, Sept. 4, 2003 | 9:26 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Forget about the Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping. Or Oregon's mellow yellow uniforms. The real crime of the century, according to those who follow college football, is that Southern Cal is not ranked No. 1 in the nation this week.

Were the Trojans the best thing I saw on college football game day last weekend? Other than Oklahoma's throwback jerseys and helmets, absolutely. Does USC deserve to be ranked No. 1? On the basis of one game, certainly.

Based on its performance at Jordan-Hare Stadium, where the only Auburn highlights were the ones in the hair of the Tigers cheerleaders, USC would have gotten my vote for No. 1, had I one.

But I also would remind any angry Trojan Man that it was only two years ago that Utah of the Mountain West Conference not only beat Carson Palmer and company in the Las Vegas Bowl, but physically dominated SC in doing it.

In other words, be happy with No. 4. There's still a lot of football to be played, and hopefully, it'll all work out in the wash by season's end.

For all its faults, the Bowl Championship Series is still the closest thing college football has to laundry detergent. Since its inception, it has done a nice job of producing a national champion that most fans are comfortable with, although it also has been lucky.

The law of averages would dictate that one of these years, three teams are going to run the table during the regular season, and one of them will be eliminated from national championship consideration by some miniscule factor such as the strength of a schedule that in some cases, is made 10 years in advance.

Part of the reason the BCS has been an improvement over letting sports writers or coaches determine the best team in the land by their lonesome is that it doesn't release its initial standings until late October. Granted, the various polls, which establish a pecking order during the off-season, are still given too much weight in the BCS standings, but at least they are somewhat offset by what has transpired on the field for nearly two months.

So what are the chances that the pollsters, most of whom are charged with casting votes for teams that they've never seen play, will forsake the guesswork of rating the teams during June and July, and let things play out on the field for a little while before marking their ballots?

I'd say no greater than Ozzy Osbourne being invited to Wrigley Field for a return gig. Although it often appears the preseason rankings are arrived at by throwing a dart at what happened last year, they do create a buzz and give fans and alumni something to talk about during two-a-days.

Besides, how would the guys who mass produce those ubiquitous "We're No. 1" foam fingers feed their families during the first half of the season?

Maybe there's a compromise solution. I heard Trev Alberts -- or was it Kirk Herbstreit? -- during halftime of one of the bazillion games on ESPN last weekend propose that the pollsters hold off voting until after the first big weekend of the season.

That way, USC probably would be No. 1 today, although where would you put Pitt, Purdue, Notre Dame and Arizona State, teams ranked among this week's Top 25 which have yet to play?

Another proposal would be the other extreme: Let last year's final poll serve as the first one for this year. Kind of like in boxing, where the champion remains as such until somebody beats him.

While I'm not sure that works for everybody, it would make the Alamo Bowl Presented by MasterCard a lot more interesting in the grand scheme of things.