Shannon Dawson, offensive coordinator for the Miami Hurricanes, criticizes preseason college football polls during a press conference, arguing they should not exist until October and often favor teams from the SEC conference unfairly. He points out how preseason rankings can mislead expectations, noting examples like Texas A&M's poor performance despite initial high rankings, while other deserving teams receive less recognition. Dawson emphasizes that preseason polls create misleading narratives based on past performances rather than predicting future success accurately.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-06,
using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the
same event (that is the story summary below).
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The model judged this article politically coded and scored it -0.45, but all 2 of its quote(s) are attributed speech - words the article quotes from someone, not the article's own narration, so the score is not published.
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Leaning score withheld for article 61317: attributed speech only · logged 2026-10-06
The advent of NIL and the transfer portal has already made gauging the "best" teams in early August nearly impossible, and as the jaw-dropping 2025 Indiana Hoosiers championship season demonstrated, the modern era has created more surprise teams than in the past.
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era → make → past
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page → contain → partners
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News → sign → wager
This content was created by a team that works independently from the FOX newsroom.
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that → create → newsroom
And one prominent offensive coordinator thinks we should get rid of them entirely.
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we → think → them
Miami Hurricanes OC Shannon Dawson recently addressed the preseason polls, specifically addressing how they consistently seemingly favor one specific conference.
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they → address → conference
A conference that already more often than not gets the benefit of the doubt from poll voters.
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that → get → voters
"First of all, there should be no such thing as preseason rankings," Dawson said during a press conference.
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Dawson → say → conference
"That’s the most ridiculous thing on the planet.
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That → ’ → planet
That is the stupidest thing, because people weigh those things way heavier than they should.
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they → weigh → things
"You shouldn’t have a ranking until October.
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You → have → October
How do you know?
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you → know → ?
(Texas) A&M was ranked in the top-five, but how does that look right now?
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that → rank → five
If anything, it isn’t predictable for the future, it’s the past.
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it → ’ → future
I did.
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I → do → ?
It's impossible to argue with that, because it's true.
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it → argue → that
And despite A&M, and others, looking far worse than their preseason expectations, the first few weeks of games and rankings reflect that initial set.
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weeks → look → set
Texas A&M loses to LSU, which must mean LSU is good, because A&M was a preseason top-5 team.
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A&M → lose → LSU
Missouri was ranked in the preseason, for some reason, which must mean Mississippi State is also good, because they beat a preseason top-25 team.
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they → rank → team
Obviously the preseason poll doesn't only affect one conference; Big Ten teams like Michigan, Penn State and Washington have looked far worse than preseason polls suggested.
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polls → affect → Michigan
On the other hand, though, Nebraska and Wake Forest have received little attention and respect from voters, despite deserving it, because they didn't start the year in the top-25.
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they → receive → top-25
Dawson continued, specifically calling out the SEC and how those teams fluctuate from week-to-week.
"
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teams → continue → week
So we sit here and look at schedules, and obviously everything is SEC, SEC.
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everything → sit → schedules
Well look… they have all of their teams in the top-25.
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they → look → top-25
That’s just the way it is.
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it → ’ → ?
We can’t sit here and say, ‘hey, we play X number of top-25 teams’.
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we → sit → teams
We don’t know that.
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We → know → that
We’ll count those chips up at the end of the year.
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We → count → year
"That’s why there shouldn’t be rankings, because you give people talking points that are idiots.
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that → ’ → points
They don’t know what they’re doing.
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they → know → what
It's like Dawson's been reading a certain OutKick writer's columns complaining about the polls each week.
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Dawson → read → polls
Voters are humans, and humans are biased.
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humans → bias → ?
They don't always watch all the games, and some have even forgotten to rank elite teams like Miami periodically.
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some → watch → Miami
Some, like ESPN's Heather Dinich, post about the importance of winning "SEC road games," as if that some sort of remarkable achievement.
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that → post → achievement
Her specific example, Kentucky, beat a bad Texas A&M team and a bad South Carolina team.
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example → beat → team
Why should that be rewarded by placing the Wildcats at No. 17, just because it's the SEC and those teams have big stadiums?
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teams → reward → stadiums
At the end of the day, using a blend of analytics and efficiency driven rankings would lead to a better result than trusting voters.
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using → use → voters
Especially before anyone's even seen teams play on the field.
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teams → see → field
But because there are vested interests who want preseason polls to continue, they will.
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they → be → ?
Many valuable college football traditions have gone by the wayside in the modern game, but somehow not that one.
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traditions → go → game
The Aporia
