Miami OC Shannon Dawson Urges No Rankings Until October, Blasts SEC Top-25 Bias
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Oct 6
Miami OC Shannon Dawson Urges No Rankings Until October, Blasts SEC Top-25 Bias
1 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 6
Summary
Shannon Dawson said college football should have no preseason rankings and no poll at all until October, calling early Top 25 lists “the stupidest thing” because voters overweight them.
Dawson argued those rankings distort how teams are judged all season, citing Texas A&M’s preseason top-five status and saying 5 of last year’s preseason top 10 finished outside the final top 25.
The Miami offensive coordinator said SEC teams benefit most because so many start in the Top 25, letting opponents claim résumé wins over “ranked” teams that may later prove mediocre.
He tied the problem to the NIL and transfer-portal era, saying roster turnover makes August projections less reliable while overlooked teams such as Nebraska and Wake Forest struggle to gain traction.
Dawson’s broadside reflects a wider complaint that human voters carry conference bias and that analytics-based rankings would better measure teams once games have actually been played.
With the transfer portal reshaping rosters annually, are preseason college football rankings simply a useless popularity contest that unfairly rewards past reputations?
If college football banned all rankings until October as suggested, how drastically would it alter the true national championship picture?