Rankings-Shmankings

So, it seems that everyone and their dog has a list ranking the best teams in the state, country, county, city, town, neighborhood and street. Generally, all a list like that does is spur discussion/arguments over how someone is being misrepresented or disrespected.

Historically, they are more often than not wrong. On the day of the NCAA D1 National Championship game, let's take a look at the top 10 that USA Today had, it being one of the oldest publications in the nation for their preseason rankings.

1. Alabama

2. Ohio State

3. Georgia

4. Clemson

5. Michigan

6. Notre Dame

7. Texas A&M

8. Utah

9. Oklahoma

10. Baylor

Tonight, Georgia and TCU will be playing for the championship. Georgia could probably argue that they were misrepresented a bit since they had just won the big game the season before but the USA Today writers are always looking to keep Coach Saban happy and try to get as many page views as possible. Where was TCU rated you say? Didn't even receive A vote.

Sure, they got 3 out of the final four in their top 10 but really? Anyone who has an IQ of more than a Chucky or even watched college football for the last 5 seasons could pick that top 10. Texas A&M had a historically bad season, Clemson never got off the ground, Utah...I don't even know what to say about that other than maybe one of the writers was trying to get the Mormon readership up and we all know how Oklahoma did this year after TBOW and Co. brought back Oklahomans moving from OK to CA that was reminiscent of the dust bowl days.

What matters is who is there at the end and who lifts that gold ball.

Personally, I'd rather hang my hat on trophies and actual accomplishments other than a ranking but maybe I'm funny like that.

All rankings at this point do is give the teams below the others fuel to kick some butt. There will be a ranking coming out soon showing that your Jackets probably won't be in the top spot. I'm good with that. As said above, if you're gonna talk trash based on what someone else thinks, your argument is already beat. Let's lace them up and talk between the lines because rankings aren't as good as the paper they are written on (showing my age there- should have said printed on or hell REALLY showing the age here, so you see kids, there's this stuff called paper that people used to write or print words on that people would read. This was done before smart phones/iPads and the like).

I am however, looking forward to the 4A girls' rankings. I can't wait to see the responses from that because I'm here to tell you, the Jacket Girls are legit. There are numerous nominees of SofaKing athletes on that squad and we are just waiting confirmation of their acceptance before announcing. Coach Young and her team do nothing but get better and dare you to try to stop them. They ran into a little hurdle last weekend against Jones, but if you turn that into a 3-game series- my money is on the Jackets. They are the epitome of you either win or learn.

Long story short, let them rank the teams, NBD. They are just stirring the pot. Go ahead and read them and have the fun but don't let it affect your play because no one can determine the heart, soul, will to win and commitment you have to your team. Because at the end, all that matters is who is holding the trophy.