Like lots and lots of sports fans, I like rankings and polls. But I know why coaches dislike them so much - because they mean absolutely nothing. And some are downright ridiculous.
In the age of the Internet and etc., it seems like everybody has things ranked. I'm sure if I scoured google long and hard enough, I could probably find rankings for middle school tiddlywinks. And who are most of these people, these group who "vote" in the polls?
Because of this, rankings and polls have gone from being meaningful to gossip-like. It's anything but scientific. It's just opinion.
Take the latest CIF-SS Pac-5 Division rankings for example:
PAC-5 DIVISION
RK. LW SCHOOL (LEAGUE) W/L RESULT NEXT
1. 1. Long Beach Poly (Moore) 6-0 def. Millikan, 50-7 @ Wilson/Long Beach
2. 3. Orange Lutheran (Trinity) 5-1 def. JSerra, 35-3 St. John Bosco
3. 4. Los Alamitos (Sunset) 6-0 def. Marina, 42-7 Edison
4. 5. Crespi (Serra) 5-1 def. Chaminade, 42-17 St. Francis
5. 6. Edison (Sunset) 5-1 def. Newport Harbor, 14-7 @ Los Alamitos
6. 7. Notre Dame/SO (Serra) 6-0 def. Alemany, 44-17 St. Paul
7. 8. St. John Bosco (Trinity) 6-0 def. Santa Margarita, 47-21 @ Orange Lutheran
8. 10. Mater Dei (Trinity) 4-2 def. Servite, 42-21 JSerra
9. UR Tesoro (South Coast) 6-0 def. Mission Viejo, 31-14 @ San Clemente
10. 2. Mission Viejo (South Coast) 5-1 lost to Tesoro, 14-31 @ Aliso Niguel
Others Receiving Votes: San Clemente (South Coast), 6-0; Compton (Moore), 5-0; Bishop Amat (Serra), 5-1; Servite (Trinity), 3-3.
I want to pick on where Orange Lutheran sits as compared to St. John Bosco. How is one-loss OL second and undefeated SJB seventh? It seems like it should be the other way around.
For what it's worth, Maxpreps.com has SJB ranked No. 4 in the STATE and OL isn't even in the top 25.
I guess we will be able to find out which rankings are better Friday night when SJB and OL hook up at Orange Coast College at 7:30 p.m.
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