At the start of every college football season, The Associated Press releases the preseason rankings of the Top 25 NCAA football teams. To no one’s surprise, Florida, Texas and Oklahoma occupied the No.1, 2 and 3 spots, respectively.

Big deal. With OU already out of the picture with an injured Sam Bradford and a loss to BYU, their shot of a National Championship may already be in question.

For years, the BCS has favored the big name conferences. If you’re school is a member of Conference USA (like us) forget about receiving the invitation to play in the National Championship game.

Two years ago Boise State had a perfect season in 2006, giving them a shot to play OU in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl.

By defeating the No.10 OU Sooners in the Fiesta Bowl, the Broncos proved they could run with the big dogs, but because they were not ranked in AP Preseason polls they weren’t given the chance.

Perhaps voters felt a team from the WAC was inferior to teams from the Big 12, SEC and the Pac 10, among others.

Just this last year, Utah, another team that went undefeated during the regular season, and who was not ranked in preseason polls, was also denied the a shot in the National Championship team.

The Mountain West team went 13-0, including a 31-17 win over Alabama, the No.4 team, in the 2009 Sugar Bowl.

Up 21-0 at the half, the Utes led the Tide by the largest point deficit Alabama faced all season.

For the first time in NCAA history, Utah became the first team from a non-BCS conference to win two BCS bowls. It still confuses me as to why the AP kills team’s chances before the season starts by putting out rankings based on past performances and the future strength of their schedules.

Florida, repeating their reign as National Champions suffered a loss to a non-ranked Ole Miss. OU, Florida’s rival for the title lost to conference foe Texas. How is it that with one loss each, both teams were the top contenders for the game?

This year, Boise State was ranked as the No.14 team in preseason polls. Utah came in at No.19. To kick off their season, Boise State knocked off the preseason No.16 team, Oregon, 19-8 on the blue turf. Now, with the rest of their games against teams they can easily defeat in the WAC, another perfect season seems to be within reach. Chances are, despite an OU loss and tough schedules for Florida and Texas, the Broncos most likely will miss another shot at a National Championship.

The preseason doesn’t even mean anything. Rather than basing votes off last year’s talent, why not wait till at least conference play begins to see who the real powerhouses for 2009 are going to be. The first round of AP votes do nothing more than jump the gun and get fans excited, but often do nothing more than set fans up for disappointment. Just ask Oklahoma.

Nicole Jacobsen is a senior journalism and advertising double major. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].