STARKVILLE, Miss. — If the objective of the college football polls is to rank who we think are the best teams — to identify the best of the brand names with the most prodigious pedigrees — the latest edition of the Associated Press Top 25 probably got it right.
No. 17 Notre Dame should be ahead of No. 23 Northern Illinois, and certainly so should any team from the powerhouse SEC.
If the goal is to reflect reality — as in the results of the games — I’ll have to politely disagree.
It’s why I ranked Northern Illinois (2-0) in front of the Notre Dame team it handled in South Bend.