We all like to read about our teams. Especially if someone feels they belong in the nation's top 25 for the upcoming season. The byproduct of this desire is a proliferation of preseason rankings that begin hitting the interwebs just hours after the National Title game.
Sites release these rankings because they're good for hits. Other sites with message boards link them, which drives a slew of visitors to your site for about 3 seconds per pair of eyeballs, and the owner of said site can be proud that their journalism is generating so much interest.
Of course, it's all garbage. But that's the internet. It's quantity, not quality, and it appears as if it is here to stay.
Already this offseason we've had the initial offerings, and then the post signing period lists. Those were followed by lists updated following the commitments of some key transfers. After the post-Wiggins top 25's, I sort of lost count. It's not as if I read them anyway.
We still have five months until tip off. No one on the planet can tell you who the best teams will be. There's still too much time for things to happen.
Take the Gators. No one knows if incoming 5* power forward Chris Walker will qualify. He not only needs to pass three courses, but he also needs to raise his ACT score. Patric Young had surgery. Will Yeguete had surgery. Transfer Eli Carter still hasn't been cleared to play this season. And starting point guard Scottie Wilbekin is suspended indefinitely.
That's just the question marks for one team.
Unfortunately, as more and more blogs turn away from original content and focus solely on aggregation and curation, the problem isn't going to go away. Not unless you stop clicking.
