The USA Today college football coaches poll is out. Texas is ranked No. 1, defending champion Ohio State is No. 2, Ole Miss is 15th, and nine SEC teams are ranked in the Top 25. Now then, what all this means is…

…absolutely nothing. Zero. Nada. Zilch.

Seems like we could at least wait until Texas and Ohio State square off later this month to rank one team higher than the other or to rank any team at all for that matter. Preseason college football polls are about as meaningful as a politician’s promise, which is to say, not at all.

We ought to wait at least a month into the season to have rankings, which has been my rant forever, even back when, for several seasons, I voted in the Associated Press poll. Today, when college football rosters change faster than Trump’s tariffs, the preseason polls mean less than ever before. Ole Miss may well be the 15th best team in the country, but how in the heck anybody would know that is beyond me. Lane Kiffin lost eight terrific players to the NFL and about 30 more players in the transfer portal. Yes, the Rebels brought in a bunch of talent, too, but they will be practically a whole new team. The same is true for most teams around the country. College football has become one ridiculously huge game of musical chairs.

Given Kiffin’s track record — and what I saw from quarterback Austin Simmons in his brief appearances last season — it wouldn’t surprise me if the Rebels eventually become one of the best 15 teams in the country. But it also wouldn’t be all that surprising if they lost their second game — and first road game — Sept. 6 at Kentucky.

Honestly, where Ole Miss is concerned, my biggest concern would be all the talent that must be replaced on the defensive side of the ball. For all the hype Kiffin’s offense gets (much of it deserved), Pete Golding’s defense was every bit as effective last season. And Golden will be replacing nine starters.

The truth is, preseason polls exist to give us something to talk about or, in my case, something to write about before they start playing games.

Some other college football observations:

• It won’t get that much attention outside of the Magnolia State, but the Aug. 30 season opener between Mississippi State and Southern Miss is as intriguing as any in recent memory. Both will be playing with largely revamped rosters. Both badly need some early season success after terrible seasons last year. My only gripe: an 11 a.m. kickoff time? In August? On artificial turf? In Hattiesburg, Mississippi? If it’s a sunny day, the temperature down on the field will be about 120 degrees, if not hotter. Temps in the stands won’t be much cooler. The average “feels like” temperature for that time of the day at that time of the year in Hattiesburg is about 114 degrees. Football was not meant to be played when it’s that hot. Hell, football was not meant to be watched when it’s that hot. TV doesn’t care about any of that, and TV pays the bills and calls all the shots. I have often said that if TV told teams to play at midnight, they’d do it. In this case, that would be preferable.
• Jackson State is ranked No. 17 in something called the Stats Perform Preseason FCS football poll. Stats Perform? Glad you asked. I looked it up. Stats Perform is a Chicago-based AI company that is involved in sports data collection and predictive analysis for use across various sports sectors including professional team performance, digital, media, broadcast and betting. Artificial intelligence quite likely is at least as accurate as coaches polls or media polls. And T.C. Taylor’s Tigers probably deserve the high rating coming off last season’s 12-2 finish, which included a SWAC Championship and 28-7 victory over South Carolina State in the Celebration Bowl. JSU opens with a home game Aug. 30 against Hampton before heading to Southern Miss Sept. 6.
• Did you see where John Hartwell, formerly associate athletic director at Ole Miss (2012-2015) resigned Monday as athletic director at Louisiana-Monroe? Apparently, Hartwell resigned after being instructed to drastically cut an athletic budget that was already among the lowest in the country. On Tuesday, ULM football coach Bryant Vincent was named the interim athletic director. So now, besides preparing for a Sept. 6 football game at Alabama, Vincent must also deal with beach volleyball, cross country and balancing an impossible-to-balance budget. Good luck with that.