SPORTS CHART OF THE DAY: This Is Why College Football's Preseason Polls Are So Important

In six of the last eight seasons, the eventual BCS champion was ranked in the preseason top five of both the Associated Press and USA Today Coaches Poll. And only Auburn in 2010 was ranked outside of the top ten during that stretch.

This doesn't necessarily prove that polls give an unfair advantage as there is a bit of a chicken-or-egg situation here. Do teams finish number one because they started the season ranked very high? Or do the teams start ranked high because the voters knew that team could win it all?

The real answer is probably somewhere in the middle. But what we do know is that it is unlikely that any team not currently ranked in the top five will win the BCS Championship this year. And that's good news for the teams that are. So congrats to USC, Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma, and Oregon on your preseason pre-championship...

Data via ESPN.com

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