Hey! college football polls! Yeah, I'm talking to you - no one else has ruined college football the way you have.

Not the shady boosters sliding money and plush jobs under the table to scholarship athletes. Not the fans that treat the game featuring unpaid 18-22 year old kids like it's life or death.

It's you, polls. You distract from the game, you aggravate coaches and fans with your ever-changing, perplexing roller coaster ride.

For instance, I wasn't surprised to see Boise State fall in this week's rankings after a very underwhelming victory against UC Davis. But I was very surprised to see Virginia Tech as the team that supplanted the Broncos in the 5th spot of the AP and Coaches polls.

Seriously? Va Tech? The same Hokies that had trouble with Duke on Saturday? Apparently, Tech's win over Miami earlier this season, and Miami's win over previously 9th-ranked Oklahoma on Saturday gave the Hokies the edge, but the whole thing just feels ridiculous.

USC, face pressed against the rear windshield of Boise State's poll position, probably should have been the team that hopped the Broncos instead - but that makes too much sense for you, polls, and it's only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the list of ridiculous claims you've made.

Brian Murphy of the Idaho Statesman had one of the better points about this issue I've seen in print.

"I also know that most voters/coaches watch ESPN to get their college football fix on Saturday nights, especially since most spend the day focused on one or two games at most. The comments on the network carry an echo effect," Murphy wrote.

ESPN isn't really a true news network any more. There's too much analysis - too much opinion - mixed in slyly with the fact-based content. The network's influence on every pollster - from the AP to the coaches and the Harris poll voters - shouldn't be overlooked. When the FOX network's contract with the BCS runs out, who's to say ESPN won't be in total control of college football? I'm not sure I like that very much.

But I'm getting off track here. I don't mean to bash the worldwide leader, because that's exactly who and what they are and ESPN flat-out does it better than anyone else.

The problem with you, polls, is that you are just too easily influenced by things happening in TV studios instead of on the gridiron.

It's a shame college football uses you to decide its champion - the only sport to do so - instead of a playoff.

But perhaps the worst of all is that I'm part of the problem instead of the solution.

Reporting on you each Sunday (and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc) gives you credit that I haven't believed you deserve in a very long time.

But I can't stop, and neither can my colleagues across the country.

We're addicted to you polls, hopelessly, shamelessly addicted and I can only hope one day college football as a whole can shrug you off and crown a true champion using a football instead of a typewriter and email ballots.