A few weeks ago, Athlete’s Connection sportswriter Chad Washington put up an impassioned argument concerning whether 7-on-7 football was an accurate indicator of regular-season fortunes.

On this week’s podcast, Washington and Dave Purpura wonder how important polls are. Are they an accurate indicator of success or simply something for the media to do?

Unlike 7-on-7, polls never are played out on the field.

So it is simply a motivating factor for unranked teams or is it as Ohio State football coach Jim Tressel put it this week, saying the Big Ten’s poll is “really kind of irrelevant because you get to line up against eight folks in your league to see who the champion can be.

“And outside the next week or two, there's not much discussion on the preseason poll.”

Listen for what we think. What do you think?