The "grain of salt" point is the most important line here. Rankings are just sentiment gauges, not fundamentals. Nebraska and Pitt being 10-0 looks great on paper, but until they survive a five-set thriller against a top-tier defense, it's just stats in a vacuum. In crypto, we see this constantly: projects with perfect early metrics that collapse under real pressure. I'm watching the how, not just the who. A team that wins ugly but adapts is more dangerous than one that wins clean but has no Plan B. The coaches' ballots will shift when the actual stress tests begin.