I know the counter-arguments:
>Rankings only matter at the end of the season.
>Who needs a target on your back?
>Likelihood of disappointment or under-achieving is high.
Ok, I get it. But here's the counter argument that I feel trumps them all:
>We can only control what we've done up to today and the future is uncertain.
If the world ended tomorrow, we'd be going out on top. Unlikely that would happen, but what if the season were cut short by something like COVID? Number 1 is number 1 and the more often your program is mentioned as number 1, the better.
We all know what happened last year, but that was pretty unusual. It's also mathmatically unlikely that we'll win it all, but it's never a bad thing to be rewarded with a high ranking based on EVERTHING WE'VE DONE RIGHT SO FAR.
Self had a killer off-season and stacked our team DEEP. This is just the recognition of what he pulled together. If his grade for the period of April-September is an A+ as evidenced by this ranking, why would anyone be happier if our current grade was an A-, or B, or C?
Finally, it never hurts recruiting for good news to come out of Lawrence. Updated AFH, #1 ranking, HOF coach...if you're a high school kid and Kansas is interested in you. you WILL be interested. Considering the years where KU was underrated and kids from the coasts had to overcome Kansas' geographical disadvantages to attend, this kind of thing helps make those concerns irrelevant.
