Pre-season polls are just not worth the time looking at. In basketball it generally works out by the end of the season. Much of the subjectivity dissolves as teams play the season, conference tournaments, and THE tournament (even though there are always some hot teams at the end). In football, it is completely ridiculous. True fans of a sport only use the polls as a barometer of what could be a good game. After watching, you get a pretty good idea which are the "good" teams and how our team matches up. People that are obsessed with the polls are typically the casual fan. Present company excluded. We are simply pointing out the flaws.
Last year was great example. So many of my Illini alum friends comented that, "Looks like the Illini have a good basketball team this year". This was when they were inside the top 25 (not top ten). And I thought to myself, "You have no idea how good".