10/8/2007
BLOGPOLL BALLOT #8
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | LSU | — |
| 2 | Ohio State | — |
| 3 | California |  1 |
| 4 | Boston College | 5 |
| 5 | South Florida | 2 |
| 6 | Oklahoma | 6 |
| 7 | Florida | 1 |
| 8 | Cincinnati | 3 |
| 9 | Arizona State | 7 |
| 10 | West Virginia | — |
| 11 | Missouri | 6 |
| 12 | Oregon | 1 |
| 13 | South Carolina | 9 |
| 14 | Kentucky |  8 |
| 15 | Wisconsin | 10 |
| 16 | Hawaii | 2 |
| 17 | Illinois | 9 |
| 18 | Kansas | 8 |
| 19 | Virginia | 5 |
| 20 | Connecticut | 5 |
| 21 | Arkansas | 2 |
| 22 | Southern Cal | 19 |
| 23 | Virginia Tech | 3 |
| 24 | Auburn | 2 |
| 25 | Georgia | 11 |
Dropped Out: Texas (#15), Rutgers (#20), Kansas State (#21), Purdue (#23).
Draft. Commentary to follow.
7 Comments »
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I’m genuinely curious about something. Many people may still believe that Wisconsin is a better team than Illinois. However, Illinois has played better opponents, beat Wisconsin, and has only one loss - to a better team than Wisconsin lost to. On what basis does Wisconsin stay ranked above Illinois?
Is this a case of “one loss can only drop a top-5 team (even a suspect one) so far”? Do you see something in the Badgers that indicates that they’re still the second best team in the Big Ten? Is it a case of a bunch of teams all about the same level that you had to put in order and it just came out that way? Or is it something else?
Obviously, Illinois still has to win some more games to win respect, especially after the abysmal seasons they’ve had the past two years. So I’m not particularly upset about a #17 or #18 ranking at this point in the season. But I want to get inside the heads of the pollsters and figure out why the rankings end up the way they are. Like, for example, if you hid all the team names and there were no rankings for the first 5 weeks of the season, would the pollsters still put the teams in the order they are in now (the answer, I believe, is a resounding “no”).
Comment by Dave — 10/8/2007 @ 10:01 am
Having Wisconsin ranked above Illinois is obviously an error on my part. I’ll correct it when I submit my final ballot.
Comment by Mark — 10/8/2007 @ 10:08 am
Well, then I won’t be getting any more insight from you about why a lot of other pollsters voted the same way 8^) I was hoping you could shed some light on the subject.
Maybe you just did?
Comment by Dave — 10/8/2007 @ 11:28 am
Also, I have to give you some props for moving UF *up* after the loss to LSU. Yeah, maybe they shouldn’t have been ranked so high to begin with, but they played a heck of a game and I think they win if that game was played at Florida.
Comment by Dave — 10/8/2007 @ 11:30 am
You moved UVA up 5 spots for beating Middle Tennessee State on a last-second field goal?
Comment by Tim — 10/8/2007 @ 11:40 am
Tim, moving UVA was probably a function of teams ahead of them losing (Georgia, USC, Arkansas, Texas, Rutgers, KSU, Purdue).
One beef (aside from Wisc-Ill, which you realize): Georgia being ranked while Tennessee is not. UT lost to (in your current ballot) #3 Cal and #7 Florida. UGA lost to #13 S Car and unranked Tennessee, and they lost to Tennessee in spectacular (like the Hindenburg) fashion. Swap UT and UGA.
Comment by andrew — 10/8/2007 @ 2:02 pm
Those Hoos just know how to win.
Comment by Mark — 10/8/2007 @ 4:17 pm