BLOGPOLL BALLOT #10

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	1
2	Ohio State	1
3	Boston College	1
4	Oregon	5
5	Oklahoma	—
6	South Florida	3
7	Arizona State	1
8	Kansas	4
9	Missouri	2
10	Florida	3
11	South Carolina	4
12	Virginia Tech	2
13	West Virginia	3
14	Kentucky	6
15	Virginia	9
16	Georgia	3
17	Michigan	9
18	Rutgers	8
19	Hawaii	1
20	Boise State	3
21	Connecticut	5
22	Alabama	4
23	Southern Cal	2
24	Oklahoma State	2
25	UCLA	1

Discussion: I give up. Seriously, I give up. I’m not at all sure wins and losses are the best way to rank the teams this season.

BLOGPOLL BALLOT #9

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Ohio State	1
2	LSU	1
3	South Florida	2
4	Boston College	—
5	Oklahoma	1
6	Arizona State	3
7	South Carolina	6
8	Kentucky	6
9	Oregon	3
10	West Virginia	—
11	Missouri	—
12	Kansas	6
13	Florida	6
14	Virginia Tech	9
15	California	12
16	Texas Tech	10
17	Auburn	7
18	Tennessee	7
19	Georgia	7
20	Hawaii	4
21	Kansas State	5
22	Cincinnati	14
23	Boise State	3
24	Virginia	5
25	Southern Cal	3

Discussion: I feel about this poll the way I feel about every presidential election: Nobody deserves to win it, but somebody has to. In the end, I only dropped LSU one spot because (a) Kentucky is pretty good, and (b) I feel pretty sure that LSU could take either South Florida or Boston College.

Oh, and I finally saw Hawaii play–nice comeback, but that is not a great football team. That’s Tulane in 1998, going 11-0 against a weak schedule.

BLOGPOLL BALLOT #8a

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	Illinois	11
16	Hawaii	2
17	Wisconsin	12
18	Kansas	8
19	Virginia	5
20	Connecticut	5
21	Arkansas	2
22	Southern Cal	19
23	Virginia Tech	3
24	Auburn	2
25	Tennessee	1

Discussion: Finally got to drop some of the underachievers in the poll. Still a few seats on the Brian Kelly Greatness Express, but hurry. I hate having ASU in the top 10, but it’s hard to argue they don’t belong there. I fear I’m now underrating Illinois just because they’re a Big Ten team. Andrew, I listened to you, but honestly, if I could think of another team to put at #25, I would . . . I really don’t believe in Tennessee.

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

Draft. Commentary to follow.

BLOGPOLL BALLOT #7

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	—
2	Ohio State	6
3	Southern Cal	—
4	California	2
5	Wisconsin	4
6	Kentucky	6
7	South Florida	7
8	Florida	4
9	Boston College	2
10	West Virginia	5
11	Cincinnati	5
12	Oklahoma	10
13	Oregon	3
14	Georgia	5
15	Texas	8
16	Arizona State	7
17	Missouri	5
18	Hawaii	1
19	Arkansas	1
20	Rutgers	5
21	Kansas State	5
22	South Carolina	2
23	Purdue	2
24	Virginia	2
25	Connecticut	1

Draft. Commentary to follow later.

BLOGPOLL BALLOT #6

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	—
2	Oklahoma	—
3	Southern Cal	—
4	Florida	—
5	West Virginia	—
6	California	—
7	Texas	—
8	Ohio State	—
9	Wisconsin	1
10	Oregon	3
11	Boston College	—
12	Kentucky	9
13	Penn State	4
14	South Florida	5
15	Rutgers	—
16	Cincinnati	2
17	Hawaii	—
18	Arkansas	2
19	Georgia	3
20	Michigan State	3
21	Clemson	3
22	Missouri	4
23	Arizona State	3
24	South Carolina	12
25	Purdue	1

Discussion:

• I’d already dropped Nebraska last week but I wish I could drop them again this week.
• Kentucky might be really good.
• I think I might still be overrating Penn State. I know I’m overrating Wisconsin, but what do I do with them?
• Everything from 18 on is a guess. I mean, those are the right teams, in my opinion, but I’m not at all sure about the order they’re in.
• Louisville. Eeeeyulch. Way to go, matching the scoring total of the Big Ten’s least productive offense against the ‘Cuse, while failing to stop them from doing anything they pleased on offense.

BLOGPOLL BALLOT #5

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	—
2	Oklahoma	—
3	Southern Cal	2
4	Florida	—
5	West Virginia	2
6	California	1
7	Texas	1
8	Ohio State	4
9	Penn State	4
10	Georgia	4
11	Wisconsin	3
12	Boston College	14
13	Oregon	13
14	Louisville	5
15	Rutgers	2
16	Arkansas	6
17	Hawaii	1
18	Cincinnati	1
19	South Florida	1
20	Alabama	6
21	Kentucky	5
22	Michigan State	2
23	Clemson	2
24	Georgia Tech	2
25	Mississippi State	1

Discussion:

• No, I’m not moving Southern Cal back to #1. Good for them, really, because Lincoln has never been an easy place to play, but even if it happened in garbage time they let Nebraska have too much late success in that game. I can’t see LSU or Oklahoma doing that. I’d say “sorry” but I’m not sorry.
• If I could I’d make Cal and Texas co-#6.
• Wisconsin is just waiting to be found out but don’t worry. It won’t happen this week!
• About the drops: What else should you do with UCLA after a floormopping like that? Maybe I’m too hard on Nebraska, I would concede that, but I don’t think I’m being too hard on them. TCU, Auburn, and Washington don’t need explanation.
• Yes, I am TOTALLY serious about Mississippi State. It’s hard to win a game in Auburn. So watch the Bulldogs lose to Gardner-Webb this week. That would be just their luck–and mine.

BLOGPOLL BALLOT #4

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	1
2	Oklahoma	3
3	West Virginia	2
4	Florida	—
5	Southern Cal	2
6	Texas	1
7	California	1
8	Wisconsin	—
9	Louisville	—
10	Arkansas	3
11	UCLA	4
12	Ohio State	—
13	Penn State	3
14	Georgia	3
15	Nebraska	3
16	Hawaii	1
17	Rutgers	2
18	South Florida	3
19	Cincinnati	7
20	Michigan State	3
21	Clemson	3
22	Georgia Tech	3
23	TCU	3
24	Auburn	10
25	Washington	1

Discussion:

• I didn’t move West Virginia down; I moved LSU and Oklahoma up to where I thought they belonged.
• The Texas/Cal swap is because I like the way Texas pulled itself together and started taking it to TCU in the second half.
• Most of the rest of the movement in the poll stems from vacuums created by TCU, Auburn, Virginia Tech (who have NOT looked like a top 25 team AT ALL in their two games), and Boise State.
• I have officially purchased a ticket for the Brian Kelly Greatness Express, and I’m guessing that after losing to Northern Iowa 24-13, Iowa State is wishing they’d bought a ticket for the BKGE too.

BLOGPOLL BALLOT #3

Rank	Team	Delta
1	West Virginia	—
2	LSU	—
3	Southern Cal	—
4	Florida	—
5	Oklahoma	4
6	California	4
7	Texas	2
8	Wisconsin	—
9	Louisville	2
10	Virginia Tech	3
11	Georgia	1
12	Ohio State	1
13	Arkansas	2
14	Auburn	—
15	UCLA	1
16	Penn State	1
17	Hawaii	3
18	Nebraska	3
19	Rutgers	1
20	TCU	3
21	South Florida	4
22	Boise State	4
23	Michigan State	3
24	Clemson	2
25	Georgia Tech	1

Discussion: No movement at the very top, but a little necessary reshuffling in the mid-upper reaches of the poll.

Oklahoma and Cal move up to fill a vacuum. Oklahoma should have dropped 79 points on North Texas; Cal was very good against a Tennessee team that everybody has been calling overrated since the first preseason mags hit the newsstand. Texas and VT drop for struggling more than they should have against clearly lesser opponents. I almost feel like I should have dropped Texas further. The rest of the movement down to #21 is just re-sorting after one week.

Boise State moves in. I can’t believe I’m ranking Sparty but they were pretty danged brilliant against UAB, even if it was UAB. Clemson wasn’t great against FSU but got the job done. GT beat Notre Dame but don’t worry, I promise I won’t rank every team that beats Notre Dame this year.

As far as the drops, well . . . FSU and Tennessee are obvious, while Miami drops even though they won because I felt Clemson and GT deserved the spots at the bottom of the poll. I wasn’t sold on the Canes to begin with.

For some reason a hacker munged my preseason ballot. They put Michigan as the #6 team in the country! Haha, those crazy script kiddies! This week’s ballot evaluated Michigan a little more realistically.

SECOND BLOGPOLL PRESEASON BALLOT

Rank	Team	Delta
1	West Virginia	—
2	LSU	2
3	Southern Cal	—
4	Florida	2
5	Texas	1
6	Michigan	1
7	Virginia Tech	—
8	Wisconsin	2
9	Oklahoma	1
10	California	1
11	Louisville	—
12	Georgia	—
13	Ohio State	—
14	Auburn	—
15	Arkansas	4
16	UCLA	1
17	Penn State	—
18	Rutgers	—
19	Florida State	5
20	Hawaii	—
21	Nebraska	1
22	Tennessee	6
23	TCU	2
24	Miami (Florida)	2
25	South Florida	1