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| Rank | Team | Delta |
| 1 | Alabama (11-0) | -- |
| 2 | Texas Tech (10-0) | -- |
| 3 | Texas (10-1) | -- |
| 4 | Florida (9-1) | -- |
| 5 | Oklahoma (9-1) | -- |
| 6 | Southern Cal (9-1) | -- |
| 7 | Penn State (10-1) |  1 |
| 8 | Utah (11-0) | 1 |
| 9 | Oklahoma State (9-2) | 2 |
| 10 | Georgia (9-2) |  3 |
| 11 | Missouri (9-2) | 3 |
| 12 | Boise State (10-0) | -- |
| 13 | Oregon State (7-3) | 13 |
| 14 | Ball State (10-0) | 2 |
| 15 | Ohio State (9-2) | -- |
| 16 | Georgia Tech (7-3) | 4 |
| 17 | Michigan State (9-2) | 5 |
| 18 | Brigham Young (10-1) | 1 |
| 19 | Cincinnati (8-2) | 5 |
| 20 | Pittsburgh (7-2) | 3 |
| 21 | TCU (9-2) | 3 |
| 22 | North Carolina (7-3) | 12 |
| 23 | Boston College (7-3) | 3 |
| 24 | LSU (7-3) | 7 |
| 25 | Miami (Florida) (7-3) | 1 |
Dropped Out: Florida State (#13), South Carolina (#21), Tulsa (#25).
Welcome! Oregon State, Boston College, Miami (Florida)
Yes, we put aside our East coast bias and woke up to the fact that Oregon State might be a pretty darn good team. They have now beaten Southern Cal and California and have the inside track to the Rose Bowl. Two of their three losses were to what we consider Top 10 teams (Penn State and Utah).
Waiting Room: Florida State, Maryland, Oregon, Nebraska, Northwestern.
Teams We Disagree On The Most: LSU (9.19)
What to do with Louisiana State? Jeff and I have a whopping 13 spot differential between our ballots for the Tigers this week. Jeff is high on LSU, while I'm not. We're really not sure what to do with these guys ... they are currently sitting at 7-3 (3-3). Their best win is a 24-17 victory at South Carolina. Their second best win? That might very well be their 41-13 beat down of Appalachian State back on August 30. Their three losses were at Florida and Georgia and Alabama at home. The Bayou Bengals pushed the #1 team in the country to overtime, but were absolutely pasted by both Florida and Georgia. And then last night they were down to Troy 31-3 in the third quarter before Troy remembered that they were, you know, a Sun Belt Conference team, were probably clearing $1m to play the game, and LSU scored 37 unanswered points (30 in the fourth quarter). Your guess is as good as ours.
Teams We Agree On: Alabama, Texas Tech, Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Southern Cal, Penn State, Oklahoma State, North Carolina ... we agree on these teams within one spot in the polls (standard deviation 0.71)
By Conference: Big XII 5, SEC 4, ACC 4, Big Ten 3, Mountain West 3, Big East 2, Pac 10 2, WAC 1, Conference USA 1
Games Brian Watched:
Central Michigan at Northern Illinois (50%)
Virginia Tech at Miami (Florida) (50%)
Notre Dame vs. Navy
Northwestern at Michigan (25%)
Ohio State at Illinois (25%)
North Carolina at Maryland
Wake Forest at NC State (50%)
Mississippi State at Alabama (25%)
Boston College at Florida State
Games Jeff Watched:
Virginia Tech at Miami (Florida)
North Carolina at Maryland
Wake Forest at NC State (50%)
Boston College at Florida State
Mississippi State at Alabama
11 comments:
You guys are suprisingly high on a pathetic Big Ten conference. Whats up with that?Michigan State jumps 5 spots due to beating a 3-7 purdue team 21-7. I understand 3 teams dropped out, but lets not get ridiculous.
In terms of LSU, they woke up and scored 30 pts in the 4th quarter and won. Cant really argue with keeping them in, but definitely are bordering on falling out.
Im no rutgers fan, but they should be in the waiting room. if Pittsbugh is in the top 25, the jersey boys should give them a little credit with their spanking of South Florida. That's 4 in a row conference wins w/the last 3 being blowouts. I understand they are 5-5 but are on a 4 game winning streak, beating Uconn (jeff's team)/Pitt/South Florida/Syracuse. With Louisville remaining, with some help they could share the big east title.
Waiting room is reserved for teams we vote on but don't make the Top 25.
Although Rutgers has won 4 straight, their overall record is 5-5 ... resume isn't Top 25 worthy.
Big Ten might be awful, but ranking Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan State isn't a stretch by any means. Two 9-2 teams and a 10-1 team. Sure, they aren't great, but it's hard to find 25 great teams to rank at this point in the season.
Agree with Brian on both points. Ranking a 5-5 NJST team in a conference that woeful would be criminal.
Big 10 isn't great, but it's not that bad, either. MSU might be the best of the bunch, and I think MSU, PSU, and (sigh) OSU all deserved to be ranked.
Eagles at 23 looks just about right to me. Not sure I would have dropped UNC so far, Maryland has been extremely good against ranked teams this year. I want to say this is their fourth (?) win over a ranked opponent this season. I imagine that's pretty high up there comparatively.
Watching most of the Ohio State-Illinois game, I decided Ohio State just isn't that good (yet).
Pryor is a beast, but Ohio State is a year or two away from BCSNCG status. You'll note Ohio State didn't go anywhere after beating a mediocre-to-bad Illinois team on the road, while the teams around them moved up.
It's nitpicky but I think UF could be above Texas. What is your argument for putting the Longhorns at number 3? Strength of Schedule?
winfield - Jeff and I disagree on Florida vs. Texas. He has the Gators #3 while I have the Longhorns #3.
My argument for Texas is one more win to date and one better loss (last second loss to the Red Raiders on the road vs. a Gator home loss to Ole Miss). The strength of their wins is about the same. UF smacked around teams like Georgia, USC, LSU ... while Texas got through OU, Missouri and OK State.
I realize Florida is straight up crushing teams of late, but I can't seem to look past their curious loss to Ole Miss.
Gators can prove they are #1 in the SEC Championship ... meanwhile Texas is going to need some help to get to Big XII title game.
So this will certainly be resolved in the next 3 weeks when Bama and Florida square off.
unlike winfield, i would like to commend you for not overreacting on florida. now, once they finish 12-1 and beat bama, then they can be vaulted to the top spot.
My one huge gripe with yalls ballot is that you can't put BYU ahead of TCU. TCU has only lost to your #8 Utah by 3 and your #5 OU in the best game anyone has given OU other than UT (amazing to think OU's toughest win was 35-10 - maybe Florida isn't the only team blowing people out, and OU does it in the first half - 1st quarter usually - rather than the 4th quarter). BYU hasn't played Utah yet, and they don't play anyone else good other than oh maybe that TCU team that destroyed them 32-7.
You have to give Effay credit, he's making the same case for his boys around the BC blog circuit.
effay - my take on BYU vs. TCU. Yes, BYU got torn a new one by TCU. But at this point, BYU has one more win than TCU, one less loss and their wins against BCS teams seem to be a wash ...
BYU: at Washington, UCLA smack down
TCU: Stanford, /crickets chirp
There are so few games that Mountain West teams play against good teams that the sample size is incredibly small.
TCU got their shot at Utah and couldn't put them away. Now, if Utah beats BYU in the Holy War, and TCU beats AFA this week, this will all work itself out.
Fair enough.
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