blogpoll ballots

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas	1
4	Cincinnati	1
5	Iowa	2
6	Boise State
7	Southern Cal	2
8	Miami (Florida)
9	TCU	1
10	LSU	1
11	Oregon	1
12	Houston	4
13	Virginia Tech	10
14	Penn State
15	Georgia Tech	5
16	Oklahoma State	1
17	Texas Tech
18	Auburn	3
19	Brigham Young	1
20	South Florida
21	Ohio State	8
22	Notre Dame	1
23	South Carolina	1
24	Wisconsin	1
25	Michigan
Last week's ballot

Just a couple minor changes from the draft:

I rearranged Virginia Tech, Penn State, and Houston a bit. I didn't really like moving Houston up (what with the loss to freakin' UTEP and all), but they definitely have a couple better wins than the Hokies or Nittany Lions do at this time.

I also moved Georgia Tech up a little bit, and I'm realizing that it's time to rethink the resume chart a bit, since I still have Oklahoma as a very impressive win for Miami (Yes That Miami), much more than a 3-3 outfit deserves.

At the urgings of commenters (and against my better judgment, I think), I included Michigan as the #25 team in the poll. It's put up or shut up time for the Wolverines, as Penn State provides a chance to cement position in the polls, or drop out of them for good.

For next week, Arizona, Pitt, and Central Michigan will all be considered for the top-25, and I'll try to update the resume chart in terms of quality wins.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas	1
4	Cincinnati	1
5	Iowa	2
6	Boise State
7	Southern Cal	2
8	Miami (Florida)
9	TCU	1
10	LSU	1
11	Oregon	1
12	Virginia Tech	9
13	Penn State	1
14	Houston	2
15	Oklahoma State	2
16	Georgia Tech	4
17	Texas Tech
18	Auburn	3
19	Brigham Young	1
20	South Florida
21	Ohio State	8
22	Notre Dame	1
23	South Carolina	1
24	Wisconsin	1
25	California
Last week's ballot

I like how this ballot turned out, given the wacky circumstances of this week, but I'm not super-enamored with it. As always, suggestions are welcome.

Please don't pay too much attention to the delta values, as they never seem to work properly on my ballot.

A couple points to consider:

• Texas was pretty close to jumping Florida, but the Gators' resume overall is still more impressive, despite the fact that they should have lost to Arkansas.
• Should Georgia Tech be ranked ahead of Virginia Tech? Probably not, because the Hokies are GT's only big win on the year, while VT has a few good wins to its credit.
• I don't know what to do with Ohio State. I don't think they deserve to be ranked where they are (obligatory lolpurdue), but looking at wins, they should be. I guess there should be an "embarrassment level of loss" metric to take into account.
• Some of the teams toward the back end of the poll seem to be only vaguely deserving of inclusion. However, the teams on my "consideration" list (see the chart after the jump) don't seem to be any better. Which teams am I forgetting about that deserve a shot?

As always, the full resume chart is after the jump. In future weeks, I think I'm going to trim it down, and only include each team's top 5 wins, along with all the losses for every team on the chart. A 63-6 shellacking over a 1-AA team shouldn't really be relevant to separating teams (and if it is, I can look at it on a case-by-case basis). The main reason for this, of course, is that I'm breaking the tables on the MGoTemplate.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Florida	4
3	Virginia Tech	1
4	Texas
5	Cincinnati	2
6	Boise State	1
7	Iowa	1
8	Miami (Florida)	2
9	Southern Cal
10	LSU	3
11	TCU	1
12	Oregon	4
13	Ohio State	2
14	Penn State	1
15	Auburn	1
16	Houston	1
17	Oklahoma State
18	Brigham Young
19	Georgia Tech
20	South Carolina	3
21	Notre Dame	1
22	Nebraska
23	Kansas
24	Missouri	4
25	Wisconsin	1
Last week's ballot

Alabama maintains their top spot, while Florida vaults back up into the poll by virtue of getting its first really big win, couple with Tennessee showing that it was no pushover against Georgia. Considering the Gators have dominated every overmatched opponent they've played, the strength of schedule no longer hurts them that much.

Most of the other moves near the top of the poll were Gator-related. I still like Cincy above Boise State, because the Bearcats have the stronger overall resume, despite not dominating the common opponents quite as much as the Broncos did.

LSU drops down for spoiling their chance for a big win, coupled with Georgia proving that it was basically a nothing victory for them.

Oregon moves up a bit, though that makes me feel guilty for dinging Ohio State despite a pretty good win against Wisconsin.

Nebraska jumps into the poll after finally beating a worthwhile team, instead of just living off their close defeat to Virginia Tech. I get really wary of basically everyone towards the end of the poll, so if there's somebody that I should have included but didn't let me know.

Resume chart after the jump.