blogpoll ballots

A few changes from the draft, mostly based on the help from commenters. The chart is still the same as the draft ballot, though I'll add South Carolina into the mix, as suggested by Doc Sat.

• I dinged Brigham Young a bit further, since the Oklahoma win isn't that impressive yet (though the Sooners have a chance to live up to the hype against Miami this weekend) and because Florida State is an embarrassing loss - both in terms of margin and the fact that FSU didn't cover themselves in glory against South Florida. I still think Oklahoma over BYU is defensible because the game between the two was close at a neutral site, and BYU's loss was horrible.
• I moved Penn State down a bit further because they haven't done anything yet. In their only game against real competition, they were not competitive.
• Cal drops down a lot because their Oregon loss was an embarrassment. Oregon moves up for pounding a former member of the top 5, and because Boise has proven to be legit competition thus far. A win over Utah isn't something to sneeze at, either.
• I dropped LSU down a little bit, because in two of their wins (both over unranked opponents), they were outplayed for much of the game, and probably should have lost at least one of them. They'll have plenty of chances in the future to prove themselves.

At this point, a few things look odd (i.e. a couple of teams in the top 10 not feeling like "Top 10 teams"), but that's life, especially early in the year.

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

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

This week, I totally scrapped what I had before, and went by a strict-ish resume ranking. The table I used can be seen after the jump. There are some big movers.

• Virginia Tech: They have two of the best wins in the country, plus their only loss was at a neutral site to my #1 team.
• Houston: Knocking off a second BCS opponent (one expected to be pretty good, if not contend for a conference title) sees them jump up a bit.
• Iowa: The win over Penn State finally gives them a victory big enough to warrant a top spot on the blogpoll. They're also one of the few teams in the country with wins over 3 BCS conference teams.
• LSU: They also have 3 wins over BCS foes, though none as impressive as Iowa's.
• Oklahoma State: I'm not sure how I feel about them rising. I guess the loss to Houston is a little more excusable since the Cougars are looking like legit competition so far. Oklahoma State still just has one big win over a "meh" Georgia team and then a couple cupcakes.
• Cal: They were rocked by Oregon. Given the circumstances, I may even drop them a little closer to Oregon in the poll. However, they have two wins over BCS-level competition (as much as Maryland and Minnesota can be described as such), including one away at a sucky time for a West Coast team.

Anything else need to be explained or changed? Let me know.

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

Changes from Draft:

• Moved Ole Miss down. Their resume is far less impressive than a bunch of teams near the top, and is on par with (at best) Penn State. Speaking of whom, the Lions' resume probably doesn't quite warrant being ranked where they are, but I'll let momentum hold them for another week, since conference play in the Big Ten is rolling around, and they'll finally have a chance to actually prove themselves against Iowa. Cincinnati moves past both of those teams because they have big road wins against a team expected to win their own conference (Rutgers, whom they shitcanned) and one from the west coast.
• I moved Kansas down, down, down. I was talked into including them in week 1, and they have stayed on the poll mostly just because they were already there. Without good resume wins, they haven't earned their spot on the poll yet, and were bumped. Notre Dame took their spot.
• I moved Virginia Tech up, because they were being a little unfairly punished for one loss, when it was to the number one team. Considering they've beaten a ranked team, just like the Trojans, they should be around that level, so I slotted them between USC and Ohio State.
• I moved Iowa down because they have one bad win (Northern Iowa) and two fairly neutral wins (big over Iowa State, average over Arizona). That doesn't compare to most teams. They'll have a chance to prove themselves on the road against Penn State.
• Moved GT down some, because their offense hasn't been as impressive as last year, and they've been bad in both a win (Clemson) and a loss (Miami).
• UCLA replaced Oklahoma, because the Sooners have one "good" loss (to BYU), but no good wins yet. They'll have a chance in the near future (they play at MIami in a couple weeks) to get back into the poll.

In future weeks, I want to go strictly on a resume-only ranking. That might mean a little bit of chaos as far as the Mr. Manic-Depressive award goes next week, but that's life, I guess. I'll also try to be a little more transparent with my methodology, probably going with a chart, a la Dr. Saturday last year.

I will admit, some of the wonky-ish ratings have happened in attempt to not be irrationally exuberant on Michigan. With a transparent methodology, that won't happen anymore, and everything should be much more consistent.

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

• USC obviously falls with their loss to Washington. Despite the head-to-head, I'm considering moving them below Ohio State, since the Buckeyes' loss wasn't nearly as embarrassing.
• Florida didn't impress against Tennessee, allowing them to be jumped by Texas. Should the Horns' uncomfortably close win against Texas Tech prevent them from leaping the Gators?
• Miami of Florida's move is predicated on two solid wins now on the season, both over teams that are ranked.
• I think it's fair at this point to move Boise past Mississippi, especially since Oregon may not be the lost cause they looked to be a couple weeks ago. The Rebels (and other teams with strong schedules) will probably move past the Broncos in coming weeks no matter what.
• I had more of an opportunity to dissect the results and take them into account this week. Nonetheless, I'm sure I've still made mistakes. Let me know in the comments and I'll try to fix them.

I put a little more thought into this week's ballot than last week's holiday edition. There are still some things I'm not comfortable with, so comments are obviously very welcome.

• Florida didn't really do anything to move down, but USC and Alabama have definitely had more chances to prove themselves on the big stage so far.
• For some reason, I ended up with Notre Dame several spots ahead of Michigan, which will be fixed by the final ballot (though I do think the Irish are a pretty legit team this year).
• I don't really like Iowa and Northwestern towards the end of my ballot, but I didn't really have anybody else off the top of my head that seemed to belong.
• I don't like Tennessee where they are, especially considering their resume-building win was against a functional bye team.
• Some of the deltas appear to no be quite right, so don't worry about those too much (especially considering I don't even really look at last week's ballot to formulate the new one).

Help me out in the comments.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	2
2	Alabama	2
3	Florida	2
4	Texas	2
5	Penn State	1
6	Brigham Young	1
7	Boise State	2
8	Houston
9	Cincinnati	6
10	California	2
11	Miami (Florida)
12	Georgia Tech
13	TCU	3
14	Nebraska
15	Mississippi	4
16	Ohio State	2
17	Notre Dame	1
18	UCLA
19	Tennessee	2
20	Auburn
21	Florida State
22	Michigan
23	LSU
24	Iowa
25	Northwestern
Last week's ballot
Dropped Out: Oklahoma State (#7), North Carolina (#13), Virginia Tech (#17), Utah (#18), Oklahoma (#20), Georgia (#22), Kansas (#24), Oregon (#25).