BlogPoll Ballot Draft (Updated: Official)
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tennessee |  25 |
| 2 | Southern Cal | 3 |
| 3 | Texas | -- |
| 4 | Auburn |  3 |
| 5 | Iowa | 3 |
| 6 | Ohio State | 1 |
| 7 | Notre Dame | 1 |
| 8 | Louisiana State | 4 |
| 9 | Michigan | -- |
| 10 | Nebraska | -- |
| 11 | Louisville | 5 |
| 12 | Florida | 1 |
| 13 | West Virginia | -- |
| 14 | Florida State | 1 |
| 15 | Georgia | 1 |
| 16 | Miami (Florida) | 2 |
| 17 | Oklahoma | -- |
| 18 | Clemson | 1 |
| 19 | Virginia Tech | 3 |
| 20 | Oregon | 6 |
| 21 | Cal | 9 |
| 22 | Penn State | 4 |
| 23 | Fresno State | -- |
| 24 | Pittsburgh | 2 |
| 25 | Georgia Tech | -- |
Dropped Out: Arkansas (#18), Northern Illinois (#20), Boston College (#21), Michigan State (#24).
Comments:
- A note: this year I'm not looking at past ballots at all when I put in new ones. This may lead to surprising moves, but whatever. I hate poll momentum and if I can't remember where I ranked a team the week before my opinion on it probably wasn't worth keeping.
- Er... definitely a first in the poll is Tennessee hopping from unranked to #1, though it's still a very shaky recommendation. They lost most of a vicious front seven but just got done rolling one of last year's top rushing attacks. A lot of their points came when the Cal secondary elected not to tackle UT wideouts on simple out routes, sure, but that game was 35-3 before Cal made it respectable towards the end.
Also: don't let anyone tell you the Pac10 isn't soft. This game stands as incontestable proof of that conference's inferiority. Prediction: within five years the Mountain West gets their BCS slot. - Auburn didn't do anything against WSU to drop, but Michael's nonstop Tiger bashing convinced me that mayhaps I was being irrationally exuberant.
- Miami and Florida State looked like the same team to me and remain within huggling distance. Only time will tell whether those defenses are viciously unstoppable or if the offensive lines are just as crappy as they were a year ago. Survey says a little of both.
Side note: Mike Patrick had the line of the weekend discussing uber-recruit Myron Rolle. After mentioning his straight As since eighth grade, Patrick said "I can't even be complimentary about that. It just makes me angry." Maybe you had to be there. - Okay, Penn State fans, I tenuously add you on Morelli's strong showing, but how many rushing yards was that again?
Games Seen: BC-CMU, South Carolina-MSU, bits of Fresno-Nevada, Michigan-Vanderbilt, bits of Akron-PSU and OSU-NIU, UT-Cal, GT-ND, Miami-FSU, most of the first half of Neb-LTU, aaand way too much of Baylor-TCU.
Update: Note that the Pac-10 stuff above was TIC. Cal will probably end up 8-4 or 9-3 and Tennessee decked them. I moved Iowa down a few spots since they didn't handle their I-AA tomato can nearly as efficiently as Auburn and USC did more respectable opponents. Louisville took a hit, but not that much because of the Bush situation -- they have replacements for him and will be fine. It was more because I'm pretty sure I was just searching for anyone to put in the top ten preseason. NIU is replaced with Pitt, because Pitt had a nice opener and mustache.