Blogpoll Ballot Week 4 Comment Count

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



Dropped Out: Rutgers (#13), Missouri (#16), Penn State (#19), Virginia Tech (#25).

As always, I never look at previous ballots when I go through initial drafts. So sometimes things get a little wonky. Points of possible contention:
  • Missouri plummets out for no reason at all. A small oversight, but they will be moving down significantly. Other than a win over Illinois they've done nothing and other teams are beginning to rack up accomplishments.
  • The chaos! Oy, the deltas here are terrifying. Yes, apparently I did slide Oregon up four after a loss. Yes, South Florida got the mother of all boosts from a combination of their win over WVU, Auburn's win over Florida, and KState's win over Texas. At this point in the season my rankings are mostly descriptive and not predictive and I remain skeptical of the turnover blizzard that earned USF its wins over both teams, but that defense is for real. I spent most of the Friday night game thinking "boy, I wish we had South Florida's defense" and emitting great big heaving sobs.
  • Florida State! Beat Alabama and now their win over Colorado looks much better. One of few teams to have three games against pretty decent teams under their belt.
  • The destruction of the Big 12 losers. Texas was waiting to have this happen to them after looking lackadaisical against UCF and Arkansas State. They have no quality wins and their loss was by 20 to a probably decent but not great KSU team. Hell, maybe I should dump them entirely. Their resume is basically Kanasas with a 20-point loss. Oklahoma... well. I think I wanted them behind Florida State because of the Colorado comparable, but they did splatter Miami who splattered A&M so they might deserve to be a little higher.
  • South Carolina still way above Georgia. Georgia's big win over 'Bama just got significantly devalued, people, and Georgia's huge win over Ole Miss was closer than it appeared. And also against Ole Miss.
  • UVA! GT win looks better now. Just took out an awful Pitt team handily. Meanwhile, VT has played no one against LSU, and even though they're #1 I'm sure there are dozens of teams across the country that could manage to lose by less than 41 to them. Like, say, Tulane. Yeah, UVA lost to Wyoming, but I'll take the team that's actually beaten someone over the team that hasn't.

Questions for the masses:

  • Should I drop Texas entirely in favor of Missouri?
  • Where should WVU, Florida, and OU go?
  • What do I do with Clemson? They're up a spot after a dismal loss because I have to keep them ahead of surging Florida State.



Games observed: WVU-USF, Michigan-Northwestern, MSU-Wisco, Texas-KSU, Oregon-Cal, GT-Clemson (last three quarters of last four; all at the same time in Evanston sports bar; vertigo acquired); Florida-Auburn, bits of USC-Washington.