Blogpoll Draft Ballot: Week 1 Comment Count

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

Dropped Out: Iowa (#14), Illinois (#16), Nebraska (#19), Pittsburgh (#21), Clemson (#23).

Major changes:
  • Boise shoots up the poll, and I didn't really intend for North Carolina to do the same, but it appears as though it has happened.
  • Virginia Tech drops on the basis of "I was ranking them because I thought Tyrod Taylor would finally produce," and that assumption did not hold true.
  • Oregon is still in the poll, though I think there's a possibility they really, really suck. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for one more week, on the basis that Boise might just be pretty good.
  • Ohio State and Ole MIss drop for being unimpressive in wins (don't let the final of that Ole Miss game fool you: Nutt was just running up the score at the end. That was a close game well into the third quarter).
What looks amiss? I'll admit this was kind of rushed, so there are probably lots of problems with it. For the first couple weeks, I'm taking pre-season expectations into account, to go along with a resume ranking.

Comments

baorao

September 8th, 2009 at 10:35 AM ^

LSU's QB looked like he'd be a better fit at one of the service academies, but with all the other playmakers they have I don't know that I'd call them the 23rd best team in the country.

jamiemac

September 8th, 2009 at 10:39 AM ^

Hey Tim! I gotta give you some props on the Canes. Not only were you one of the only people putting Miami on your initial ballot, but you had them in the poll over Florida State. Nice work. Jacory Harris sure looks like a playmaker and that whole team is loaded with sophomores and redshirt freshmen. Very exciting. A big game a week from Thursday: GTech at Miami. A top 10 spot on your ballot may be up for grabs. One question......did you give any thoughts about putting Cincy in there. I can buy leaving Oregon in there given they were on the road at a place nobody ever wins at, but I think the Bearcats should in there over KU. Otherwise, keep up the good work and enjoy the games.

wolfman81

September 8th, 2009 at 10:44 AM ^

I think that's a tad high for our lady. I don't know if I drop them out, but 22 or so seems better to me. And if you really believe that Michigan has a shot at them on Saturday, don't you have to have Michigan ranked? Just out of curiosity, where do you have Michigan "ranked" 26th? 30th? 40th?... I'm selling Oregon. I'd put MSU ahead of them. I'd put Michigan ahead of them. I'm sure if I thought long and hard about it, I could name another half-dozen teams I'd put in front of them.

sonofasonofadomer

September 8th, 2009 at 12:03 PM ^

That is what I saw from the games this past weekend. A lotta #15's to be sorted out. There is congestion in the middle and over the next 3-4 weeks we still start to separate a true top ten from the rest of the field. By my eye OSU, VaTech, LSU, etc, all drop below top tier consideration based on what I saw. If the Huskies do not fumble at the goal line in the first half that is potentially an entirely different outcome. LSU's D and O were unimpressive given the opponent. Teams like ND, UM, Cal (very impressive), MSU looked a few notches better than expected. The end result, a whole lot of teams swirling around #15 give or take. I would welcome others take on my one other thought: Boise St. did NOT impress me week one. That was a horrible game. Sure their D seemed inspired, but I thought the Ducks playcalling and execution had more to do with their demise on offense than some inspired D: Lateral runs in the endzone, STARING at your one receiver. They played terrible. And Boise St., for all of their offensive firepower missed chance after chance and kept letting an Oregon team that was horrific hang in. They looked like a strong non-BCS team. Nothing more, nothing less...#15.

MI Expat NY

September 8th, 2009 at 10:44 AM ^

Couple things. Not sure Penn St. deserves to jump five after a victory over Akron while Cal drops one after smoking Maryland. Secondly, TCU had a first round bye, not sure enough teams lost/looked bad to warrant a jump of 7 for them.

UofM Snowboarder

September 8th, 2009 at 10:54 AM ^

The Horned Frogs move up 7 spots for sitting at home picking their butts? Also: da U looked pretty decent. I really want to see Jacory Harris at least get an invite to New York at some point in his career. I wanna know if he goes for the Leopard print or fuzzy purple (or both?).

formerlyanonymous

September 8th, 2009 at 11:09 AM ^

  • Nebraska was ranked and took care of their FBS opponent.
  • Baylor beat a BCS opponent (Wake Forest) convincingly. Griffin is good.
  • Kentucky also looked awesome against Miami(Not That Miami)
  • Florida State may have lost, but they looked impressive in the loss
  • Navy - see Florida State

ShockFX

September 8th, 2009 at 11:14 AM ^

Cal should be above PSU. What they did to Maryland was criminal. Georgia showed no offense outside that first drive and shouldn't be above LSU; despite the fact UW outplayed LSU, LSU still won. Mizzou should be on there, at least above Oregon. I don't think you can drop Nebraska for smoking FAU, and raise up UT for beating WKU in WKU's first FBS game.

All_In_For_Michigan

September 8th, 2009 at 11:20 AM ^

I don't think Virginia Tech deserves to drop so far. Even though they only had 150 yards to Bama's 500, they were still in the game late into the 4th quarter. When you consider their 243 yards of kickoff returns, VT had 409 all-purpose yards compared to Bama's 632. I agree they deserve a drop, but I don't know if I see them behind Notre Dame and Cincy.

Hemlock Philosopher

September 8th, 2009 at 11:39 AM ^

The top half (besides BYU) looks good to me. I don't understand the dismissal of Pitt (38-3 W), Nebraska (49-3 W) and Clemson (37-14 W). I'd keep those teams ahead of the Utes (sloppy W against a very poor D1 team) and Oregon (L/ fisticuffs/ loss of top RB for season). BYU got fortunate with the loss of Bradford and are a better fit at #15, IMO.

MichiganStudent

September 8th, 2009 at 11:43 AM ^

I'd get rid of Oregon. They got trounced in the run game (their bread and butter) and lost their top RB for the season.

Yinka Double Dare

September 8th, 2009 at 11:50 AM ^

Add me in to those who think you should drop Oregon. No idea why you'd drop Nebraska when they won 49-3 against an FBS team that isn't horrid -- their QB is the Sun Belt's preseason offensive player of the year, and they did beat CMU in their bowl game last year as well. I'd rather see Nebraska in there over Oregon or even Kansas.

Snowden

September 8th, 2009 at 11:58 AM ^

Mountain West has the most teams in the top 10. Not saying that that's a bad thing or a good thing. Just different. - I'm thinking TCU a little high at the moment (more like 18-22 for me) - I wouldn't have dinged LSU as much as you, however. Seattle is a hell of a place to play, whether pro or collegiate. With any semblance of competency from coaching, a trip to UW will never be anything other than damn difficult. - As bad as Illinois might be, I'd think Missouri would at least be worthy of a 20's ranking. They were impressive. Or maybe Illinois made them look impressive. Or maybe vice versa. Whatever, it's early season ranking.

baorao

September 8th, 2009 at 12:22 PM ^

to assume that what we saw last night between FSU and Miami wasn't Michigan-Purdue 2008. I'll wait until they both play someone other than each other before put either one in the top 10 or 15.

UMFootballCrazy

September 8th, 2009 at 2:27 PM ^

Not sure how you can move PSU up five spots for taking care of business against a cream puff and leave ND at the same spot as last week. Either move both or neither. And if this poll is strictly based upon resume, Western Michigan is a better team than Akron, so why aren't our Wolverines ranked ahead of PSU as we beat a tougher opponent? Until we lose to someone, we are an undefeated team and our ranking should be based on who we have beaten. For that matter, we beat a tougher team than Florida beat. Or is it bad form to be a shameless homer?

Tim

September 8th, 2009 at 5:02 PM ^

Re: Notre Dame v. Michigan's rankings - It's a resume ranking, not a power poll. Nevada was expected to be better than Western, and Notre Dame beat them more convincingly than we beat Western. That said, they didn't look as good doing it as the score would indicate, so maybe I have them just a tiny bit too high.