Blogpoll Draft Ballot Week 6 Comment Count

Tim

I moved to a full resume ballot this week, so some of the deltas may seem a little bit off. The full chart of resumes can be found here, listed from most to least impressive victories.

There are a few things I'm not certain of (there is a case to be made for Michigan State above Florida, for example, and as usual, there could be a number of other teams at the end of the poll).

I'm open for suggestions, corrections, etc., so comment and I'll try to respond and/or include your contributions.

Comments

Blazefire

October 4th, 2010 at 8:35 AM ^

I can see maybe dropping OSU 1 for that win, but three? I mean, it was "close" but not that close, and historically, they've had problems @ Illinois for whatever reason. Ron Zook seems to have Tressel's number just a little bit. I think I would drop them only one, because they still won, and dropping them three gives them a lot of ground to make up to get back into the top 2 by year's end, assuming they go undefeated, and I'm SURE you'll agree that if they do go undefeated, they deserve to be in the top 2.

papabear16

October 4th, 2010 at 9:20 AM ^

Is it really a "drop" if this is the first resume ballot?  If I started from scratch and looked at the teams as they sit right now, I'd definitely start with Alabama and Oregon ahead of OSU.  Maybe I'd have OSU 3rd at the highest.  And I'm trying not to knock OSU because I hate them; simply, Alabama has been dominant, and Oregon looks ridiculous, too.

Bodogblog

October 4th, 2010 at 9:25 AM ^

Illinois would have gotten the ball back with several minutes to play in the 4Q, down only four. But their CB (CB!) lined up offsides. Now they probably don't do anything with it, but farting around for a few minutes ends that game at 17-13. A dominant team should put Illinois away w/out that type of scare.

Pryor 76 passing yards? Come on. A top team should be dominant on both sides of the ball, and not seemingly afraid to let its star player loose against poor competition.

They can play back in if they continue to win

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

October 4th, 2010 at 9:53 AM ^

I actually dropped them a lot further than that.  Miami is a nice win but it's all they've got.  The rest of their schedule is tissue-soft.  I definitely have Oklahoma well ahead of them, for one.  That at least is a total no-brainer to me.  LSU, also.

Tim

October 4th, 2010 at 9:26 AM ^

I think the degree of humiliation in the Florida win (and same story with PSU, though to a lesser degree) makes it a more impressive win than over Arkansas, even though the Hogs may be the better team.

jaggs

October 4th, 2010 at 2:09 PM ^

Florida I can buy, as they are separated by 2 spots, and yes, it was an epic beatdown. PSU is unranked and looks horrible. Certainly a win over the #14 team is better than an unranked team that has looked bad?

Edit: I know i'm arguing semantics at this point.

bigmc6000

October 4th, 2010 at 8:43 AM ^

IMO, I'd put them at #7.  TCU, Nebraska, OU, Auburn.  I know OU is undefeated but watching those games I'd have 0 confidence in them beating any of those teams ranked around them.  I mean, they beat UT which got the shit kicked out of them, at home, by UCLA; barely beat Air Force (you could use let down argument I suppose after FSU) and got exceptionally lucky vs a bad Cincinnati team - couple all that with the less than inspiring win against Utah State and I just don't think OU has shown the ability to really win against a good team and, no, UT isn't a good team - that offense is nothing short of a nightmare given the God-awful play calling.

 

Other than that I like the rest of it.

Tim

October 4th, 2010 at 9:28 AM ^

I was hesitant to put Oklahoma where I did, but keep in mind this is a resume poll, not a power ranking. They have more impressive wins than the teams ranked around them, for sure. Florida State, BYU, and Texas make for an impressive top 3 victories.

formerlyanonymous

October 4th, 2010 at 8:44 AM ^

I'd look at dropping Wisconsin a bit more. Raise AF up a few spots. I'd at least have AF above FSU. They have two common opponents that AF has looked better against (OU and BYU), and I see the win over Navy on par with Virginia at least.

I'm probably going to start jumping off the TCU bandwagon here pretty soon too. They're looking terrible in the first half of every game, but they just have enough talent to outlast the crappy schedule they've been playing. That's not impressive enough for me. Last week they were down in the 2nd half against SMU. This week, only 6-0 at the half before pulling away against Colorado State. Huge red flags there.

TartanAlex

October 4th, 2010 at 8:53 AM ^

The Tigers have been horrible and barely squeezed past a Tennessee (Not That Tennessee) outfit. I think you could put them behind Stanford, Miami and Arkansas. Maybe even behind Iowa too. Sure, LSU is "undefeated" but god knows how. 

Tim

October 4th, 2010 at 9:30 AM ^

"God knows how," but they are indeed undefeated, and they've done it against a pretty decent schedule.

Believe me, I'm one of the most consistent LSU-haters out there, but the resume so far, unfortunately, puts them about where I have them. 

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

October 4th, 2010 at 9:57 AM ^

LSU has yet to play a real pansy.  In fact their schedule is very, very impressive.  UNC and Tenn. are underachievers, sure, but there's not a single Citadel, EMU, or Sacramento State sitting on there unlike other contenders on the list.

In years past I've consistently voted LSU much lower than conventional wisdom for playing an unworthy schedule, but this year they're the ones outpacing the competition so far.

Yostal

October 4th, 2010 at 8:54 AM ^

The 2010 Oklahoma Sooners are the fifth best football team in the nation?  Wow.

I mean, they did lay the smack down on what is turning out to be a decent Florida State team, but I don't know.

That said, I can't make a case for putting anyone else above them.  Wow.

Is Nebraska's drop an issue of out of sight, out of mind?

Tim

October 4th, 2010 at 9:32 AM ^

No, the Oklahoma Sooners are probably not the 5th best team in the country. However, they do have the 5th best resume in the country, which is what I'm ranking here (per the philosophy of the blogpoll).

Nebraska's drop is due to the move to a resume poll, and a realization that they've only played one team that is anything other than an embarrassment to the concept of out-of-conference scheduling.

Needs

October 4th, 2010 at 10:29 AM ^

If it's pure resume, I think Oklahoma has a case for #3. Every one of their wins, save perhaps Cincinnati, is against a team that has a quality win or is in the poll. Their resume looks better to me than Boise's, and definitely better than OSU's.

Comparison to Boise: Blowing out FSU @ home > 2 score win over Oregon St. @ home, beating Texas by 8 > beating Va Tech by 3. The remaining 2 and 3 games are interesting barometers. Is it better to blow out bad teams or to beat decent teams. We don't likely need to talk about Wyoming and NMSU, but Air Force is in the back end of your poll, Utah State just killed BYU (which may not mean much this year but does show they're at least capable), Cincinnati may be their actual #5, and they are a BCS team and the game was away.

OSU has a better #1, but the remainder of their schedule is far inferior.

Now, in seeing things on the field, they in no way look like #3 (they tried to give that game away on Saturday and have been perfectly incompetent at closing out games), but just looking at them on paper, they look to have stronger resumes. Does "how they look" figure into resume ranking? (That's not rhetorical, it's an actual question).

Wolverine0056

October 4th, 2010 at 9:07 AM ^

I don't know about Iowa moving up that much. Especially ahead of MSU and us. They are a 1 loss team that lost against a good Arizona team, but they won against an overrated PSU team this last weekend. It's not terribly off but I don't agree with them being up that high.

sweet maize chicago

October 4th, 2010 at 9:22 AM ^

msu beat a good wisconsin team, which is more impressive than iowa's win over penn st.  msu also beat ND, which at this point looks a little bit better than the dog we all thought they were since ND's losses came against us, msu and stanford and that's a legit schedule.

iowa lost to arizona and it's win over isu isn't too impressive.  right now, i think any combination of match-ups including mich, msu, iowa and wisc is a pick 'em, so you have to default to resume in large part and i would say that means the order is msu, iowa, mich, wisc. 

and florida should be ahead of all four, but it's close.

Yamadata

October 4th, 2010 at 9:17 AM ^

I think you have consider dropping Utah down further. If this is straight resume ballot, then their best win is an at home OT win over Pitt. This is the same Pitt team who got hammered by Miami. I'm not saying LSU is any great shakes, but their resume has to be more impressive than Utah's. It seems like Utah is in everyone's top 10 and no one can quite explain why.

I'd also consider bumping both Iowa ahead of Miami. It looks like Arizona might actually be a football team, and with that in mind I'd say Iowa has been every bit as impressive as Miami, but their loss was far more competitive than Miami's waxing at the hands of tOSU.

Sigh.... stupid Sparty should also be stupid higher.

MH20

October 4th, 2010 at 10:42 AM ^

  • At the very least, I think that Nebraska should be ahead of OU.
  • Wisconsin should be dropped below Nevada and South Carolina.
  • Boise should be dropped below Ohio State.  I don't have a problem with dropping OSU to #3 after a subpar win against Illinois (and Bama and Oregon thrasing their opponents), but to drop them below Boise is too much, IMO.  Beating NMSU 59-0 means nothing; GVSU could probably beat the Aggies (NTA).
  • I'd swap Air Force and FSU, or at the very least bump Mizzou to 23, with AF 24 and FSU 25.
  • I hate to say it, but I agree with MSU ahead of UM (argh).

EDIT: I definitely missed that this is a resume ballot.  In that case, pretty much disregard everything I said.  Sorry.

Dan TrueBlue

October 4th, 2010 at 9:47 AM ^

If this is really a resume ballot, then why are Boise St and TCU so high?  Even on a non-resume ballot, I would keep OSU above Boise.  And as far as resume ballots go, Boise State hasn't beaten anyone of any note.  And TCU has done even less.  Same goes for Utah, for that matter.

I'd also consider dropping LSU to #16 or #17.  Like Michigan, they may be 5-0, but they've shown some flaws and still require a lot of convincing.  If Tennessee didn't come on the field with 13 men, LSU would have lost to them.

Finally, as much as I hate to say it, Sparty should be moved higher, so that it's touching rank with Iowa rather than Michigan.  The win against Wisconsin was solid.

Tim

October 4th, 2010 at 9:56 AM ^

Boise's top two wins are Oregon State and Virginia Tech. Ohio State's are Miami and... Illinois? Though the Buckeyes have the better "marquee" win, until they play a couple more conference games, their body of work is not as good as Boise's. That's what happens when you play Ohio, Eastern Michigan, and Marshall in the non-conference.

As long as major-conference teams take care of business, they'll pass Boise State during the year. The Broncos really needed AT LEAST a 1-A opponent for their final non-conference game, and probably a BCS-conference team if they wanted to be a serious contender at the very end of the year.

Dan TrueBlue

October 4th, 2010 at 10:36 AM ^

I suppose Oregon State and VaTech look a little better, now that they've beaten Arizona State and NC State.  I didn't check who they played this week until now.  I'm still not sure that pushes Boise St above OSU beating Miami, much less gives TCU a #6, but I can see where you're coming from at least.

I'm sticking to my guns on Utah, though!

UMaD

October 4th, 2010 at 10:03 AM ^

Nebraska has one win against a quality opponent (@Wash).  MSU has an (arguably) more impressive win vs. Wisconsin, and the ND victory.  It may not be clear how Washington, Wisconsin and ND stack up  against each other, but I'd give MSU the edge with two victories against (presumed) quality BCS-caliber teams to the Huskers' one.

MSU should also be above Iowa who has beaten...Penn State, I guess.

Put MSU way higher, they deserve more than these other teams.

MI Expat NY

October 4th, 2010 at 11:30 AM ^

At what point might we start considering that Wisconsin isn't quite who we expected them to be?  Does anyone realize that teams Wisconsin have beaten have combined for one win over FBS competition?  And that win is over New Mexico, so it barely even counts.  Besides the Austin Peay beatdown, it's not like Wisconsin had been destroying these teams, either.

This brings up the problem I have with resume voting.  You are saying that a win over Wisconsin, and partially ND, both at home should lead to a big jump for Sparty.  And while I think those are both good wins, it seems that you're making an assumption that Wisconsin is a top 10 team.  An assumption that I don't think has been supported yet by results on the field.

I like resume voting when there's enough data to consider.  I don't think we've reached that point yet.

MI Expat NY

October 4th, 2010 at 1:04 PM ^

But how often do wins "look better at the time" than they do after a season's worth of evidence? 

I don't get the rush to resume balloting.  As long as you're willing to admit your presumptions may turn out to be wrong and adjust accordingly, I prefer a "power ranking."  Resume balloting makes sensse when you have enough data to not have to make too extreme of presumptions.  In my mind, we're still a couple weeks away from that.

UMaD

October 4th, 2010 at 2:09 PM ^

Polls don't make sense no matter what, this early, if ever. 

Power polls are even more reliant on presumptions than resume polls.Resume voting at least has some criteria and perhaps encourages decent matchups in the preseason games.  Power ranking is just a set of arbitrary opinions based on...well, it depends.  A power poll of 1. MSU 2. Wisconsin makes as much sense as 1. Boise State 2. TCU makes as much sense as 1. Alabama 2. Auburn...and so on. 

bronxblue

October 4th, 2010 at 11:31 AM ^

My only issue with MSU being ranked this high is that they have yet to play a real road game, and that means something.  Nebraska went to Washington and ran them over, the same Washington team that just beat USC for the second straight year.  I think MSU is a good team, but I'm not sold that Wiscy is the 2nd best team in the Big 10 (they needed a missed PAT to escape against ASU), and beating a 2-3 ND is probably not the marque win anymore.  If MSU comes to UM and beats them this week, then by all means crown them a top-10 team.  But until then, I don't know how good they really are.

WolverineHistorian

October 4th, 2010 at 10:35 AM ^

Is Auburn really a top ten team?  A 3 point win over Mississippi State, a 3 point overtime win over a 2-2 Clemson team, two cupcakes (Arkansas State and Louisiana-Monroe) and a 6 point win over forever mediocre South Carolina.  I don't know.  They are 5-0 but I'd put them in the teens and not in the top ten.

Tim

October 4th, 2010 at 10:56 AM ^

Again, it's not about "feeling like a top ten team," it's a matter of their resume. If you can find somebody behind them with a better one (outside of perhaps Michigan State), please point them out to me.

oriental andrew

October 4th, 2010 at 11:01 AM ^

if anything, I'd swap LSU and Auburn.  LSU, as badly as that Tenn game ended, has still beaten two ranked-at-the-time teams (UNC and WVU).  They play Fla next and don't play their cupcakes (McNeese State and ULM) until later.  That's a pretty decent resume to go 5-0 against.  

Auburn, OTOH, has Miss St, Clemson, USC (NTUSC), Ark St, and ULM.  Going by resume, they're not much, if at all, better than Michigan, or Michigan St for that matter.

 

  • IU = MSU
  • UConn < Clemson
  • ND = USC
  • UMass > Ark St
  • BG = ULM