Blogpoll Draft Ballot: Week 8 Comment Count

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


Dropped Out: Texas Tech (#17), Auburn (#18), South Florida (#20), Michigan (#25).

Pretty self-explanatory this week. A few teams move up, primarily because I was undervaluing them last week (Iowa, Arizona, Pitt). Sadly, that probably makes me a pretty good candidate for Mr. Manic-Depressive this week, but that's how it goes sometimes.

There isn't too much I'm uncomfortable with. I think the top 10 is rock-solid, although near-stumbles by 'Bama, Florida, and Iowa might give Texas an opening. As usual, the last few teams in the poll are barely hanging on. If anyone can come up with other teams that have a legitimate argument for being included in the poll, let me know in the comments.

Resumes after the jump, your feedback in the comments.

Rank Team 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
1 Alabama 34-24 VT 20-6 So Carolina 22-3 Ole Miss 35-7 Arkansas 38-20 Kentucky 12-10 Tennessee 40-14 Florida Int 53-7 N Texas
2 Iowa 21-10 PSU 20-10 Wisconsin 27-17 Arizona 30-28 Michigan 15-13 Michigan St 35-3 Iowa State 24-21 Arkansas St 17-16 N Iowa
3 Florida 13-3 LSU 41-7 Kentucky 23-13 Tennessee 23-20 Arkansas 29-19 Miss St. 56-6 Troy 62-3 Charleston
4 Texas 41-7 Missouri 34-24 Texas Tech 16-13 Oklahoma 38-14 Colorado 59-20 Monroe 41-10 Wyoming 64-7 UTEP
5 Cincinnati 34-17 South Florida 47-15 Rutgers 28-18 Oregon State 41-10 Louisville 28-20 Fresno State 37-13 Miami OH 70-3 SEMO
6 USC 30-3 California 18-15 Ohio State 34-27 Notre Dame 42-36 Oregon St 56-3 SJSU 27-6 Wazzou 13-16 Washington
7 TCU 38-7 BYU 14-10 Clemson 30-14 UVA 44-6 Colo St 20-17 Airforce 39-14 SMU 56-21 Texas State
8 Boise State 19-8 Oregon 28-21 Tulsa 51-34 Fresno 54-9 Hawaii 49-14 BGSU 48-0 Miami OH 34-16 UC Davis
9 LSU 31-10 Auburn 20-13 Georgia 31-23 Washington 30-26 Miss State 23-9 Vandy 31-3 UL Lafayette 3-13 Florida
10 Oregon 43-19 Washington 31-24 Utah 42-3 Cal 24-10 UCLA 52-6 Wash St 38-36 Purdue 8-19 Boise
11 Houston 45-35 Oklahoma St 29-28 Texas Tech 31-24 Miss St 44-16 Tulane 38-15 SMU 55-7 NW St 41-58 UTEP
12 Georgia Tech 28-23 Va Tech 24-7 No Carolina 42-31 Miss St 30-27 Clemson 34-9 UVa 49-44 Florida St 37-17 Jax State 17-33 Miami FL
13 Penn State 35-10 Michigan 20-0 Minnesota 35-17 Illinois 28-7 Syracuse 31-6 Temple 31-7 Akron 52-3 Eastern Ill 10-21 Iowa
14 Virginia Tech 31-7 Miami 48-14 BC 16-15 Nebraska 34-26 Duke 52-10 Marshall 24-34 Alabama 23-28 Ga Tech
15 Oklahoma State 33-17 Missouri 24-10 Georgia 36-31 Texas A&M 34-7 Baylor 41-24 Rice 56-6 Grambling 35-45 Houston
16 Pittsburgh 41-14 South Fla 24-17 Rutgers 24-21 UConn 35-10 Louisville 54-27 Buffalo 24-17 Navy 38-3 Youngstown 31-38 NC State
17 Ohio State 31-13 Wisconsin 38-7 Minnesota 30-0 Illinois 33-14 Indiana 38-0 Toledo 31-27 Navy 15-18 USC 18-26 Purdue
18 Notre Dame 35-0 Nevada 37-30 Washington 33-30 Michigan St 20-16 BC 24-21 Purdue 27-34 USC 34-38 Michigan
19 Arizona 43-38 Stanford 37-32 Oregon St 27-13 UCLA 19-6 Central Mich 34-17 Northern Ariz 17-27 Iowa 33-36 Washington
20 Miami (FL) 34-17 Ga Tech 21-20 Oklahoma 38-34 Florida State 2707 UCF 48-16 FAMU 7-31 Virginia Tech 37-40 Clemson
21 South Carolina 16-10 Mississippi 7-3 NC State 28-26 Kentucky 14-10 Vandy 38-16 FAU SC State 6-20 Bama 37-41 Georgia
22 Wisconsin 38-30 Mich State 31-28 Minnesota 34-31 OT Fresno 28-20 NIU 44-14 Wofford 10-20 Iowa 13-31 Ohio State
23 Cal 45-26 UCLA 35-21 Minnesota 52-13 Maryland 49-17 Wash St 59-7 E Washington 3-42 Oregon 3-30 USC
24 Utah 23-16 Air Force 24-17 Colorado St 30-14 Louisville 24-14 SJSU 35-15 UNLV 35-17 Utah St 24-31 Oregon
25 BYU 14-13 Oklahoma 42-23 Colorado St 50-21 UNLV 38-28 SDSU 35-17 Utah State 54-3 Tulane 7-38 TCU 28-54 Florida St
Texas Tech 31-10 Nebraska 66-14 Kansas St 48-28 New Mexico 55-10 Rice 38-13 No Dakota 24-34 Texas 28-29 Houston 30-52 Texas A&M
Auburn 41-30 West Virginia 26-22 Tennessee 49-24 Miss State 37-13 La Tech 54-30 Ball State 10-31 LSU 23-44 Arkansas 14-21 Kentucky
South Florida 17-7 Florida State 34-20 Syracuse 35-13 WKU 40-7 Wofford 59-0 Charleston S 17-34 Cincinnati 14-41 Pitt
Michigan 38-34 Notre Dame 31-7 W Michigan 36-33 Indiana 45-17 E Michigan 63-6 Del St 28-30 Iowa 20-26 Michigan St 10-35 Penn St
Kansas 35-28 So Miss 44-16 Duke 41-36 Iowa State 34-7 UTEP 49-3 Northern Co 13-35 Ok St 30-34 Colorado
Nebraska 27-12 Missouri 55-0 UL Lafayette 49-3 Florida Atl 38-9 Ark St 15-16 VT 10-31 Texas Tech 7-9 Iowa St
Missouri 37-9 Illinois 31-21 Nevada 27-20 BGSU 52-12 Furman 12-27 Nebraska 17-33 Oklahoma St 7-41 Texas
Georgia 41-37 So Carolina 20-17 Ariz State 52-41 Arkansas 24-10 Vandy 10-24 Oklahoma St 13-20 LSU 19-45 Tennessee
Oklahoma 35-13 Kansas 45-0 Tulsa 64-0 Idaho State 33-7 Baylor 13-14 BYU 20-21 Miami (FL) 13-16 Texas
UCLA 19-15 Tennessee 23-9 Kansas State 33-14 San Diego St 16-24 Stanford 10-24 Oregon 26-45 Cal 13-27 Arizona
Ole Miss 30-17 Arkansas 23-7 Vanderbilt 48-13 UAB 45-14 Memphis 52-6 SE Louisiana 10-16 So Carolina 3-22 Alabama
Stanford 33-14 Arizona St 24-14 Washington 24-16 UCLA 42-17 SJ State 39-13 Wash ST 17-24 Wake 28-38 Oregon St 38-43 Arizona

Comments

gte896u

October 26th, 2009 at 9:35 AM ^

i dont see a single reason for houston, lsu, oregon, cincinnati, or tcu to be ranked ahead of Georgia Tech.
Houston - look at the schedule fall off after miss st. 4th and 5th best wins are tulsa and SMU, while GT's are clemson and uva.
LSU - auburn is nose-diving and ugay is exceedingly average. no big wins.
Oregon - resume chart totally bereft of anything of note
Cincinnati see Oregon
TCU - the second and third biggest wins on their chart are GT's 4th and 5th. their biggest win comes against a team that lost by 40 at home to the team that is ranked as GT's 6th best win.

very perplexing

bigmc6000

October 26th, 2009 at 9:57 AM ^

Texas did everything it was supposed to and has had 1 close game against their biggest rival. Florida just doesn't look like "Florida" and if Tebow continues to be their 1 and only source of offense they are going to get tagged by someone. Arkansas hadn't missed a FG all season and then they miss 2 against UF, they play like crap against MSU and get a few beneficial calls to help them out. At some point you've got to accept that the SEC outside of UF, Alabama and maybe LSU (who has beat a boat load of no one) just isn't that good to get a free pass. If UF goes undefeated then for sure, give them the #1 ranking but Texas has looked better and it looks as tho McCoy might finally be returning to last years form.

EDIT: Proposed top 4. Alabama (barely), Texas, Iowa, Florida

thebus1212

October 26th, 2009 at 10:31 AM ^

I know the MAC isn't all that great this year, but CMU is 7-1 after an opening season loss in Tucson (UA is at 19 in your poll). They also dusted off baby brother and have pretty much rolled through the rest of their schedule including EMU and WMU. There next two games @ Boston College and vs Toledo are basically their season. I think they deserve some credit for scheduling some tough teams OOC. Fire Up Chips!

canderso3

October 26th, 2009 at 10:39 AM ^

I'm just not sure what Iowa has done to merit being #2. They have a great win over Penn State. That PSU win looks more impressive to me given what the Lions did to UM on Saturday.

However, I know this goes away from the "what have you done for me lately" mantra that drives the polls, but some of Iowa's wins are just not to impressive to me. Examples:
--Defeating FCS Northern Iowa by 1 at home.
--Defeating Arkansas St. by 3 at home.
--(Unfortunately) Defeating Michigan by 2 at home.

I think they are a top 5 team, but I wouldn't be comfortable putting them at #2.

My top 5 would be Texas, Alabama/Florida (can't decide), then Iowa, and Cincinnati with Boise St. just on the outside looking in.

canderso3

October 26th, 2009 at 12:02 PM ^

It's the other wins that separates Texas and Florida from Iowa, not the big name wins.

As another poster said, Texas and Florida aren't beating I-AA teams and horrible D-I teams by 1 and 3 points at home. If you are the #2 team in the nation, that shouldn't happen.

Iowa's narrow wins is what should be penalizing them.

Bryan

October 26th, 2009 at 10:44 AM ^

I just cannot see Iowa ahead of Florida or Texas. Florida may not look like the Florida of past seasons, but they are still winning. Iowa scrapes by in non-impressive fashion. They would slip to fourth in my opinion. But hey, not OSU/MSU B10, woo hoo.

wishitwas97

October 26th, 2009 at 11:15 AM ^

really??? They are vastly overrated and shouldn't be that high. They almost lost to Northern Iowa and barely held on against Arkansas State. A #2 team shouldn't be barely winning against a D1AA and a low class D1A school. They should be smashing them.

Cincinnati has been more impressive than Iowa and shouldn't drop a spot. I would put Iowa behind Cincy. My top 10 would have been:

1. Alabama
2. Texas
3. Cincy
4. Florida
5. USC
6. TCU
7. Boise State
8. Oregon
9. Iowa
10. LSU

Bigasshammm

October 26th, 2009 at 11:26 AM ^

I too agree Iowa should not be 2. I would put Florida Texas and Cinci in front of them and have them at 5. Texas should go ahead of Florida and Cinci 4th. Otherwise solid poll.

Number 7

October 26th, 2009 at 11:49 AM ^

Lot's of close teams in the 5-through-16 range. I'd move down USC a few notches -- probably below Oregon, whom I'd move up. I'd also move down Houston (lost to UTEP!), while moving OK State and Pittsburgh ahead of 2-loss Virginia Tech.

echoWhiskey

October 26th, 2009 at 1:51 PM ^

A one-loss WVU team has to be considered ahead of all two-loss teams (save maybe Miami and VT). Their resume isn't particularly impressive, but other two-loss teams getting blown out by top 25 teams doesn't count as a resume builder to me - I'm looking at Wisconsin and Cal in particular.

I also don't see OSU as anything more than a fringe top 25 teams based on resume.

wolfman81

October 26th, 2009 at 3:29 PM ^

The BCS computers have Iowa at #1...fwiw. (And actually, I think that it IS worth something because the computers can essentially only do resume ranking, like Tim does.)

If you look at the resume, I guess it depends on how you weight games.

(sorry guys, I don't know how do do cool charts, and don't have the time to learn right now.)
Iowa....................Florida
21-10 PSU...............13-3 LSU
20-10 Wisconsin.........41-7 Kentucky
27-17 Arizona...........23-13 Tennessee
30-28 Michigan..........23-20 Arkansas
15-13 Michigan St.......29-19 Miss St.
35-3 Iowa State.........56-6 Troy
24-21 Arkansas St.......62-3 Charleston
17-16 N Iowa

I say PSU > LSU
Wisconsin > Kentucky
Arizona ~ Tennessee
Michigan > Arkansas
Michigan St. > Miss. St.
Iowa St. > Troy
Arkansas St/N Iowa Charleston

So Iowa (5.5) > Florida (1.5) IF you are doing the resume like Tim is...

I think that if you have a beef, you should have it because he didn't have Iowa over Florida last week, and the only things that changed were Iowa 15 MSU 13 and Florida 29 Miss St. 19. So you could have made a similar case last week for Iowa over Florida.

jlvanals

October 26th, 2009 at 5:03 PM ^

I don't think there's any way you can seriously argue PSU is better than LSU. LSU has won @Georgia, Auburn, @Washington, @Miss. State whereas PSU's best win is @Michigan (Middle of the pack big ten squad, at best) or @Minnesota (bottom tier of Big ten squads). Please explain how you can seriously argue LSU

mgovictors23

October 26th, 2009 at 3:33 PM ^

I just don't think Iowa is that great of a team, they barely win games that they should just go out there and dominate. But then again what team in college football has been dominant this season?

wear_maize

October 26th, 2009 at 7:18 PM ^

Pitt just blasted South Florida. I really see them above 16th.
TCU/Boise: One will get a BCS berth, and another will play in a lower tier bowl. TCU beat Boise last year, which means nothing. But TCU has played better teams and they still face Utah, so if they run the table I see no reason why they would be behind Boise State which beat one good team this year. So I agree with TCU.
Georgia Tech: A lot better than 12. They lost a game and can't play from behind, but they rarely are. Then again, I don't care what bowl they play in because they will lose. Give a defense enough time to prepare for them and the GT offense won't be able to move the ball

wearmaize