Monday, September 15, 2008

BlogPoll Top 25 Ballot: Week 3, Take 1

Here is this week's first pass at my BlogPoll ballot. As with previous weeks, please leave all comments in the Comments, and they will influence my final ballot, submitted Tuesday morning.

RankTeamDelta
1 Southern Cal --
2 Oklahoma 1
3 Missouri 1
4 LSU 2
5 Georgia 3
6 Florida 1
7 Texas --
8 Brigham Young 3
9 South Florida 9
10 Texas Tech 4
11 Auburn 2
12 Penn State 4
13 Utah 4
14 East Carolina 6
15 Alabama 4
16 Wisconsin 6
17 Wake Forest 2
18 Ohio State 6
19 Connecticut 7
20 Nebraska 6
21 Oklahoma State 5
22 Oregon 1
23 Ball State 3
24 Boise State 2
25 Illinois 2

Dropped Out: Kansas (#13), Arizona State (#20), Georgia Tech (#22), UCLA (#24), California (#25).


Yes, I rank USC No. 1, of course, but I have only one other Pac-10 team in the Top 25, near the bottom. East Carolina dropped; Ohio State should have dropped even more.

Even though the Pac-10 obviously sucks, I gave BYU "transitive" credit for UCLA's win over Tennessee.

I give South Florida huge credit for beating Kansas -- the Big 12 is obviously very strong this year.

(Unranking Kansas entirely for losing on the road to a team I rank in the Top 10 is hardly fair; I'm sure I will move them back in, likely at the expense of one of the mid-majors in the 20s.)

UPDATE: Orson, whose poll I always respect, has Penn State at No. 5. I know the PSU commenters would agree with him, but am I fair to be suspicious enough to keep them out of the Top 10?

8 comments:

Michael Moulton said...

If USC struggled with a team like Tulane, would you drop them 6 spots? ECU is still undefeated and has still beaten two ranked teams-- that drop is completely wrong.

Anonymous said...

Dan drops Bucky 6 spots because:

a) He predicted them to lose, therefore they are not good, even though his prediction was wrong.
b) He did not stay up late enough to see the game, thinks his prediction came true.
c) Hates the Big Ten
d) tOSU sucked, so everyone else in the plodding, slow, horrible Big Ten must suffer.

???

Michael W said...

Raise South Florida 9 slots for squeaking by a top 25 team at home, while you drop Wisconsin 6 slots for squeaking by a top 25 team on the road. Does that make sense to you? If you're going to lower the teams that barely get by, which is totally fair, do it consistently.

The Green Carbon Trader said...

Dan, just one suggestion, can we simply have a poll for USC based on week performances such as:

1. USC vs. OSU
2. USC vs. Virginia

And then we can have a poll for everyone else minus games played against USC. Simply, there is no way to judge a team such as OSU based on a whopping that they got from a team that would give a whopping to just about every other team. To solve the problem just omit the USC loss and rank OSU as OSU E.T.B (Except Trojan Beatdown)

nsrrder said...

I don't think I've ever seen a preseason number 1 continue to drop in the polls like UGA this year without losing a game. Has that happened before? For the life of me I can't remember it. Why does a thrashing over lousy teams...Washington, Nevada, etc. count more than a close win on the road against one of the better defenses in the SEC/nation? Granted USC is number 1, but I think UGA is getting jobbed. Chattanooga, Cincy and U Dub...? Give me a break!

charlie said...

Dropping Wisconsin 6 spots is ridiculous. They went on the road to play a good Fresno State team and won. Fresno State, much like Boise State and Hawaii, is one of those mid major schools that the big boys absolutely refuse to go on the road to anymore. If I remember correctly the last time Fresno played a remotely good BCS conference opponent at home it was #10 Oregon State in 2001, and they got smoked by the Bulldogs. It took guts for Wisconsin to even go there and you punish them by dropping them 6 spots because they didn't blow out a team that was also ranked in the top 25? Yet you only drop Oregon 1 spot for beating a team in the bottom half of the big ten in overtime, Oregon should have blown out Purdue but instead got lucky because Joe Tiller is one of the worst coaches in the country. Ludicrous.

Johnny b said...

Number 5 for psu seems a bit high on that guy's part. I like being under the radar at the moment, but if i was being honest with you top ten is where i'd expect (or hope) to see them at the end of the year.

Geo B said...

I'm a Penn State fan, but to have them above about 15th (where they seem to be) seems silly. They haven't played anyone yet, always open the season 4-0 or 5-0 until they play Michigan, OSU and Wisconsin, then they crater. If they can beat Illinois and keep it close with OSU, then they can be moved into the top 10.