Sunday, September 27, 2009

This Week's BlogPoll Top 25 Ballot: Exposed!

I reject the notion that the college football season is already in "chaos." Debunking rankings inflated by preseason b.s. is not "chaos" -- in fact, that's the definition of bringing order.

I took Ole Miss out of my Top 25. Who have they beaten? All they had to do was beat SoCar.

I took Cal out of my Top 25. Who have they beaten? And a drubbing at Oregon on top of it.

I nearly took Penn State out of my Top 25. Who have they beaten? And they lost ugly AT HOME.

I nearly took Miami out of my Top 25. Between getting throttled by VA Tech and the win over FSU back to being "hardly quality," they are non-contenders.

Meanwhile, I upbraid myself for having LSU 6th. I watched nearly the entire LSU-Mississippi State game, and LSU should have lost, but for MSU's own incompetence. I'll fix that.

And I don't know why I'm dropping Cincy from 2nd behind Florida and Texas; Cincy looked good beating Fresno State -- a quality win. Houston resumes its place in my Top 5.

And I absolutely reward two teams that deserve it -- Oregon, whose only loss is a fluky Week 1 loss at Boise, a Top 10 team, and Iowa, who won a tough game on the road.

The AP's treatment of Boise State is laughable -- No. 5? Aside from beating Oregon (in Boise), their schedule is a joke. If all it takes to be a Top 5 team is to be unbeaten and toppling a "name" team, why isn't Iowa ranked ahead of Boise State by the AP? Or Houston ranked ahead of Boise? At least they won on the road!

It's like the AP voters watched that Game Day segment about "resume voting" and twisted it into some kind of absurdity involving Boise State. If all it takes to be a BCS bowl team is to go unbeaten against a crappy schedule, every middling team in a BCS conference should secede and play a WAC-quality schedule.

Anyhow, here's how my ballot looks right now. As always, any/all feedback appreciated (with the caveat that, yes, LSU is currently ranked too high).

RankTeamDelta
1 Alabama
2 Florida 1
3 Texas 1
4 Cincinnati 2
5 Houston 2
6 LSU 1
7 TCU 3
8 Virginia Tech 6
9 Kansas 3
10 Iowa 14
11 Boise State 2
12 Oregon
13 Southern Cal 9
14 Ohio State 9
15 Brigham Young 4
16 Oklahoma 4
17 South Florida
18 Oklahoma State 3
19 Auburn 2
20 Michigan 5
21 Georgia Tech
22 Miami (Florida) 11
23 Georgia 7
24 Missouri
25 Penn State 16
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: California (#6), Mississippi (#8), Washington (#17), Florida State (#18).


-- D.S.

2 comments:

the bankrupt museum said...

Hey Dan - I'm in no way arguing Boise St. > Florida, but I just can't help commenting on your own blinders when it comes to Florida & the SEC. You crucify Boise St. for their schedule "resume" thus far, but hands down vs. Floridas: Oregon > Tennessee, Fresno St.> Kentucky, Bowling Green = Troy, Miami OH > Charleston Southern. At this point in the season, you're screaming about Boise St. being any more of a joke than Florida is completion fiction. This is where I feel like anyone getting on a soapbox about the RESUME just loses points: Boise St. would get trounced by FL, but it's impossible to strip away what your eyes tell you. So the AP concluding that maybe 8 out of 10 times USC will be Washington is does not make USC being ranked ahead of Washington a travesty, it just damns USC as the flawed team they are.

the bankrupt museum said...

Quick follow up in the Boise::Florida transitive property comment, cuz I didn't even realise --> Boise beats Bowling Green 49-14, Bowling Green beats Troy 31-14; Florida beats Troy 56-6; it seems to me there's about 50 pts difference between both Boise & Florida > Troy based on ON FIELD performance, but at least Boise went on the road. Pls explain to me on resume alone where your assumptions are based, because it'll always seem blinders-on biased otherwise. (As I think it should be: Florida is obviously better than Boise St by eyes alone).