Sunday, December 06, 2009

Final BlogPoll Ballot: Alabama, TCU 1-2

UPDATE: Aaand, I knew that No. 3 would cause an issue. I really do think that Florida would beat Texas and Cincinnati and Boise State. So shouldn't I rank them at No. 3? Then again, if I want to stay true to resume, perhaps not. I'm going to make an adjustment.

Here's the new version, with Florida dropped to No. 5, behind Texas and Cincinnati -- behind UT because I think Will Muschamp would foil Florida's offense precisely the same way that his mentor Nick Saban did, and behind UC because I think Florida's defense has been exposed as not nearly as good as I thought it was -- and UC's offense is as dynamic as any in the country.

RankTeamDelta
1 Alabama 1
2 TCU 1
3 Texas 1
4 Cincinnati 1
5 Florida 4
6 Boise State
7 Oregon
8 Georgia Tech 3
9 Ohio State
10 Iowa 5
11 LSU 1
12 Virginia Tech 2
13 Oregon State 5
14 Brigham Young 2
15 Utah 2
16 West Virginia 9
17 Pittsburgh 4
18 Stanford 6
19 Penn State 1
20 Nebraska 2
21 Arizona
22 Miami (Florida) 3
23 Oklahoma State
24 Central Michigan
25 Northwestern
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Houston (#20), Southern Cal (#21), California (#24).


****

If I was solely responsible for picking the top two teams in the country to play for the national championship, I would choose Alabama and TCU.

That is the only thing that matters in this week's BlogPoll -- or on anyone's ballot.

Alabama, obviously, destroyed the best defense in the country at the same time it neutered one of the country's best offenses, the most comprehensive domination by a very good team against another very good team I have ever seen.

And, for my money, TCU has looked better, played better and has a better resume than Texas.

As I said this morning: AP and BCS "human" voters who elevate Texas into the Top 2 as a knee-jerk reflex do a disservice to the sport and lose their right to gripe about the BCS.

We can have a fair argument about TCU vs. Texas -- it seems like most folks actually think Cincinnati is more worthy for that "Besides Texas..." debate, ahead of TCU.

We probably won't have a fair argument about my ranking Florida at No. 3, ahead of Texas. I was that unimpressed by the Longhorns last night. They should have lost -- badly, actually.

You might say my ranking is out of bitterness -- perhaps you'd be right, although you discount that as hard as I am taking it, I am even harder on my own team for the way they played.

As always, I'd love for your help in disabusing me of the notion that TCU is better than Texas -- or helping me with my muddled middle of the ranking. At least I could leave out USC.

RankTeamDelta
1 Alabama 1
2 TCU 1
3 Florida 2
4 Texas
5 Cincinnati
6 Boise State
7 Oregon
8 Georgia Tech 3
9 Ohio State
10 Iowa 5
11 LSU 1
12 Virginia Tech 2
13 Oregon State 5
14 Brigham Young 2
15 Utah 2
16 West Virginia 9
17 Pittsburgh 4
18 Penn State
19 Stanford 7
20 Nebraska 2
21 Arizona
22 Miami (Florida) 3
23 Oklahoma State
24 Central Michigan
25 Northwestern
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Houston (#20), Southern Cal (#21), California (#24).

7 comments:

Matthew said...

You know that both Oregon State, Stanford and Arizona ended 8-4/6-3 (overall/Pac-10). Except that Arizona beat both Oregon State and Standford head-to-head? Talking about Resume and inertia - shouldn't Arizona be ranked above both of those schools?

And another of AZ's wins was against another of your top 25 - Central Michigan. Except for a a couple fluke plays AZ's record should be much better (see WA foot bounce, and CA double forward pass).

Unknown said...

florida at number 3? jesus dude, get over it. they looked like crap yesterday, and the objective observer could see that they were severely overrated all year. the looked good in blowing out awful teams and they looked shaky in beating decent teams. i honestly don't think they're a top 5 team.

Unknown said...

Doesn't the egg they laid on Saturday afternoon end all of this "best defense in the country" talk? (especially considering the show put on by Nebraska's d later in the evening, in which they nearly won the Big 12 Championship single-handedly)

Steve Sprague said...

You have lost all right to gripe about the current system. Voting Florida #3 over Cincinnati and Texas is inexcusable. If you want to punish Texas for their lackluster effort in the Big 12 Title Game that is fine. They should be ranked 4th after Alabama, TCU and Cincy. Florida is not a top 3 team, after the shellacking they took they are a borderline top 5 team, really they are only there because of the lack of other top teams.

Gripe all you want about Texas. They went unbeaten in a tough conference. Weren't you the one suggesting that the Big 12 and SEC should form their own championship system? If you ever truly believed that you should recognize the difficulty in doing what Texas did.

Going unbeaten in a tough conference, that plays a championship game is remarkably tough. Florida hasn't managed to do it. Criticize the resume all you want but recognize your own hypocrisy in doing so.

The Fist said...

DS, I'm trying to figure out why you think that 'Bama beatdown was the most impressive you've ever seen. I know you came late to the Florida bandwagon, but didn't you watch the '96 Fiesta Bowl? The 2010 SEC championship wasn't even the worst beatdown FLORIDA has ever had.

Compare the games.

'10 SEC championship: a sometimes spotty 'Bama offense rises to the challenge against the pundits' "best defense ever," attacking the weaknesses efficiently. Meantime, an aggressive 'Bama D plays one fabulous half (the second) after one really good bend-don't-break half (the first).

'96 Fiesta Bowl. A good-but-not-great Nebraska defense exploits the protection weaknesses in Spurrier's high-powered offense, playing two really good quarters, and two mind-boggling quarters. Meantime, probably the best college rushing offense of all time absolutely destroys what was thought to be a really good Florida defense.

In addition, although this SEC championship game was called a "de facto" national championship, the '96 Fiesta Bowl actually WAS a championship game.

There are only two reasons I can see to believe that the '10 SEC championship was the biggest beatdown ever of one good team by another.
1. Instant history bias.
2. The (obviously) mistaken belief that this Florida team was the best defense -- and perhaps the best team -- ever.

Bryan said...

Swing and a miss...You biasedly ranking Florida #3 (after they got DESTROYED, DESTROYED!!) proves that the Blog roll would be just as biased as the regular polls and has no place near the BCS formula...Slick move there

MizzouHoops said...

Stanford doesn't play and you drop them 7 spots. Florida gets annihilated and they go down 2 spots (ahead of Texas).

Would it be safe to assume you did this to keep Gerhart and McCoy behind Tebow in the Heisman voting?