BLOGPOLL DRAFT: WEEK 11

You might think twice about bumping Oregon five spots to #16 after beating an unranked, 4-5 Washington at Autzen Stadium, while only moving Oklahoma one spot to #17 after beating a superior (in your eyes) Texas A&M team on the road. Food for thought.

Arkansas has probably improved more since Week 1 than any team in the poll. I just can’t envision the pinball wizards from Louisville hanging with the Hogs on a neutral field for four quarters.

Wisco wins and breaks JoePa’s leg, yet they fall 5 spots? They’re still 9-1, right?

Clearly only the computers can ignore defending champions. Texas’s SOS (Sagarin) is behind every team in your top 10 except Arkansas. Texas’s quality wins are behind every team in your top 10 except ND. And ND and Arkansas can both remedy that by winning out.

Eight games should still matter for the BCS #2 spot. Texas isn’t in any of them:

tOSU vs. Michigan
USC vs. Cal
USC vs. ND
Rutgers vs. Louisville
Rutgers vs. WVU
Arkansas vs. Tennessee
Arkansas vs. LSU
Florida vs SEC West winner

I think only tOSU, Michigan, Louisville, Florida and the SEC West winner have reasonable shots at the BCS spots.

… and USC/Cal.

And Texas

I agree that Wisconsin should be moved up, at least over Oregon and Oklahoma and maybe even to the edge of the top 10.

9-1 is 9-1, even though the power in the Big 11 looks concentrated at the top this year.

Virginia Tech drops out and Clemson, recently pasted by VT is in the 21 spot? Methinks you have those reverse. 21 sounds like a solid place for VT and Clemson should be looking up at 24-25 at best.

Canuck! Your “numbers” and “reason” have no place in college football! Tradition and blind homerism are a much better indicator of ability.

In Texas’ defense though – they really look like the best 1-loss team in the country. Minus a suspect secondary, all pistons are firing and a rematch against tosu would not be 24-7 again.

The nod over Florida only because offense seems to be at a premium in the swamp.

I don’t think USC-Cal will impact the BCS race unless SC just up and destroys Cal – they’re going to need a convincing statement, and honestly, they’d probably need to do it to ND too. But if SC goes big down the stretch and just wears out Oregon, Cal, UCLA and ND in order, there’s a case to be made. But this sneak-it-out-in-the-4th-quarter stuff has to stop.

A one-loss Cal team isn’t going anywhere near the BCS title game, which is fine, because if you ask those folks they would all rather go to the Rose Bowl once than play for the national championship five times running (unless they could be sure of winning one…and really, right now, the Pac-10 has nothing that can beat the Big Two/little nine champion).

And if Rutgers beats Louisville, set everything on puree. After all, a 12-0 Rutgers that beats WVU and Louisville would get the same consideration those two got…right?

And if a 1-loss Texas team gets in ahead of a 1-loss SEC champion, especially if that champ is Auburn…well, there will be hell to pay down South. And as much as it pains me to say it, Auburn would have a case. But they gotta pass Arkansas first…

Count me in with the folks who think Wisconsin should be higher. I’m a Purdue fan, but it just seems like Wisconsin, a team whose only loss has been a decent game against Michigan, and who has blown out their other opponents, should be a little higher.

Why are they behind two-loss Oregon, LSU, Tennessee? I’m not saying they should be at the top of the ranks of the one-loss teams, but they should at least be a part of that group…

Ainge may have gone down, but Crompton had a good showing. LSU is the most worthy (dare I say it) two loss team in the country. Look at their two Ls—Auburn and Florida, both on the road. Show some respect.
Everyone knows the SEC is the toughest, and LSU is not totally out of the running for SEC West.

Texas
Cal
Arkansas
ND
Each of these teams has a blowout loss to a good team. Texas is to #1, ND’s is to #2, Arkansas’s is to your #7, Cal’s is to your #12.

USC
Lost to an unranked team after almost losing to at least two other Pac 10 bottom-feeders. Crushing a hapless Stanford team is barely better than beating Sam Houston State.

On what basis are these other teams ranked so highly, yet Notre Dame is kept at 10th? Especially Cal, who got absolutely detroyed by Tennessee, who has now lost twice. (Auburn and Florida are fine, since they both lost to top ten teams by a small margin)

For what it’s worth, we played Buffalo before Florida (right after LSU).

We did play Ole Miss, though, a game that I hoped would help us straighten out of red zone woes, but alas, it hasn’t.

I’m not saying you have us in the wrong place- I’d put us about there, too- I think we are capable of looking like a top-5 team, but we have not looked that way since the 2nd half of the Florida game.

Right now, I’m just hoping we’ll win out, which would probably lead to a BCS at-large bid, if we don’t make it to ATL.

As for this weekend- “GO VOLS!”
(Damn, that was painful)

As for Cal, I think they look really good, and I think the major polls have them under-ranked, but they need to beat a team with a good defense- they only time they played a good defense this year, they got destroyed.

what the hell is houston nutt doing?

Wisconsin must move up if for no other reason than Bret Bielema’s ingenious offside kickoff pissed off JoePa worse than having his leg wrenched like a drumstick.

Another voice in support of Wiscaaansin. No SEC fan would admit this, but from the outside looking in I say they win over Auburn, LSU, and the hogs.

VandyJ – good point about Rutgers. Dont be suprised if Rutgers beats Louisville and gets beaten by WV.

Let the annual late season whine for Wisconsin commence. A little late this year, boys. Who did Wisconsin play this year? Iowa is a fraud as is the Big 2 and the little 9 and that is where the Badgers belong.

Play and, here is the key sports fans, actually um BEAT a ranked opponent then we will consider Wisconsin. The Badges played one quality opponent. At last check, Michigan ass whipped Wisconsin.

Texas’ defense, espicially its run defense, would shut down Wisconsin. Hell, Wisconsin would be no better than the third best team in the Pac 10, the SEC, the Big 12, and the Big East. In all fairness to the men from Madison, the Badgers could run away with the MAC and possibly CUSA.

Wisconsin’s non top 15 ranking is one example where media, coaches, and a collection of interested parties get it right.

I dont understand your point Milevin. The thrid best team from the Pac 10, Big 12, Big East, and especially the SEC deserve to be in the top 15.

well, maybe not the Big 12 this year.

wow, A&M drops 8 slots after losing to a ranked opponent by 1 point

GT beats a conference opponent at night in a hostile environment, and falls 5 spots? Yowzers!

Milevin, I seem to remember people saying the same stuff about UW last year before Brian Calhoun dropped 200 yards on the vaunted Auburn defense in the Cap One Bowl. I really don’t care what we’re ranked, to be honest. It would take some very strange events to prevent us from going back to Orlando.

You know one of the reasons Wisconsin has so much trouble finding ranked opponents? Because with Michigan, OSU, and Wisconsin in the Big Ten, any team that plays all three is guaranteed three losses. The Big Ten is stacked at the top this year, and Wisconsin is included in that group.

Can you say that Wisconsin’s wins over their Big Ten opponents were any less impressive than Michigan’s wins over the same opponents? Wisconsin had a tough day with Illinois, but then so did OSU. Wisconsin beat PSU by 10, controlling the game, Michigan beat them by 7 and OSU was two late desperation interceptions from it being a close game.

Of course, Wisconsin scheduled cupcakes out of conference, and for that, they certainly don’t deserve a 4-6 ranking. But can you deny that because the teams at the top of the conference are SO dominant, giving so many other Big Ten teams a few losses, it basically meant that Wisconsin wouldn’t play any ranked opponents except Michigan?

Wisconsin deserves to be ranked in the 10-11 range, at the low end of the 1-loss teams.

Re #14:

I would imagine it’s because Notre Dame’s has zero impressive wins, and avoided losses to their other opponents with a pulse only after getting assists from three of the most oft-criticized head coaches in the land.

That, and the well documented anti-Notre Dame media conspiracy the Domers have valiantly toiled to overcome for nigh on fifty years.

no one goes into vandy, around 12:34pm, and pushes them around to win by 6 points.

between this and terry bradshaw being a harris poll voter

como se dice “playoff” en espanol?

The only one-loss teams that could make an argument at the end of the season would be the SEC champ (Florida, Auburn, or Arkansas). The only one-loss that may even come close to making an argument is Texas, but would lose out for the obvious reason that the Big 12 doesn’t hold a candle to the SEC this year. USC or Cal have no argument since if you lose a single game in the Pac-10 you can’t play in the Championship. Pac-10 is horrible. Loser of Michigan/Ohio St. may have an argument except they don’t play a conference championship and the Big 10 is good, but not quite as good as SEC.

Although I wouldn’t have a problem if OSU/Michigan rematched in national championship…it would be a close call, but nothing to squabble over. I mean, if you lose a game it’s kinda hard to make an argument. Florida would have the best argument out of the SEC (close loss to Auburn), but Auburn (murdered by Arkansas) and Arkansas (really murdered by USC) don’t have much of a leg to stand on.

I agree with #25—Wisconsin deserves to be ranked about 11th right now. Although #26 is, of course, wrong—Notre Dame’s schedule is significantly harder than Wisconsin’s, and includes a win over a ranked team.

I’m more puzzled by Rutgers being behind West Virginia. What’s the difference, other than WVU having a loss?

Orson (and Stranko),

You’re geniuses. Posting a weekly Blogpoll is perhaps your finest move yet. Why do grown men follow teams of spoiled, borderline-sentient 18-21 year old punks if not to get together and bitch and whine about (the smallest of) perceived slights?

This is why college football is amazing. This is also why a playoff takes all the fun out of it. Who am I going to argue with thirty years from now about the injustice of BYU winning a MNC after winning the Holiday Bowl (seriously, WTF!?!?) if there’s a playoff? Instead of petty grudges and gloats, my life will be reduced to facts. No one wants that, do we?

That said, I’d like to see a playoff, if only because the first round would be the greatest drinking weekend in history.

PAC-10 horrible?? from top to bottom the PAC-10 is the best conference easily. The SEC has 5 good teams, and 7 bad ones, although you could make a case for South Carolina being the sole mid tier team. The PAC-10 is strong at the top with USC, CAL, and Oregon, a monster in the middle with Oregon St., Wash. st. ASU and UCLA, and the bottom of UW, Arizona, and Stanford is much tougher than the bottom of any other conference. Stanford is Duke bad, but Zona has a win over a ranked opponent, and UW was good before their QB went down.

George, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Bitching about who is better is what makes college football special, and is why the BCS has begun to destroy that, and a playoff would continue down that road.

What on earth is going on with the ACC in your ballots?

Clemson still in, but VT out? Wake riding the elevator up makes sense, but GT riding it straight down (even though they gave NCSU their second worse loss of the season at night on the road and the bionic midgit threw 4 TD’s)?

At least you have Maryland in there, who some people are still completely ignorining.

Re: 31 & 33

Why would a playoff system erase the ability to have petty arguments on who is better than whom? I think it would be even better with “Team A” saying “WTF?!?! a 4-seed?! We soooo deserve to be at least a 3! Hell, we have a MUCH tougher SOS than the 4-seeds in the other regions! Besides, the 3-seed has 2 losses and we only have 1! Conspiracy, I tell you!!”

With that said, the BCS still sucks.

This makes pretty good sense Florida struggles with a team that has a losing record and jumps 3 spots. Good work guys keep it up.

George and Charles,
While I agree that the bitching and moaning is somewhat interesting, the hoops season ends with a
“playoff” and we spend the entire month of March on the edges of our seats. Tell me you wouldn’t go absolutely insane with a 16-team football tournament?!
Plus you can always complain about the 17th and 18th teams that get left out (like you do for teams 66 and 67 in basketball on that Monday morning).
Let’s use the above poll as an example. Would LSU at UT be any fun to watch as a Round of 16 game? How about FLA/WV or TN/Louisville?

Yeah, I’d probably move Wisky up a few, no biggie….

However, WTF is going on having Clemson ranked and Virginia Tech drop out of the top25? Doesn’t Va Tech have a better record? Didn’t they just beat Clemson a week and a half ago? Hasn’t Clemson lost two straight now? And so forth…

And Boise is better than 25th….They blew out Oregon St and beat a good Hawaii team as well…they would compete in the Big East just as well as L-ville, West Va, and Rutgers…

I’m going to just go generic so I can cut and paste every week the rest of the season.

I can’t believe you put [insert team] at [insert position]. You either don’t remember [insert loss or should have lost game] or didn’t see [insert game where offense or defense thought game was on a Monday]. Besides, how coud [insert team] [fall/rise] after their game against [insert last opponent]. [Insert last opponent] is [better/worse] than [insert team ranked directly ahead/behind]‘s last opponent, [insert other team’s last opponent], and [insert team] [crushed/was soundly beaten] by [insert other team]. Besides [insert team’s best player that was injured/suspended/in jail during big game] was out for the [insert best loss] game and [insert team] would have won that game handily.

That’s it, you guys definitely have it out for [insert team or conference] and your obvious bias is showing through.

[If ND fan, claim that you don’t get enough respect]. [If not ND fan, make fun of fatass dickhead coach].

[If Big East fan, claim Louisville’s schedule is tougher than Texas]. [If Texas fan, note Louisville’s crappy schedule].

[If SEC fan, talk about how hard the conference is]. [If not SEC fan, tell SEC fan to suck it].

[If OSU/UM fan, trash talk other team].

[If Army fan, STFU and GBTW].

[End with random Borat quote]

Sirs, Sirs,

You misunderstand me. My point is that bitching and moaning is one of those things that makes college football great. Because of the schedules, there’s not enough “actual” evidence to tell which team is better (USC or Louisville, who knows?). That gives rise to comments sections like this one, where grown men (presumably working at something other than coaching a major university) sit around and argue about completely irrelevant poll positions. This is why I love college football.

As my last post stated, I’d like to see a playoff. I just hope it doesn’t ruin the bitching and whining.

(Also, as a sidenote, does anyone really care about th 66th team in an NCAA tourney field. Really? Also, I feel an eight-team playoff would more than suffice for the footbaw.)

Re: #39

I’d love to see someone set up a web site with a Weekly Poll Bitching Generator. Drop-down menus and so forth would save a lot of typing.

Filling in the blanks:

At year end Texas will have a worse SOS than any zero or one loss team from the Big 10/11, SEC, Pac 10, or Big East . They have not proven they belong in the top 5 and have no remaining opportunities to prove it. Last year should not count in the polls.

Canuck is a broken record.

Wisconsin drops 5 spots after dominating a good PSU team??? 9-1 in the Big 10 and #18 with one loss in a tough game against Michigan?

If you aren’t going to rank teams based upon results then why post a poll? That’s just a mockery of a good team.

How is Oklahoma behind Oregon when everybody in the country saw that they clearly spanked them in their own crib?

Without the worst call in the history of college football, Oklahoma would likely be sitting somewhere between 7 and 11 in the BCS and Texas would be ahead of the Mighty Gators as well.

Texas > Canada.

That is all, carry on.

“PAC-10 horrible?? from top to bottom the PAC-10 is the best conference easily. The SEC has 5 good teams, and 7 bad ones, although you could make a case for South Carolina being the sole mid tier team. The PAC-10 is strong at the top with USC, CAL, and Oregon, a monster in the middle with Oregon St., Wash. st. ASU and UCLA, and the bottom of UW, Arizona, and Stanford is much tougher than the bottom of any other conference. Stanford is Duke bad, but Zona has a win over a ranked opponent, and UW was good before their QB went down. "

Wow. Just…wow. I always heard they had the best pot out on the West Coast, but I’d never seen such conclusive evidence before…

And yeah, what’s up with GT dropping 5 spots after all but wrapping up a spot in Jacksonville? They beat NC State at home. I know you think NC State sucks, but that’s what they WANT you to think. Trust me, NC State could lose to Temple one week and beat Texas the next – they’re just that kind of team. GT doesn’t deserve to drop just because the ACC has no elite teams and Reggie Ball likes to throw the ball to the other team sometimes just for shits and giggles.

Calvin Johnson by himself should be ranked in the top 15 this year…

Orson,

You have Texas WAY OVERRANKED. They played Sam Houston St for God’s sake. According to Massey’s ratings Sam Houston comes in at #175, behind several D1, D1 AA, D2, D3 and even that all powerful Carrol, MT NAIA school.

Seriously, quit listening to Mack Brown shovel shit. Texas is over-rated.

Also, Arkansas sucks. Give that a rest. They shouldn’t even be considered for the top 10.

Here, see if you can figure any other glaring errors in your ranking:

Orson’s Ranking … W/L Team … Sagarin Strength of Schedule

 1 … 10-0 Ohio State ……. 31
 2 … 10-0 Michigan ……… 26
 3 … 9-1 Texas ………… 47
 4 … 8-1 California ……. 3
 5 … 8-0 Louisville ……. 42

 6 … 8-1 Florida ………. 16
 7 … 7-1 USC ………….. 5
 8 … 8-1 Arkansas ……… 96
 9 … 9-1 Auburn ……….. 39
10 … 8-1 Notre Dame ……. 27

11 … 7-1 West Virginia …. 49
12 … 7-2 Tennessee …….. 15
13 … 8-0 Rutgers ………. 101
14 … 7-2 LSU ………….. 29
15 … 8-1 Wake Forest …… 88

16 … 7-2 Oregon ……….. 18
17 … 7-2 Oklahoma ……… 23
18 … 9-1 Wisconsin …….. 62
19 … 7-2 Georgia Tech ….. 55
20 … 7-2 Maryland ……… 44

21 … 7-3 Clemson ………. 57
22 … 7-3 Nebraska ……… 62
23 … 7-2 Boston College … 24
24 … 7-2 BYU ………….. 68
25 … 9-0 Boise State …… 104

Here’s a guy with his needle stuck on WHINE:

“If all the coaches and athletic directors could understand exactly who the computers want you to play and where they want you to play them, and then if you could know how many games they were going to win, it would probably help all of us”

Hey Mack. Schedule OOC like Big East Louisville. You can’t sit on the history of the Big 12. Oh and drop Sam Houston State.

To me, the more logical way to rank teams would be to give them credit for Wins, W/L %, and strength of their opponents.

Essentially, take the homerism out of the vote.

And remember, if you’ve only played 8 games, you don’t deserve the credit of a team that has played 10 games.

I think this year every team will end up playing some 12 games, so it will even out in the end. Then your rankings look like this:

Homerless Ranking … W/L Team … Sagarin Strength of Schedule
 1 … 10-0 XYZ … 26
 1 … 10-0 XYZ … 31

 3 … 9-0 XYZ … 104

 4 … 8-0 XYZ … 42
 5 … 8-0 XYZ … 101

 6 … 9-1 XYZ … 39
 7 … 9-1 XYZ … 47
 8 … 9-1 XYZ … 62

 9 … 8-1 XYZ …. 3
10 … 8-1 XYZ … 16
11 … 8-1 XYZ … 27
12 … 8-1 XYZ … 88
13 … 8-1 XYZ … 96

14 … 7-1 XYZ …. 5
15 … 7-1 XYZ … 49

16 … 8-2 XYZ … 91

17 … 7-2 XYZ … 15
   … 7-2 XYZ … 18
19 … 7-2 XYZ … 23
   … 7-2 XYZ … 24
   … 7-2 XYZ … 29
22 … 7-2 XYZ … 44
23 … 7-2 XYZ … 55
24 … 7-2 XYZ … 60

And yes,USC will shoot up in the rankings if they can make it through the murders row they have over the next 4 weeks.

while that system is all well and good, i still couldn’t place a team which has played a 1-aa school ahead of a team that beat (walloped) the #3 sos school, and lost to teams with sos’ of 16 and 29, the latter on the last play of the game and with a qb who hadn’t played all year.

imo, anyone who plays a team out of 1-a should be heavily penalized.

maybe 1-aa games should just be treated as losses.