Blogpoll week 12: kind of like week 11, just less interesting. A week of epochal action did little to shuffle the rankings. In fact, we could not in clear conscience bump Michigan from the two spot, so valiant was their fight against this year’s football Galactus, Ohio State. (If the skies turn to flame above you, Troy Smith is just down the block. He may just be getting a latte at Starbucks or something, though, so just chill and see what happens.)

Apologies and outright equivocations follow. Hey, at least we’re relying on the magnificently flawed machine that sits between our two ears–whatever you may think of it, at least it doesn’t run on FORTRAN.

Rank Team Delta
1 Ohio State 25
2 Michigan 24
3 Southern Cal 23
4 Florida 22
5 Arkansas 21
6 Notre Dame 20
7 West Virginia 19
8 Wisconsin 18
9 Georgia Tech 17
10 LSU 16
11 Louisville 15
12 Texas 14
13 Wake Forest 13
14 Oklahoma 12
15 Rutgers 11
16 Auburn 10
17 California 9
18 Tennessee 8
19 Nebraska 7
20 Virginia Tech 6
21 Boston College 5
22 Maryland 4
23 Boise State 3
24 Oregon 2
25 Brigham Young 1

Dropped Out:

Apologies and equivocations

Michigan goes nowhere. Did nothing to suggest they aren’t the second best team in the country, while USC made a very tiny case to move up. Thus, they stay at the two spot after losing by three to the clearly supreme team in the land.

USC plays defense. Cal’s offensive line is a nightmare, or at least had some nightmarish moments against USC. They allowed Carroll to get savage with the blitz and keep coming with it. This will not happen against Notre Dame–Weis made sandwiches out of the slant all game last year, taming the freely blitzing linebackers and forcing USC to adjust. Given ND’s passive blocking, though, Carroll may just alternate coverages and let the front four do the scary work. Either way, they don’t play Chowball anymore. If the defense doesn’t run rabid, that team don’t work right, Cletus.

Rutgers gets sent to purgatory for losing to Cincinnati. On the verge of clusterfucking the whole system in one move, and they lose to the Red Pandas. For not sating our lust for anarchy, you take a dive, Rutgers.

Ditto for Cal. Their o-line buckled, warped, and finally splintered under the pressure of reckless blitzing. Longshore, not an unshakeable sort to begin with, got football tremors early and often, and poor Marshawn Lynch was left making Jet Li backflips just to get back to the line. We’d like to be the first to get on the Cal breakthrough year bandwagon ‘07–the year of the Golden Bear for the fourth year in a row! Unless they wait until next year!

Other notes:The ACC continues to clump, with Wake taking a bit of a downer, VT edging up slightly, and Maryland finally ending its marginal dominance. Georgia Tech? Sure, why not. They’ll likely lose and thus complete our season long preference for listing five ACC schools in a row from 14-19.

–West Virginia shaves the Wannstache, earns elevation for rushing badness and Pat White’s meowing.

–LSU and Oklahoma hang around, salvaging seasons nicely.

–Boise and BYU? The Mountain West and WAC affirmative action picks. Don’t tell Michael Richards!