The Blogpoll draft for week three follows. It's all still total guessing, but as long as you're aware that it's a street enchilada filled with mystery meat, dive in, please. Explanations and scantily reasoned justifications follow.
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| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southern Cal |  2 |
| 2 | Alabama |  1 |
| 3 | Florida | 1 |
| 4 | Texas | 2 |
| 5 | Brigham Young | |
| 6 | Penn State | 3 |
| 7 | Ohio State | 7 |
| 8 | Boise State | 2 |
| 9 | Oklahoma | 3 |
| 10 | California | 2 |
| 11 | Virginia Tech | 8 |
| 12 | Cincinnati | 1 |
| 13 | Houston | |
| 14 | Mississippi | 4 |
| 15 | Miami (Florida) | 1 |
| 16 | Georgia Tech | 2 |
| 17 | TCU | |
| 18 | Oklahoma State | 11 |
| 19 | LSU | 4 |
| 20 | Michigan | |
| 21 | Utah | 1 |
| 22 | Notre Dame | 5 |
| 23 | Nebraska | |
| 24 | Georgia | |
| 25 | Missouri | 14 |
| Last week's ballot | ||
Endless coups. Number one should not be a static thing this early in the season, especially with our tiny but growing sample size. Going into Columbus and surviving in front of scarlet maelstrom (and a game OSU defense) gets USC the top spot, especially since they did so with a hobbled Taylor Mays and a freshman quarterback who could not feel his right shoulder for the third quarter. The degree separating them from Alabama in terms of absolute demonstrated value is marginal at best; we give USC the nod for playing a full road game, as opposed to the half-road game they played in a split crowd in ATL.
Florida bumps up for digesting Troy properly, a tougher game offensively than one might think as Troy's defense will size up nicely by the end of the year, and was just blown out by a Florida team that snoozed through the first quarter. Texas also played a deceptively tough game at Laramie, where they too struggled early before hitting the afterburners in the second half. BYU hangs steady at five for the moment, riding largely on last week and the proper disposal of Tulane.
The rest: Oklahoma and VT bounced back nicely, and we try to actually reward teams that play people early and play them tight. Ditto for OSU, still the likely Big Ten champ, and for Georgia, whose defense supplied the butt against South Carolina in lieu of last week's offensive butt-supplying. Houston pops in as this year's Texas Tech.
Dropped: Texas Tech, for playing next to no one; Kansas, largely as a result of other teams moving up, not because of anything they did; Florida State, for almost losing to Jacksonville State Florida State almost lost to Jacksonville State type that a lot it feels soooooo good.