Week 8 Blogpoll Ballot

by BSD on Oct 12, 2008 5:08 PM EDT in Blogpoll

Another fine week of football with three of the top five teams in the nation all going down. This week I had to attend an Oktoberfest party at my friend's house (I know. Twist my arm) so I didn't get to watch much football outside of PSU and Wisconsin. I did catch the first half of Texas-Oklahoma and listened to the second half on the radio in the car. Here is my ballot for this week.

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama	--
2	Texas	4
3	Penn State	2
4	Oklahoma State	16
5	Texas Tech	2
6	Florida	4
7	Southern Cal	2
8	LSU	5
9	Missouri	5
10	Brigham Young	2
11	Georgia	--
12	Oklahoma	10
13	Ohio State	1
14	Utah	1
15	Kansas	--
16	Boise State	--
17	Virginia Tech	--
18	Michigan State	--
19	Wake Forest	2
20	North Carolina	4
21	Pittsburgh	2
22	Ball State	4
23	California	2
24	Minnesota	2
25	Vanderbilt	11

Dropped Out: Northwestern (#19), Wisconsin (#22).

Movin' On Up

Texas - I had a tough time deciding whether to put the Longhorns in the top spot. A lot of people don't believe in dropping a team after a bye week such as Alabama is. Looking at the resumes of the two teams I think Alabama is a bit stronger with wins over Clemson and Georgia. And frankly, I was not impressed with the defenses of either Texas or Oklahoma in the game yesterday. I think Texas' time in the top five will be short lived.

Oklahoma State - What? A 16 spot jump for the Cowboys? Hey. Don't hate the poll. Hate me. I'm a man. I'm 34 years old. We're at the point in the season where if you are undefeated and playing in a BCS conference you go to the head of the class. Especially when you knock off a top five team in the process.

Florida - Their domination of LSU puts them at the front of the line for the one-loss teams. Should all the teams in front of them faulter they deserve to be the first one-loss team to play their way back in.

Movin' On Down

Oklahoma - Down ten spots after their loss to Texas. Maybe a bit drastic, but where is the defense on that team? They had a 14-3 lead at one point. Championship teams lock down leads like that.

Missouri - I seem to recall a certain blogger ranking them below Penn State last week and taking a lot of grief for it.

Be Gone With You

Northwestern - Poor wildcats. I was almost starting to believe. Almost. If you could stretch my arms from New Jersey to Evanston, that's how close I was to believing in Northwestern.

Wisconsin - Consider last week's #22 rank a pity vote. Pity for the BEATDOWN we were about to put on you in your house.

Welcome My Friends To The Show That Never Ends

Ball State - David Letterman's alma mater is 7-0 and destroying everything in their path including Indiana and the same Toledo team that just beat Michigan.

Minnesota - Raise your hand if you thought Minnesota would be 6-1 with a win over Illinois at this point. Yeah. Me either. The funny thing is this team may win 10 games as they have a very favorable schedule. They don't play Penn State or Michigan State and they already lost to Ohio State. Their toughest game left is at Wisconsin who is already looking forward to next year.

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No quarels with this one...

Very well made poll. I don’t see any major problems whatsoever. I think Oklahoma may be better than Georgia, but we’ll see as they continue to play out their schedules.

by hasuprotoss on Oct 12, 2008 5:25 PM EDT 0 recs

Very nice....

with one exception…if your going to drop oklahoma that far based on defense, why is lsu not behind them….they gave up 51 in a loss….I think it’s safe to safe that texas is a better football team than Florida

by PSUfanSTUCKinSECland on Oct 12, 2008 5:33 PM EDT 0 recs

OU defense

They did lose their defensive captain and starting middle linebacker just after the half. The exploitation of that loss was instrumental in Texas opening up the run and play action pass. Two touchdowns were passes to the backup’s man/zone. The one playaction at the goal line was an epic bite all on the backup. So yeah, it wasn’t great, but it wasn’t as bad as it looks when healthy.

by formerlyanonymous on Oct 12, 2008 5:52 PM EDT 0 recs

No ND, no Michigan?

This MUST be a mistake, right?

I bleed Blue and White.

by Horse N Buggy on Oct 12, 2008 6:02 PM EDT 0 recs

Magically...

It never gets old… :D

by hasuprotoss on Oct 12, 2008 6:21 PM EDT up 0 recs

Only change to the poll:

25. Toledo (2-4)

by Cairo on Oct 12, 2008 6:46 PM EDT up 0 recs

LSU.........

they have literally played no-one. Their ranking was a combination of recruiting, defending NCs, and conference reputation. Till the Florida game they played and beat:

App State.
Troy (postponed)
North Texas
Auburn (who sucks)
Miss State (who is terrible as well)
Florida (oops……got blown out of the stadium.)

I don’t know how low they should fall, but I just wanted to point this out.

Eric Watters Atlanta, Ga.

by ech2os on Oct 12, 2008 6:23 PM EDT 0 recs

LSU

You guys make some good points on LSU. The problem is I’m not sure who I should move ahead of them. I think I have them about right.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

by BSD on Oct 12, 2008 7:00 PM EDT 0 recs

Nice......

Emerson Lake and Palmer refernce by the way.

Eric Watters Atlanta, Ga.

by ech2os on Oct 12, 2008 7:15 PM EDT up 0 recs

Regarding Alabama:

The win over Clemson looks less impressive with each week as Clemson continues to bottom out.

by Ab4PSU on Oct 12, 2008 7:24 PM EDT 0 recs

and they were only one lost fumble....

(by Coffee) away, from giving Herb Brooks the ball back for the potential game-winning drive in the last several minutes of the UK game. The whole SEC appears middling truthfully, with the exception of Alabama, whose signal victory is against a really quite unimpressive Georgia team (what are the Dawg’s hanging their hats on? an away W against now 2-4 ASU…using the Fighting Fulmers as a punching bag?…yawn) and Florida, who must also live with the ignominity of losing to an individual named Houston Nutt. Vandy and Auburn are rapidly flaming out, as they learn that sometimes wins are dependant on on-field production and not just wishing their abysmal offenses will somehow teleport into the end zone. And as the illustrious commentator from Georgia mentioned above, who has LSU beaten? Auburn…very impressive…they needed typical Les Miles late game heroics to even pull it out. Not sold, not buying

"michigan : a mitten jerking-off it's upper peninsula since 1837"

by conquering lion in the 215 on Oct 12, 2008 7:44 PM EDT up 0 recs

I usually......

fall into line with the SEC is the strongest conference crowd….but I, like you, at this point don’t necessarily see it that way this year.

Eric Watters Atlanta, Ga.

by ech2os on Oct 12, 2008 7:46 PM EDT up 0 recs

I don't know about Okla State

Great team on offense, but I have a hard time believing in teams that have to put on loads of points to win. All I’m saying is a little defense, and they’d be set

by WPIALkid22 on Oct 12, 2008 7:44 PM EDT 0 recs

Really?

OK State limits a Mizzou team that has a top ten offense, at Mizzou no less, to 23 points, and they need ‘a little defense’? While their final total yards were inflated by desperate late passing, OK St. still managed to look impressive on D.

Mike, no disrespect, but this poll is starting to look like an AP poll. In fact, looking at the complete BlogPoll results on CBSSports.com, the entire thing pretty much lines up with the AP/coaches poll.

I really like what Doc Saturday does with his BlogPoll. Flushes last week’s poll down the drain and starts over. Saying things like Alabama shouldn’t slip due to a bye is exactly why the polls drive everyone crazy. Texas and Penn State are now known to be better than what most people thought. Why not rank them at the top for proving it?

by Kunk on Oct 12, 2008 9:18 PM EDT up 0 recs

That's not a terrible thing

If the polls start looking similar, its most likely because there’s a lot of shaking out to do in the next few weeks (do we really think Texas Tech is going to end 12-0 or 11-1?). And if the AP looks like the blogpoll…its probably a good thing, means the AP is actually watching enough football.

John Madden told me 90% of the game was half-mental...

by TheK-GunNeedsReloaded on Oct 12, 2008 10:39 PM EDT up 0 recs

I dont consider a team

that gives up 37 points to Houston, 24 to Troy and 28 to Texas A&M as being a top 5 team. Their offense definately is, but not their TEAM

by WPIALkid22 on Oct 12, 2008 10:47 PM EDT up 0 recs

I see what you're saying

I understand what Dr. S does, and I agree and disagree with it. He takes it too far to the extreme. You look at some of his polls and they are just crazy. I think he had ECU ranked #1 at one point this year. While their wins over Virginia Tech and West Virginia looked impressive at the time, they are not looking so hot now, and neither is ECU’s loss to a team I can’t even remember.

I think there has to be a balance between resume and expectations. It’s heavy on reputation and expectations in the beginning of the season. It’s a matter of fact that some teams recruit better and traditionally play better than others. So they get the benefit of the doubt on some things in the early going. Personally I don’t like doing this early on. I wish they would wait until week six to release the first poll. But writers and television love poll numbers to create excitement and ratings so we have ridiculous preseason polls. But as the season wears on I switch more to resume voting. I would say at this point I’m probably 90% resume voting.

On that note, it’s tough to choose between Texas and Alabama right now. For the record, I did not say Alabama shouldn’t slip for having a bye week. I said a lot of people think that way. Not me.

Looking at the resumes Texas has a win over Oklahoma. Alabama has a win over Clemson and Georgia. Admittedly, the Clemson win loses luster with every week. But Georgia was a solid win on the same level with beating Oklahoma. So comparing the two teams man-to-man I think Alabama’s defense is better than Texas’. That’s the main reason I ranked them ahead.

Now show me an AP or Coaches poll that has Oklahoma State and Texas Tech in the top five.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

by BSD on Oct 12, 2008 11:31 PM EDT up 0 recs

Fair Points

And after re-reading my original comment last night, I think I came off a little harsh. The Phils getting crushed (while almost getting in a brawl) had raised my blood pressure.

And I think the Alabama/Texas/PSU argument is too tough to call. I think Alabama has just as much claim to No. 1 as do the other two.

However, I think my major beef is poll anchoring. Sure, Texas Tech won, but are they really a top 5 team? I think Florida, Oklahoma, USC (and maybe others) take that team down on a neutral field. Also BYU, Utah, and Boise St. continue to slide up even after notching unimpressive wins. These teams may be top 25 caliber, but would BYU really beat Georgia, OSU, Okalhoma?

It’s those cases that make the BlogPoll end up looking like the same old, stodgy polls.

by Kunk on Oct 13, 2008 6:07 PM EDT up 0 recs

Ah

What you’re doing now is describing the Power Poll method. Team A would beat Team B on a neutral field, so I’ll rank Team A higher. I subscribe to that method in the early part of the season, but then I gradually switch to the resume method. Right now I’m somewhere in between.

Oklahoma State knocked off a very good Missouri team with a Heisman caliber quarterback. Texas Tech thus far is undefeated. If they lose or look unimpressive they will drop. We still have lots of season to go. But right now I’m at the point where if you are undefeated you go to the front of the class and I rank those teams according to their resume. Then I rank the one loss teams. Then the two loss teams and so on. It’s not a science.

Mike
Black Shoe Diaries

by BSD on Oct 14, 2008 2:03 PM EDT up 0 recs