Here it is. 

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida	--
2	Southern Cal	1
3	Utah	6
4	Texas	2
5	Oklahoma	1
6	Alabama	1
7	Penn State	5
8	TCU	3
9	Ohio State	1
10	Oregon	4
11	Boise State	1
12	Georgia	7
13	Texas Tech	6
14	Mississippi	6
15	Virginia Tech	6
16	Cincinnati	3
17	Oregon State	6
18	Oklahoma State	1
19	Michigan State	7
20	Iowa	5
21	Boston College	3
22	Georgia Tech	7
23	Brigham Young	5
24	Pittsburgh	8
25	West Virginia	1

This ballot will probably end up being highlighted on the Wack Ballot, but I don't care. Like all polls, the blogpoll means nothing. All of the polls are a joke. We assign arbitrary ranks to teams that haven't played each other based who beat the best level of competition as determined by our own arbitrary rankings. So it got me thinking, why not us? Here's the ballot.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida	3
2	Penn State	3
3	Southern Cal	3
4	Oklahoma	2
5	Alabama	4
6	Texas	3
7	Texas Tech	--
8	Ohio State	2
9	Utah	1
10	Boise State	1
11	TCU	1
12	Michigan State	2
13	Cincinnati	--
14	Oregon	1
15	Georgia Tech	2
16	Pittsburgh	3
17	Oklahoma State	1
18	Brigham Young	2
19	Georgia	2
20	Mississippi	6
21	Virginia Tech	5
22	Northwestern	1
23	Oregon State	1
24	Boston College	8
25	Iowa	--

Am I a homer for ranking Penn State in the top two? Sure. But I'm not the only one.

If Mack Brown can rank his team #2 just because Texas beat a top ten team, why not us? We beat Ohio State, who is also a top ten team. And they beat Oklahoma on a neutral field while we beat Ohio State on the road.

Urban Meyer ranked his team #1 despite losing to an unranked team at home. We lost to an unranked team with the same record on the road. Why not us? (Incidently, Meyer ranked Penn State #9 on his ballot.)

USC lost to Oregon State. We destroyed Oregon State. Why not us?

Alabama's out of conference schedule was a joke. They don't have a win over a team currently ranked in the top 10. We beat three teams currently ranked in the top 25. Why not us?

I've seen Florida, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Texas Tech and USC all play this year. I think Penn State can go toe-to-toe with any of them. Voters forget that defense is half of the game. They're enamored with offense and scoring. The Big XII doesn't play defense. I've seen enough of their games to know this. Florida, Alabama, and USC all play defense just as good as Penn State. But we're paying the price for Ohio State's sins. Is it fair that we don't get a shot at the title? Sure, but then polls by nature aren't fair.

So yeah, this ballot is a statement. It says polls suck and I hate polls. Everyone spins their season to make their argument. So when none of it makes sense we revert to our preconceived notions. Which means the voting is guided by these simple principles:

1. ESSS EEEE SEEE IZ OMG AWSUM FAST

2. The greatest offenses play in the Big XII

3. The Big Ten Sucks

Whatever. Wake me up when there's a playoff.

Here is my ballot for this week. 

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	--
2	Oklahoma	1
3	Texas	1
4	Florida	--
5	Penn State	--
6	Southern Cal	1
7	Texas Tech	1
8	Utah	--
9	Boise State	--
10	Ohio State	1
11	Ball State	4
12	TCU	4
13	Cincinnati	4
14	Michigan State	4
15	Oregon	5
16	Boston College	5
17	Georgia Tech	5
18	Oklahoma State	8
19	Pittsburgh	4
20	Brigham Young	1
21	Georgia	8
22	Oregon State	8
23	Northwestern	1
24	Missouri	12
25	Iowa	1

Ok, so Brian asked us to pay close attention to the Texas/Oklahoma controversy this week and describe our reasoning. So I gave it a lot of thought and I'll try to explain my reasoning for flip-flopping the two teams this week. I put together a list of pros and cons for each team. This is what I came up with.

As you can see, the pros pretty heavily outweigh the cons for Oklahoma in my book. I know Texas won the head to head matchup, but I watched quite a bit of that game and I can hardly say Texas established themselves as the better team. Both teams were trading scores and the lead all day long. It's a classic example of where the last team to hold the ball wins. If they had added an extra five minutes to the clock, Oklahoma probably would have scored and won.

So based on the overall resume, I have to go with Oklahoma here. They beat all the teams Texas beat more convincingly than the Longhorns did. They beat Texas Tech, who beat Texas, and they have the Cincinnati and TCU scalps on their belt.

Here is my ballot for this week. Discuss.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	1
2	Texas	1
3	Oklahoma	2
4	Florida	--
5	Penn State	2
6	Texas Tech	5
7	Southern Cal	1
8	Utah	--
9	Boise State	--
10	Oklahoma State	--
11	Ohio State	--
12	Missouri	--
13	Georgia	--
14	Oregon State	4
15	Ball State	--
16	TCU	3
17	Cincinnati	3
18	Michigan State	2
19	Brigham Young	5
20	Oregon	3
21	Boston College	5
22	Georgia Tech	4
23	Pittsburgh	6
24	Northwestern	2
25	Florida State	1

Pretty boring week of college football, so not a lot of changes to the poll. 

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas Tech	--
2	Alabama	--
3	Texas	--
4	Florida	--
5	Oklahoma	--
6	Southern Cal	--
7	Penn State	--
8	Utah	--
9	Boise State	--
10	Oklahoma State	--
11	Ohio State	1
12	Missouri	1
13	Georgia	2
14	Brigham Young	--
15	Ball State	--
16	Michigan State	1
17	Pittsburgh	2
18	Oregon State	5
19	TCU	2
20	Cincinnati	2
21	Miami (Florida)	5
22	Maryland	4
23	Oregon	3
24	LSU	4
25	North Carolina	9

UPDATE: This ballot has been revised from the original based on the comments of the masses.

Discuss.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas Tech	1
2	Alabama	1
3	Texas	3
4	Florida	--
5	Oklahoma	2
6	Southern Cal	1
7	Penn State	6
8	Utah	1
9	Boise State	1
10	Oklahoma State	2
11	Georgia	--
12	Ohio State	--
13	Missouri	--
14	Brigham Young	2
15	Ball State	2
16	North Carolina	2
17	Michigan State	2
18	Florida State	2
19	Pittsburgh	2
20	LSU	6
21	TCU	6
22	Cincinnati	4
23	Oregon State	3
24	South Carolina	2
25	Virginia Tech	1

Here is my blogpoll ballot with some explanations below. 

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

Ok I'm sure to take some heat for my top five, so I'll try to explain myself. I've had Penn State ranked ahead of Alabama for a few weeks now so it should be no surprise to anyone to see them out of the #1 spot. Alabama's wins over Clemson and Georgia look less impressive every week, and they have had trouble with teams like Tulane, Kentucky, and Mississippi.

I have to put Texas Tech in the #2 spot based on their win over Texas. But honestly, I'm not as impressed with the Big XII as the rest of the country is. Sure, they have some great quarterbacks and great offenses, but their defenses are terrible. I watched the Texas-TT game last night and by the third quarter you could tell whoever got the ball last was going to win. I saw missed tackles, poor pursuit angles, and just overall poor defense. I can't see Texas Tech going undefeated.

Penn State in my opinion has been the most solid team in all three phases of the game.  The defense has been stellar. Only Illinois scored more than 17 points on them. You can say, "Yeah big deal. Who have they played?" Perhaps a fair point, but look at teams like Oklahoma who have given up 26 points to Cincinnati, 35 points to Kansas State, and 28 points to Nebraska. Or Florida who have given up 31 points to Mississippi. Or even Texas Tech who gave up 24 points to Eastern Washington, 19 points to Nevada, 28 points to Kansas State, and 25 points to Texas A&M. At some point every team comes out flat and needs their defense to pull out a win. Penn State has a defense that can do that. Everyone thinks they are a boring low scoring team, but they forget that before we went to Columbus we were hanging 45 points on everyone. Put them in the Big XII and I honestly believe they would score 50 points per game. That's why they get my #1 vote.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas	--
2	Penn State	--
3	Alabama	--
4	Florida	1
5	Texas Tech	1
6	Oklahoma	1
7	Southern Cal	1
8	Georgia	1
9	Oklahoma State	5
10	Utah	2
11	Boise State	2
12	Florida State	5
13	Missouri	2
14	LSU	4
15	Minnesota	6
16	Ohio State	5
17	TCU	1
18	Brigham Young	8
19	Ball State	3
20	North Carolina	6
21	Michigan State	5
22	Tulsa	4
23	Oregon	3
24	Maryland	2
25	Boston College	9

Thoughts?