Black Shoe Diaries Ballot - Week 16

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	--
3	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
4	Oregon Ducks	--
5	Stanford Cardinal	--
6	Wisconsin Badgers	--
7	Michigan St. Spartans	--
8	Boise St. Broncos	--
9	Arkansas Razorbacks	--
10	Oklahoma Sooners	--
11	South Carolina Gamecocks	1
12	Michigan Wolverines	1
13	Kansas St. Wildcats	-2
14	Baylor Bears	4
15	USC Trojans	--
16	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-2
17	TCU Horned Frogs	2
18	Georgia Bulldogs	-1
19	Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	3
20	Houston Cougars	3
21	Penn St. Nittany Lions	-5
22	West Virginia Mountaineers	2
23	Clemson Tigers	-3
24	Florida St. Seminoles	1
25	Virginia Tech Hokies	-4

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "

LSU? Yes, LSU but only because there's no way to split my vote with Oklahoma State. In my mind, those two share the title this year. Where's Alabama? Third. Didn't they win impressively on Monday? Absolutely, but it doesn't change the fact the actual game that counted occurred the first week of November when LSU defeated them in Tuscaloosa on their own field. If you don't win your conference, let alone your division then you get no part of a national title. I love college football, watch every game I possibly can and I tuned in for maybe a total of five minutes of gametime of the game. I just didn't care, the BCS succeeded in creating a "championship" game I didn't give a damn about what happened.

In other places, things played out to script in the rest of bowls so the rest of the Top 10 didn't see a change either. I almost flipped Wisconsin and Michigan State back again, however a close win over Georgia by the Spartans wasn't quite enough to offset the close loss to Oregon by the Badgers. Below that there was a little shuffling with Baylor, Houston and West Virginia the biggest climbers. On the flip side and out of character for them historically, Penn State laid an egg and along with Clemson's woeful performance, which dragged Virginia Tech along with them, saw all taking the furthest drops. Disagree with any of it? As always, questions, corrections, suggestions and objections are welcome.

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Nick was having some technical difficulties this morning. So here is his ballot, via me... rip it apart like the internet blog mob we are...

Black Shoe Diaries Ballot - Week 15

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	5
3	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
4	Oregon Ducks	1
5	Stanford Cardinal	-3
6	Wisconsin Badgers	--
7	Michigan St. Spartans	-3
8	Boise St. Broncos	--
9	Arkansas Razorbacks	1
10	Oklahoma Sooners	-1
11	Kansas St. Wildcats	--
12	South Carolina Gamecocks	--
13	Michigan Wolverines	1
14	Nebraska Cornhuskers	2
15	USC Trojans	2
16	Penn St. Nittany Lions	2
17	Georgia Bulldogs	-2
18	Baylor Bears	1
19	TCU Horned Frogs	2
20	Clemson Tigers	4
21	Virginia Tech Hokies	-8
22	Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	3
23	Houston Cougars	-3
24	West Virginia Mountaineers	-2
25	Florida St. Seminoles	--
Dropouts: Texas Longhorns

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "

If you wanted a visual representation of Penn State's attempt to win their division outright against Wisconsin, it'd be using water to put out a grease fire. That game went wrong in every way and it got ugly fast. Hope everyone that fried this Thanksgiving thawed the turkey first. The BlogPoll has more or less settled down just in time for the end of the regular season, then again a combination of time off and unfamiliar match-ups make bowls throw a wrench into everything again. Take a look at the BlogPoll ballot below the jump. As always, questions, corrections, suggestions and objections are welcome.

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It took a little time, but upsets just flipped the rankings on their head. What we have now is a situation where essentially every ranking below number one is arguably up for grabs by an amorphous blob of teams. Needless to say, it's scattershot this week and with rivalry and conference title games in the next couple weeks, the BlogPoll doesn't look to get any prettier. To be honest, I'm fully supporting chaos, because Saturdays are better when they're unpredictable. Take a look at the ballot below the jump and feel free to present your cases for any changes. As always, questions, corrections, suggestions and objections are welcome.

Black Shoe Diaries Ballot - Week 13

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Arkansas Razorbacks	3
3	Stanford Cardinal	3
4	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
5	Boise St. Broncos	4
6	Michigan St. Spartans	4
7	Oregon Ducks	-4
8	Wisconsin Badgers	5
9	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	-7
10	Oklahoma Sooners	-3
11	Kansas St. Wildcats	3
12	South Carolina Gamecocks	--
13	Virginia Tech Hokies	2
14	Penn St. Nittany Lions	2
15	Michigan Wolverines	3
16	Georgia Bulldogs	1
17	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-6
18	Baylor Bears	4
19	USC Trojans	4
20	Houston Cougars	-1
21	Clemson Tigers	-13
22	TCU Horned Frogs	-2
23	West Virginia Mountaineers	1
24	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	1
25	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	--
Dropouts: Southern Miss. Golden Eagles

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "

To start, Alabama at 4? Yes, I have an established rule that no team may rise the week they defeated an I-AA FCS school, like a Georgia Southern, only maintain status quo or drop. South Carolina is in a similar, though less obvious, situation. It's not an issue and with be resolved after the "Iron Bowl" on Saturday, let it all play out. Clemson falls hard this week after taking an extremely ugly loss to NC State. Oklahoma State did so also, but under difficult circumstances. There were so many changes this week, I'm probably missing a lot in all the noise as numbers in the data all start blending together at some point. Games of note this week: Arkansas at LSU, Notre Dame at Stanford, Penn State at Wisconsin, Clemson at South Carolina and Georgia at  Georgia Tech.

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This was a long, emotional week and when I just as I sat down to write the BlogPoll, more crap continues to come out. I'm going to brief timeout to address the voters that saw fit to leave Penn State off their ballots in a protest of sorts. As if ranking Penn State in your BlogPoll is somehow ranking child abuse. That's beyond ridiculous. Stop. Just stop. Regardless of how you feel about this whole situation, this isn't the forum to voice your viewpoint. If you don't feel they're qualified? Fine, go ahead and leave them off, but this team with these kids don't have a damn thing to do with any of the other issues that you feel the need to burden them with. Maybe all ranking should handled by computers isn't such a bad idea if you find it difficult to make that simple distinction. Take a look at my ballot below the jump. As always, questions, corrections, suggestions and objections are welcome. 

Black Shoe Diaries Ballot - Week 12

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU Tigers	--
2	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	1
3	Oregon Ducks	3
4	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
5	Arkansas Razorbacks	2
6	Stanford Cardinal	-4
7	Oklahoma Sooners	1
8	Clemson Tigers	1
9	Boise St. Broncos	-4
10	Michigan St. Spartans	--
11	Nebraska Cornhuskers	1
12	South Carolina Gamecocks	-1
13	Wisconsin Badgers	1
14	Kansas St. Wildcats	1
15	Virginia Tech Hokies	1
16	Penn St. Nittany Lions	-3
17	Georgia Bulldogs	--
18	Michigan Wolverines	--
19	Houston Cougars	--
20	TCU Horned Frogs	--
21	Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	--
22	Baylor Bears	--
23	USC Trojans	--
24	West Virginia Mountaineers	--
25	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets	-5
Dropouts: Texas Longhorns, Ohio St. Buckeyes, Auburn Tigers, Cincinnati Bearcats

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "

Obviously, Stanford and Boise State are the big stories, as both drop following their losses. The Broncos may continue sliding with big match-ups remaining for teams not far below them. Oregon leapfrogs Alabama with their loss to LSU coming on a neutral (largely LSU) site and Alabama losing at home. Everything else pretty much stabilizes after 16. TCU, Baylor and USC are in, Texas, Ohio State, Auburn and Cincinnati are out. Games of note this week are: USC at Oregon, Oklahoma at Baylor and Nebraska at Michigan.

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There is no joy in Mudville, there will no YouTubes or attempts at humor. No pontifications on whether the "Game of the Century of the Week" lived up to it's billing, just the Blogpoll. The biggest movers up were Clemson and Michigan State simply because of all the losses around them, Alabama, Nebraska, Kansas State and Michigan all fall this week and South Carolina somehow remained in place despite losing to Arkansas through a strange mix of upsets and bye weeks, but are left in a precarious position with this week's slate. I have the biggest problems with the ranking between 9 and 18, it's a complete mess. Again, I'm expecting to see some clarity following the games this weekend. Take a look at the BlogPoll ballot below the jump. As always, questions, corrections, suggestions and objections are welcome.

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College football comes and goes so fast, you guys. I mean, it's all over next week as I'm being told all remaining games will be cancelled after the championship game, when LSU travels to Alabama, this Saturday. Just as the season was starting to get good too, there was more change following this weekend than we've seen since the few couple weeks of the season. I took a little time to rank some teams besides LSU and Alabama, but why bother, right?Take a look at the BlogPoll ballot below the jump. As always, questions, corrections, suggestions and objections are welcome.

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Well, college football season finally got real. Oklahoma and Wisconsin fell hard and now both hit the road this week with tough match-ups against Kansas State and Ohio State.  Will they fall apart because they've essentially lost their shot at the title ,or pull it together and hope for chaos to run amok?  LSU and Alabama both hope to survive their bye weeks undefeated for the media's impending coronation ceremony their collision in two weeks. Take a look at the BlogPoll ballot below the jump.  As always, questions, corrections, suggestions and objections are welcome.

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