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?

I put this ballot together in about 10 minutes without really looking at the ballot from last week. So some of the delta numbers may not make sense. Discuss.

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

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

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.

This week was pretty tame compared to last week when half the top ten teams all lost. So you don't see much movement at the top this week. Anyway, here is the ballot for this week. (UPDATE: Ballot edited to switch Missouri and Penn State.)

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

Movin' On Up

Nobody, really. Like I said, everyone in the top ten held serve with the exception of South Florida who lost to Pitt. Vanderbilt makes the nicest jump by moving up seven spots after their win over Auburn. Michigan State also moves up six spots. They got a nice little team there that can dominate the running game.

Movin' On Down

Wisconsin drops six spots after blowing another fourth quarter lead. Every year the pollsters rank the Badgers in the top ten to start the season. And every year they disappoint us. As a Penn State fan I'm not thrilled about going into Madison to play a team on a two game losing streak. There are few things nastier than a wounded Badger.

Be Gone With You

So long ,Auburn. Your wins are ugly and your losses are uglier. You are off my poll until you show me something. A win over Alabama would be nice.

Beat it, South Florida. I was never a believer to begin with. There was only one game on your schedule I actually wanted you to win, and you blew it. Thanks.

Get lost, Oregon. Nobody blames you for losing to USC, but I didn't think you would pull an Ohio State on us.

Welcome to the Dance

Oklahoma State debuts at #20 because they are undefeated and I had to add a few teams after dropping five off my poll.

Welcome back, Wake Forest. Perhaps I was too harsh in banishing you after your loss to Navy. You get a five slot gift for sitting home during the bye week. No hard feelings?

Pitt....Pardon me while I throw up in my mouth.

North Carolina is looking like a dark horse to win the ACC all the sudden.

California...eh, we'll see how that goes.

MGoBlog wants the ballot early this week for reasons he'll probably make known soon. In any event, here is my ballot sans the fluffy explanations. 

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	10
2	Oklahoma	1
3	LSU	1
4	Missouri	2
5	Penn State	3
6	Texas	1
7	Texas Tech	3
8	Brigham Young	4
9	Auburn	4
10	Southern Cal	9
11	Florida	9
12	Georgia	7
13	Ohio State	1
14	South Florida	2
15	Utah	--
16	Wisconsin	7
17	Boise State	1
18	Virginia Tech	8
19	Kansas	7
20	Oregon	2
21	Vanderbilt	5
22	Northwestern	3
23	Connecticut	3
24	Michigan State	2
25	Fresno State	1

Yes, I jumped Alabama up to #1. They completely destroyed a Georgia team most people had as the #1 team in the country when this season began. And they did it on the road.

Penn State jumps up to #5 on my poll. I think I'm clear from the CK Award. I really don't want to flirt with that, but I think we're a legitimate top five team now.

Am I missing anything terribly obvious?