Well, week two of the Blogpoll is out and your humble blogger is once again a not-so-honorable mention. This week I have been dubbed Mr. Stubborn for having the least amount of swing in my vote. Since I'm sure I will get a lot of hits, I might as well get my explanation up now. For review, here is my ballot once again.
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Auburn | -- |
| 2 | Texas | -- |
| 3 | Southern Cal | -- |
| 4 | Iowa | -- |
| 5 | West Virginia | -- |
| 6 | Georgia | -- |
| 7 | Notre Dame | -- |
| 8 | Louisiana State | -- |
| 9 | Michigan | -- |
| 10 | Florida | -- |
| 11 | Clemson | -- |
| 12 | Oklahoma | -- |
| 13 | Penn State | -- |
| 14 | Ohio State | -- |
| 15 | Louisville | -- |
| 16 | Nebraska | -- |
| 17 | Virginia Tech | -- |
| 18 | Florida State |
 3 |
| 19 | Tennessee |
7 |
| 20 | Navy |
 1 |
| 21 | Miami (Florida) |
3 |
| 22 | Georgia Tech | -- |
| 23 | Boise State | -- |
| 24 | UCLA | -- |
| 25 | Arizona State |
1 |
Now in my defense let me say I did not watch tons of football on Saturday. I attended the Penn State-Akron game in person so I missed all the early games and the 3:30 games. I got home in time to watch Notre Dame and Georgia Tech and I flipped over to USC and Auburn during commercials.
Before I go into why my vote appears to be set in stone, let's take a little trip. Go back with me to November 12, 1994. Penn State is riding high with an 8-0 record, a #1 ranking, and clear sailing the rest of the way through the season. All that is left are some mop up games against Illinois, Northwestern, and Michigan State. Nothing was going to derail us from winning the MNC. But on that day we came out a little flat against Illinois, and after some inopportune turnovers, the Nittany Lions found themselves down 28-0 in the first half. Then the greatest offense to ever walk on this earth got their act together and stormed on to a 35-31 victory to keep the perfect season going. But on Monday the new poll came out and the voters dropped us to #2 behind Nebraska because we "struggled".
I'm not bitter about it or anything. Ok maybe a bit. Ok yeah, I'm still pissed off about it, but because of that I don't believe a team should get knocked in the polls when they win. If a team struggles against a weak opponent, maybe they should drop a tick. But every team comes out flat at least once a season.
Looking at my ballot, what should I do? Should I drop Notre Dame five spots because they struggled on the road against a GA Tech team I had ranked #22? Should I bump USC in front of Auburn because they beat their cupcake team by 36 points and the Tigers only beat theirs by 26? Let me point out I had Cal, Florida State, and Miami all ranked pretty low to begin with. Look at my ballot and you can see my top 20 teams are all undefeated. Who do you put where? Throw them all in a hat and pull names as far as I'm concerned. It's only week one. Things will start moving soon and the picture will clear up soon enough.