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.