Due to Ike rolling through and knocking out my power I hardly got to watch any football this weekend. But I did manage to see part of Wisconsin and Fresno State. Then I caught SportsCenter on Sunday morning. That was about it. Here is my ballot for this week.
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southern Cal | -- |
| 2 | Florida | -- |
| 3 | Oklahoma |
 1 |
| 4 | Missouri |
5 |
| 5 | Georgia |
 2 |
| 6 | Texas | -- |
| 7 | LSU |
2 |
| 8 | Penn State |
2 |
| 9 | Wisconsin |
5 |
| 10 | Alabama |
2 |
| 11 | Texas Tech |
2 |
| 12 | Auburn |
4 |
| 13 | Oregon |
3 |
| 14 | Brigham Young |
5 |
| 15 | Utah |
8 |
| 16 | Wake Forest |
6 |
| 17 | South Florida |
2 |
| 18 | Kansas |
7 |
| 19 | Ohio State |
12 |
| 20 | East Carolina |
2 |
| 21 | Illinois |
5 |
| 22 | Iowa |
4 |
| 23 | West Virginia |
2 |
| 24 | Clemson |
4 |
| 25 | Fresno State |
1 |
Movin' On Up
Missouri - I'm not sure why I jumped the Tigers up five spots. Their 69-17 win over Nevada didn't impress me that much. Part of it was dropping Ohio State. They are a team I'm not sure what to do with.
Wisconsin - I wasn't that impressed with the Badgers' win over Fresno State. A top ten team should have won that game by two touchdowns. But I'm hoping Wisconsin can stay in the top ten until we play them, because it may be our only chance at knocking off a top ten team this year.
BYU - Holy smokes did they put the beatdown on UCLA. I'm not a big fan of ranking mid-major teams, but wins like that are hard to ignore.
Utah - I probably should have ranked them higher last week. This is another team I'm not sure what to do with. Any ideas?
Wake Forest - Don't ask me why. I guess I'm just resisting ranking teams like South Florida and East Carolina ahead of them. But the ACC is a joke right now.
Movin' On Down
Georgia - They have looked flat in two of their first three games. Can you say overrated?
Auburn - 3-2 over Mississippi State? Seriously? This team is waaaay overrated. Voters should really ask themselves if half of the SEC deserves to be ranked in the top 15 in the preseason polls just because they are the SEC.
Ohio State - Thanks again, Buckeyes. Nobody expected you to win out in Southern California, but we were sure hoping you wouldn't get blown out.
Kansas - I thought they were ranked too high. Losing to South Florida confirmed it.
Penn State Perspective
I feel like I'm giving Penn State a pass in ranking them so high. True, they haven't beaten anyone, but they have come out focused three weeks in a row against weak competition which is hard to do. They obviously haven't been dogging it in practice and thinking just showing up is enough to win.
While they haven't beaten anyone of note, I have seen enough to have a few of my preseason questions answered. Daryll Clark is for real, and Pat Devlin is capable of leading this team if called on to do so. The defense has tightened up over the past three weeks. Did anyone else notice the Oregon State Beavers tagged Hawaii for 45 points this weekend? The defensive line kept right on chugging without Evans and Koroma, and the secondary is doing better than I expected. From what I've seen Penn State is one of the top ten teams in the country at this point.