Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Official Week 3 Blogpoll Ballot

(Apparently, it's officially Week 3. I had said Week 4 earlier this week. I get confused easily.)

As in previous weeks, I've taken your feedback into account, as well as studied some of the other arguments around the blogwebnet....and done my best to avoid the MSM... and here's the revised ballot for this week.

RankTeamDelta
1 Florida
2 Texas 1
3 Penn State 1
4 Alabama 1
5 California 1
6 Mississippi 1
7 LSU 1
8 Boise State 1
9 Miami (Florida)
10 Southern Cal 8
11 Oklahoma 1
12 Ohio State 2
13 TCU 2
14 Cincinnati 2
15 Houston 8
16 Virginia Tech 6
17 Oklahoma State
18 Georgia 2
19 Kansas 3
20 Michigan 5
21 Missouri 3
22 Florida State
23 North Carolina
24 Nebraska 5
25 Washington
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Utah (#11), Brigham Young (#13), Georgia Tech (#18), Texas Tech (#21).


You'll see that Florida State is now included, as they should be. I'm still having trouble with them losing that home game to Miami after having six chances to get into the end zone to win, but hey, Miami looks to be pretty good now. Still, you're an ACC team and you've got to win your home games. FSU is in...for now.

That pushes out Georgia Tech, who, honestly, I've not been impressed with since the start. I included them because everyone else seemed to think they were good. But I continue to be unimpressed and FSU deserves the slot more.

USC moves ahead of OSU and Oklahoma. Houston jumps past Oklahoma State. Virginia Tech drops a bit. Good catches, readers, and good points. Sure, USC now isn't being as punished for their loss to Washington as maybe they deserve to be, but does anyone think they're not good anymore? Miami also jumps up a bit more. They look better and better to me each time I look at their body of work.

Yes, PSU gets to be #3. They may not be winning by 60 but they are winning by 20 or 30 every week. And if they keep doing that and mow down their opponents, then I see no reason to drop them. One could argue (and SEC-lovers will) that Alabama should be higher (MGoBlog even has them #1!), but I can't get on board with that. 'Bama was #1 much of last year and then was exposed in losing their last two games. I know a #1 team when I see it and, as of now, it's not Alabama. That's the best I can do on that one.

I'm thinking of wiping the slate clean in about two or three weeks and starting fresh -- to try our best to simulate what it would be like if the first poll was in October, after -- you know -- some actual games had been played.