RTT final CBS BlogPoll ballot: week nine

Final ballot:

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas	--
2	Alabama	--
3	Texas Tech	1
4	Penn State	1
5	Oklahoma	1
6	Georgia	4
7	Oklahoma State	4
8	Southern Cal	1
9	Florida	--
10	Boise State	1
11	Florida State	11
12	Ohio State	4
13	Minnesota	8
14	TCU	--
15	Utah	2
16	Michigan State	10
17	Missouri	6
18	South Florida	6
19	Ball State	--
20	Brigham Young	4
21	Maryland	5
22	Tulsa	4
23	North Carolina	3
24	Georgia Tech	8
25	Connecticut	1

Dropped Out: LSU (#15), Pittsburgh (#17), Boston College (#18), Northwestern (#20), Kansas (#25).

The complete computer results are below the jump. This week's five human overrides:

Out of order

1. Oklahoma and Penn State. I went back and forth on this one and eventually overruled the computer and went with Penn State.. Penn State's marquee wins came against Ohio State (currently X) and Illinois (currently X). They rest of the schedule includes Coastal Carolina, Oregon State, Syracuse, Temple, Purdue, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Against that competition, their numbers are great, especially defensively, and the biggest factor, of course, is that they are undefeated. Yes, Oklahoma only lost to the top team (currently) in the nation, but their good wins (TCU (currently X) and Kansas (currently X)) aren't really any better than Penn State's. The rest of their schedule includes Chattanooga, Cincinnati, Washington, Baylor, and Kansas State. Against that competition, their offensive stats are good, but defensively, they pale in comparison to the Nittany Lions'. Penn State it is.

Too low

2. Southern Cal.The Trojans are still a game behind the rest of the best teams in total games played. If you assumed they had played and won another game at this point, they'd be tied for 10th instead of tied for 15th, which would put them just above Florida. That's where I put them.

Oh, by the way, Utah. I left these guys where they are despite the fact that it's 5-6 spots below the major polls. The computer notes the 8-0 record but observes that it came against the 100th worst schedule in the nation.

Too high

3. Minnesota. The Gophers lost to Ohio State. The Buckeyes may have lost twice to Minnesota's once, but the losses have come against Southern Cal (currently 8th) and Penn State (currently 4th). The Gophers won't play the Nittany Lions and could run the table, by the way, although that has no bearing on a resume system. A Big 10 Championship would be nice, guys. Anyway, I moved the Gophers to one spot below Ohio State, which the computer put at about the right place, I think.

4 and 5. North Carolina. The Tarheels may be the best two loss team in the nation, but are they better than undefeated Ball State, undefeated Tulsa, or one loss BYU? Not when those two losses came against Virgina Tech (currently 49th) and Virginia (currently 46th). I've moved North Carolina down below those teams. (I had to move Tulsa into the Top 25 to do this.) I've also moved the other two-loss teams the computer ranked below North Carolina (Georgia Tech, Connecticut, and Northwestern, which got bumped out of the Top 25 entirely as a result) down accordingly, all of which has the effect of moving several Possibly Too Low teams (Ball State, BYU, Maryland, Tulsa, Oregon and LSU, although not all of those teams made the Top 25) up. That was the final veto.

One final note: Florida State may be too high, but I think they're sneaking up on the pollsters.

The initial computer results can be found here. Note that I have Utah color coded red for "possibly too high" when it should be green for "possibly too low."