College Football BlogPoll Week 10 Draft

Oregon ahead of Boise due to SoS. SDSU should be ahead of Florida imo. They’ve lost two games by a combined six points to pretty quality opponents.

I think each of the top four become more impressive this week. TCU dominated a top ten team on the road, Boise dominated a top 25ish team at home, and Auburn’s signature win suddenly became impressive, as LSU now has a signature win of its own. Oh, and Oregon? They just keep doing their thing. I’ve wanted Auburn #4 for a while, but I think any order will suit me now. Still think Aubie is most likely to go down.

Some other thoughts:

*Love seeing the Cardinal at 6, might even be inclined to bump them to 5. They’re one impressive bunch this year. May well be the best one loss team out there. They certainly have the highest quality of loss (@Oregon).

*We still have a Big Ten beatpath, and I think last week’s order (Wisconsin, OSU, MSU, Iowa) still has a strong case. Arizona, being 7-2, can still slide in one spot ahead of Iowa (as Will will point out).

*LSU over Alabama. Possibly Nebraska over Bama as well, although last week was uninspiring.

*Oklahoma State looks good. Elsewhere in the Big XII, TAMU has validated itself, and the Sooners have done the opposite. Why are they still in the poll? What’s their big win? Florida State? Air Force? Are those enough to keep them around? Because Texas sure ain’t.

*Speaking of FSU, didn’t we plan to spike all ACC teams after this week? VT looked awful. FSU looked awful (and lost). Why does the computer still like them again? NC State, (who also lost), still has a head to head and identical record to FSU. On the subject of teams looking awful, Miami looked awful and FSU has the identical record plus head to head. So NCSU > FSU > Miami. And VT is better than them all. And VT sucks.

*For all the expectation-relative fail that is the Gators, they still haven’t lost to a team outside the top 25. Maybe they can stay.

*UCF continues to be 0-2 against medicore teams from BCS conferences. But they have beaten everybody else. Whatever else we say, their resume is below SDSU, who has the same record against a much better schedule.

*So I’ve advocated booting four teams (three ACC + OU). Now we must determine whether there are four teams worth moving up to take their places. Baylor, Illinois, and NCSU all choked away chances to make statements on the road. Grand. SDSU is worth a bump. There’s one. Missouri looked awful, but they still have wins over OU (who will be spiked, we hope) and TAMU, who is in the poll. So maybe there’s two. Pitt (losses @Utah, vs. Miami, @ ND) and WVU (consecutive losses vs. ‘Cuse and UConn) are recommended by the computer and rejected. Penn State is 6-3 but has done nothing of note. Nope. UNC is 6-3 and has beaten FSU, but they got crushed by Miami to form an ACC beatpath. Nope. NIU is 0-2 against mediocre BCS teams (and 1-0 against awful ones), so maybe they can come hang with UCF. One spot left? Air Force? Lost to Oklahoma, so they can’t come in to replace OU. Who’s left? South Carolina. Bad loss to Arkansas, but they are 6-3, and they do have a signature win. It’s them, VT, or OU for #25. I say USC, but it’s your call.

Also, is TCU so good that they’re literally off the grid?

Aside from what you guys have already made clear, I think TAMU has to go above OU if you’re leaving OU in the poll. If Florida State comes out, Miami absolutely has to as well…I do still think Virginia Tech is one of the 25 best teams in college football though, they should stay.

+Oregon, TCU, Boise, Auburn, Stanford, all pretty purely on SoS
+Ohio St. is about 5 slots too high, Wisconsin about 5 too low
+LSU over Bama
+Agree with spiking the ACC- Incipient said it well enough.

A couple quick points:
- Have yall seen Iowa play? They suck. I would recommend bumping them down at least 5 spots
-Ok St. is better than represented
- I wanted to show some love for Northern Illinois. They are quite the juggernaut in the MAC. I would have no problem with them in the top 25, especially if it was between them and, say, a Big East team.
-I agree with the arguments that there should be only one ACC team in the top 25. That being Va Tech.
-Central Florida is good. I would keep them in for sure.

1-3: do as you see fit. all three teams are forces of nature.
4. aub
-— in the below cluster, this order looked best to me --
5. Stanford
6. Nebraska
7. tOSU
-——- arguments start to get hairyer (is that how you spell that?) -—
8. Ok. St. (this is really good team. they can score).
9. LSU (can’t put ‘em any lower)
10. Bama (H2H police made me)
11. Utah
12. Zona
13. Wiscy
14. Arky
15. TAMU
16. Florida (they’re starting to look better)
17. Nevada
18. Iowa (only because of social pressure. they are trash)
19. SDSU
20. Mich St. (The Big 10 is just so blah this year)
21. UCF
22. Va Tech
23. Miss St.
24. Mizzou
25. Northern Illinois (why not?)

For fun, my own personal “power ranking” that ignores resume and asks who would be favored by Vegas if they played today. There might actually be a “vegas poll” out there that asks this same question but answers it more definitively than me. I feel like I’’ve seen something like that before. Whatever, here is how I think something like that would look. It gets a lot SEC heavier when you do it this way. Think about it. How many SEC teams would be giving points to, say, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan St., Mizzou, ’Zona. etc.? If Georgia played Michigan State, for instance, they would definitely be favored.

1. Oregon
2. Boise
3. TCU
4. Alabama
5. Auburn
6. Nebraska
7. tOSU
8. Stanford
9. Oklahoma State
10. LSU
11. South Carolina
12. Arkansas
13. Utah
14. Florida
15. Arizona
16. Va Tech
17. Georgia
18. Oklahoma
19. Nevada
20. Iowa
21. Wisconsin
22. TAMU (I might could move them up)
23. Miss St.
24. Hawaii
25. Mich St.

That was at least a good mental exercise for myself. It arguably didn’t benefit society a whole lot. Oh well.

What do I notice about the six teams we lost to? They’re all in the top 17. What a lovely schedule.