Notre Dame is #1. Strange as it seems, we had to do it, and 63 of the 71 BlogPoll voters did it as well, making the Irish the clear winner at the top of the week 13 BlogPoll (full results here). The other first-place votes went to #2 Alabama (4), #7 Ohio State (2), #8 Florida State (1), and #11 Texas A&M (1). While the top two of Notre Dame and Alabama matched up with the AP and Coaches' Polls, the BlogPoll was not quite so ready to annoint the SEC Championship Game winner the challenger to Notre Dame, as Oregon remained #3 ahead of Georgia. Kansas State, who dropped to #7 and #8 in the major polls, dropped just to #5 in the much less myopic BlogPoll.
Following the Wildcats were Florida, Ohio State, Florida State, and LSU, with Stanford rounding out the top ten. Elsewhere, the only big move was Southern California dropping out of the poll entirely. In the top and middle of the poll, the only major disagreement between our ballot and the final poll is Oregon State, who we put #13 and and overall voters put #17, evidently forgetting that a road win over UCLA (who they have #15) is pretty good and a 4-point road loss to Stanford isn't that bad.
Towards the bottom, our ballot failed to include #20 Rutgers, #23 Kent State, or #25 Boise State. Instead, we ranked #19 Utah State, #20 Arizona, #24 Louisiana Tech, and #25 San Jose State. I feel pretty confident in saying the WAC is underrated nationally. At least the top of the WAC. Our full ballot:
Rocky Top Talk Ballot - Week 12
Rank | Team | Delta |
---|---|---|
1 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 2 |
2 | Alabama Crimson Tide | 2 |
3 | Oregon Ducks | -2 |
4 | Kansas St. Wildcats | -2 |
5 | Florida St. Seminoles | -- |
6 | Georgia Bulldogs | 3 |
7 | Florida Gators | -1 |
8 | LSU Tigers | -1 |
9 | Texas A&M Aggies | 1 |
10 | Stanford Cardinal | 2 |
11 | South Carolina Gamecocks | -3 |
12 | Clemson Tigers | 4 |
13 | Oregon St. Beavers | -- |
14 | Oklahoma Sooners | -3 |
15 | UCLA Bruins | -1 |
16 | Texas Longhorns | 2 |
17 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys | 6 |
18 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -3 |
19 | Utah State Aggies | 2 |
20 | Arizona Wildcats | -- |
21 | Northern Illinois Huskies | 1 |
22 | Louisville Cardinals | -3 |
23 | Michigan Wolverines | -- |
24 | Louisiana Tech Bulldogs | -4 |
25 | San Jose St. Spartans | -- |
Dropouts: USC Trojans, Cincinnati Bearcats, Texas Tech Red Raiders |
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "
- Despite our Beaver-love, we were well within the normal range of Oregon State voters, who received plenty of votes as high as #11 and as low as #24. We were one of just two blogs to rank Arizona in the top 20 (along with From Old Virginia), but we did not provide extreme votes for any of the WAC schools, as Utah State got as high as #15 (CougCenter), Louisiana Tech got as high as. . . I'm not making this up. . . #4 (OBNUG), and San Jose State got as high as #15 (OBNUG). The latter two did have non-OBNUG votes higher than ours, as Let's Go Rockets put the Bulldogs #23 and Black Heart Gold Pants and CougCenter put San Jose State #19.
- Apparently, only South Carolina is impressed with beating Derek Dooley. This makes sense, as 42% of South Carolina's all-time wins over Tennessee have come against Derek Dooley. But Garnet and Black Attack provided our only Vanderbilt vote, at #24.