The final ballot, complete with changes due to input:
Rocky Top Talk Ballot - Week 9
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boise St. Broncos | -- |
| 2 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 3 | Auburn Tigers |
 2 |
| 4 | TCU Horned Frogs |
 -1 |
| 5 | Michigan St. Spartans |
3 |
| 6 | Missouri Tigers |
4 |
| 7 | Utah Utes | -- |
| 8 | Alabama Crimson Tide |
1 |
| 9 | Wisconsin Badgers |
5 |
| 10 | Arizona Wildcats |
2 |
| 11 | Stanford Cardinal | -- |
| 12 | Ohio St. Buckeyes |
3 |
| 13 | Oklahoma Sooners |
-7 |
| 14 | Florida St. Seminoles |
4 |
| 15 | Iowa Hawkeyes |
-2 |
| 16 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -- |
| 17 | LSU Tigers |
-13 |
| 18 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys |
-1 |
| 19 | Miami Hurricanes | -- |
| 20 | Nevada Wolf Pack |
-1 |
| 21 | South Carolina Gamecocks |
1 |
| 22 | Mississippi St. Bulldogs |
-1 |
| 23 | Virginia Tech Hokies | -- |
| 24 | Navy Midshipmen | -- |
| 25 | Baylor Bears | -- |
| Dropouts: West Virginia Mountaineers, Texas Longhorns, Arkansas Razorbacks, Kansas St. Wildcats | ||
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "
The Top 3:
Arguments for Boise, Auburn, and Oregon are all solid for the #1 spot, for whatever it's worth at this stage of the season. Boise has the best metrics on both sides of the ball, have taken a couple of respectable non-con pelts, and have performed the requisite savagery on their conference peons. (Aside: Boise has habitually pulled many of their key starters at halftime in most conference games so far and are still ringing up half-a-hundred+ shutouts. Whatever you wish to make of that, at least they're not trying to get the maximum possible score on the board.) Auburn has played the best competition so far; the defense has been serviceable, but the offense has been good enough to scrape by. Oregon has a defense that is probably comparable to Auburn's, but a better offense and an easier schedule has given them more comfortable wins. Do with them as you may. I left Boise at the top because I don't see the need to defy the computer's absolute adoration of them in week 8 and, having watched several of their games, am just as impressed with their offense as with Auburn's or Oregon's. But they do play better defense.
But again, any order is easily defensible, which is to say that week 8 is too early to be making a judgment call on this race.
Undefeated Before One-Loss
I didn't have enough validation to drop any of the undefeateds behind a one-loss team yet. All the undefeateds are playing very well, and all the one-losses have shown areas that could use improvement.
Oklahoma/Florida State
I can see the argument to start allowing FSU ahead of Oklahoma, but FSU has been shaky as well, so the head-to-head should still take precedence, especially since FSU would have lost this weekend's game had they played anybody better than Boston College (i.e. about 2/3 of the league).
Other than that, it should pretty well agree with most of the comments. The total delta of the ballot from the previous week is 76, which is a marked decrease in the delta from previous weeks.