Ugh. Do we have to? (We do?) Fine. Well, okay. I guess I'm ....wait, what happened Monday night? Really? An absolute throttling?
Ugh.
Okay. Well. Here's the final BlogPoll for the year. Let's just be done with 2011, okay?
Rocky Top Talk Ballot - Week 16
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide |
 2 |
| 2 | LSU Tigers |
 -1 |
| 3 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys |
-1 |
| 4 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 5 | Stanford Cardinal |
1 |
| 6 | Arkansas Razorbacks |
1 |
| 7 | Boise St. Broncos |
-2 |
| 8 | Wisconsin Badgers | -- |
| 9 | South Carolina Gamecocks |
2 |
| 10 | Michigan St. Spartans | -- |
| 11 | Baylor Bears |
3 |
| 12 | Georgia Bulldogs | -- |
| 13 | Oklahoma Sooners |
-4 |
| 14 | Kansas St. Wildcats |
-1 |
| 15 | TCU Horned Frogs |
2 |
| 16 | Houston Cougars | -- |
| 17 | West Virginia Mountaineers | -- |
| 18 | Michigan Wolverines |
-3 |
| 19 | Southern Miss. Golden Eagles |
4 |
| 20 | Northern Illinois Huskies |
2 |
| 21 | Missouri Tigers |
4 |
| 22 | Cincinnati Bearcats | -- |
| 23 | Clemson Tigers |
-5 |
| 24 | Virginia Tech Hokies |
-5 |
| 25 | Florida St. Seminoles | -- |
| Dropouts: Arkansas St. Red Wolves, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Tulsa Golden Hurricane | ||
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "
Notes below the jump.
- There are no right answers, only less wrong ones: Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma State. We're picking a national champion from three teams with one loss apiece (not to mention Boise State); two of these teams only lost to each other, and the third has skins on the wall better than the first. And so, because Alabama had the virtue of strangling the #2 team in the nation too late for anyone to come back, they get the #1 spot. There's an actual argument to be made here (it starts with their defense and can be reasoned they outplayed LSU save FG attempts in November, plus schedule is schedule and it's not their fault), but I'm just ready to be done with 2011.
- Second-level morass: Oregon, Stanford, Arkansas, Boise State, Wisconsin. This looks familiar, no? We've run through this reasoning a lot; I don't feel like rehashing most of it, but: head-to-head, quality of losses, Boise being Boise, and Wisconsin pretty clearly belonging in this tier.
- Um, tier three: South Carolina, Michigan State, Baylor, Georgia, Oklahoma, K-State. I'm honestly not sure how South Carolina ended up at #9; they might be the most uninspiring top-10 finish I can easily recall. Baylor was an absolute blast to watch, and if you think I'm punishing Georgia because of their idiotic handling of the first OT in the Capital One Bowl, you're right. That was dumb.
- The only other teams worth ranking: TCU, Houston, West Virginia, Michigan, Southern Miss, Northern Illinois. Did I mention I'm ready for this year to be over?
- Team Mizzou: Mizzou. This is self-explanatory.
- um: all those other guys down there. Hey look, Tennessee beat a top-25 team this year!