BlogPoll Week Eight: Preliminary

In the midst of (Vol-)national disaster, the BlogPoll is still happening. You really ought to give your thoughts. I'll submit the final one tomorrow morning, so give thoughts tonight. Preferably with arguments. I won't rank (or spike) a team you like (hate) unless there's a good reason to rank (spike) them. So. . . here goes nothing.

1. Alabama

2. Oregon

Yay! That was easy!

3. Florida

4. Kansas State

5. Notre Dame

3-5 can go in almost any order, but it's at least clear who 3-5 are.

6. Oregon State

7. LSU

8. South Carolina

9. Oklahoma

10. Stanford

11. Florida State

12. Southern California

It may be contentious whether or not 6-12 are exactly the teams that we should put in the next tier, but they seem to me to have separated themselves a bit. Oregon State put 42 points on a very, very good defense with their starting QB and RB missing the game with injury. I still don't think they have the talent to beat some of these other teams, but Mike Riley is doing coach of the year stuff, and they've been impressive. And they haven't lost. #6 feels too high, but. . . they haven't lost. And they've played four decent teams (three of them on the road), even if they haven't beaten a really good team.

Oklahoma has a couple crushing wins over decent teams, and their loss is to a top five team. So is LSU's. I was tempted to put South Carolina ahead of LSU because losing close at night in Death Valley should mean you're equal to or greater than LSU, but I think a defensive score was the only reason they came so close. I was watching something else. Florida State still dominates every game in which they don't shoot themselves in the foot, but Stanford has a better win, and an OT loss in South Bend is probably more impressive than anything Southern Cal has done.

13. Louisville

14. Rutgers

15. Texas Tech

16. Georgia

17. Texas A&M

18. West Virginia

19. Clemson

I had Texas Tech and Georgia #13 and #14 (even though I will predict the Red Raiders to lose at TCU this weekend--WVU was a great win), but Pendley hates Tech, so he wanted to give Louisville and Rutgers a bump. They're pretty comfortably undefeated. If people want to reverse that decision, give me thoughts.

20. Cincinnati

21. Mississippi State

22. Iowa State

23. Ohio

24. Western Kentucky

25. Louisiana Tech

Cincy and Mississippi State are undefeated without any impressive wins. Cincy has two okay wins and a bunch of crap. Mississippi State has one okay win (last night) and a bunch of crap. Iowa State has lost to two top fifteen teams, and their domination of TCU looks a lot better now that TCU destroyed Baylor. Oh, and the Iowa win looks a touch better with Iowa's win in East Lansing. Ohio needs to stop screwing around against the dregs of the MAC if they want to break 20. WKU's only loss is Bama. Louisiana Tech lost by 2 to a top 20 team, they can stay.

Consideration pile: TCU, Arizona, Texas, Michigan, Utah State, Toledo, ULM

Matchups of note this week: #8 South Carolina at #3 Florida, #7 LSU at #17 Texas A&M, #4 Kansas State at #18 West Virginia, #15 Texas Tech at consideration pile TCU, #20 Cincinnati at consideration pile Toledo, #24 Western Kentucky vs consideration pile ULM.