Rank	Team	Delta
1	Oklahoma	—
2	Florida	—
3	Texas	—
4	Penn State	—
5	Southern Cal	—
6	Alabama	—
7	Texas Tech	—
8	Utah	—
9	Ohio State	—
10	Boise State	—
11	TCU	—
12	Georgia Tech	—
13	Georgia	—
14	Cincinnati	—
15	Oklahoma State	—
16	Missouri	—
17	Michigan State	—
18	Virginia Tech	—
19	Iowa	—
20	Brigham Young	—
21	Pittsburgh	—
22	Oregon	—
23	Boston College	—
24	Northwestern	—
25	Oregon State	1

With no comments on the draft ballot, everything remains as it was. Again, the deltas are inaccurate, so pay them no mind.

Posted under BlogPoll

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Oklahoma	—
2	Florida	—
3	Texas	—
4	Penn State	—
5	Southern Cal	—
6	Alabama	—
7	Texas Tech	—
8	Utah	—
9	Ohio State	—
10	Boise State	—
11	TCU	—
12	Georgia Tech	—
13	Georgia	—
14	Cincinnati	—
15	Oklahoma State	—
16	Missouri	—
17	Michigan State	—
18	Virginia Tech	—
19	Iowa	—
20	Brigham Young	—
21	Pittsburgh	—
22	Oregon	—
23	Boston College	—
24	Northwestern	—
25	Oregon State	1

Update: Deltas “fixed,” by which I mean they are now wrong, because they are deltas from what I originally submitted this morning.

Posted under BlogPoll

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Oklahoma	1
2	Texas	1
3	Alabama	2
4	Florida	—
5	Penn State	1
6	Southern Cal	1
7	Texas Tech	2
8	Utah	—
9	Boise State	1
10	Ohio State	2
11	TCU	3
12	Georgia Tech	5
13	Georgia	2
14	Cincinnati	2
15	Oklahoma State	6
16	Missouri	3
17	Michigan State	2
18	Boston College	2
19	Ball State	2
20	Iowa	2
21	Brigham Young	2
22	Oregon State	7
23	Pittsburgh	1
24	Oregon	2
25	Northwestern	—

Changes from Draft: Dropped Alabama below Oklahoma and Texas. Replaced Florida State with Oregon.

The majority of commenters though Texas should be ahead of Oklahoma (and believe me, I think they can make a legitimate case), but I stood by what I thought before. Dropping Alabama seems to now be fashionable (or at least acceptable), especially after the SEC took a pretty major hit over the weekend.

Posted under Football

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	—
2	Oklahoma	—
3	Texas	—
4	Florida	—
5	Penn State	1
6	Southern Cal	1
7	Texas Tech	2
8	Utah	—
9	Boise State	1
10	Ohio State	2
11	TCU	3
12	Georgia Tech	5
13	Georgia	2
14	Cincinnati	2
15	Oklahoma State	6
16	Missouri	3
17	Michigan State	2
18	Boston College	2
19	Ball State	2
20	Iowa	2
21	Brigham Young	2
22	Oregon State	7
23	Pittsburgh	1
24	Northwestern	1
25	Florida State	7

Oklahoma over Texas because: Against common opponents, the two teams were approximately equal in victory against Baylor and Texas A&M. Texas was more impressive against Kansas by a slight margin, and Oklahoma was more impressive against Oklahoma State and Texas Tech by HUGE margins. The Sooners’ schedule was also much more top-heavy, giving them a more impressive resume at this point.

Other potential problems: I’ll admit I didn’t go through and strictly resume rank at this point, though I may make something of an effort to do it over the next day or so. I don’t like having Alabama at the top, but because I haven’t done all the legwork in comparing resumes, I think it would be disingenuous to move them down at this point.

Everything else seems fairly straightforward to me, so comment away.

Posted under Football

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	1
2	Oklahoma	3
3	Texas	—
4	Florida	—
5	Texas Tech	4
6	Penn State	—
7	Southern Cal	—
8	Utah	—
9	Oklahoma State	—
10	Boise State	—
11	Georgia	—
12	Ohio State	—
13	Missouri	—
14	TCU	—
15	Oregon State	5
16	Cincinnati	3
17	Georgia Tech	6
18	Florida State	8
19	Michigan State	4
20	Boston College	6
21	Ball State	—
22	Iowa	4
23	Brigham Young	7
24	Pittsburgh	7
25	Northwestern	1

Changes from draft: I slid Michigan State past Boston College because I’m really uncomfortable with the ACC, though they’ll have the chance to move up with more football to be played, while the Spartans sit at home. of course, the ACC being what it is, who knows what will happen in their remaining game(s). I also slid Northwestern in at 25 over UNC, because of aforementioned uncertainty about their conference. Northwestern should not, however, be ranked ahead of Iowa as suggested. The Hawkeyes have a far superior signature win, and didn’t lose to freakin’ Indiana. Their overall resume is superior.

About the Big 12 South: So I pretty much ended up ignoring all the suggestions about what to do with Texas v. Oklahoma (I do think Tech’s loss was enough to drop them out of the discussion for #2). Everyone cited the Texas-OU score, or the fact that Texas’s loss was away as opposed to Oklahoma’s on a neutral field. However, the rankings are composed of more than just the head-to-head score, even when there is a pair (or in this case, a trio) of teams whose only losses come to each other. The entire season resume has to be taken into account, and Oklahoma had non-competitive games against Texas Tech in conference, and out of conference against Cincinnati (the likely Big East champion) and TCU (who finished 2nd in the pretty good Mountain West). Based on the entire season, Oklahoma is more deserving at this point than Oklahoma. The OSU game next week will either vindicate or completely change my opinion of the Sooners.

Posted under Football

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	1
2	Oklahoma	3
3	Texas	—
4	Florida	—
5	Texas Tech	4
6	Penn State	—
7	Southern Cal	—
8	Utah	—
9	Oklahoma State	—
10	Boise State	—
11	Georgia	—
12	Ohio State	—
13	Missouri	—
14	TCU	—
15	Oregon State	5
16	Cincinnati	3
17	Georgia Tech	6
18	Florida State	8
19	Boston College	7
20	Michigan State	5
21	Ball State	—
22	Iowa	4
23	Brigham Young	7
24	Pittsburgh	7
25	North Carolina	3

Games Watched: Next to none, aside from the Michigan-Ohio State and Texas Tech-Oklahoma. I got bits and pieces of a bunch of other games though.

Questions: I have a hard time with how to rank #2-5, but I think the difference in home field advantage for Oklahoma and Texas against each other and Tech doesn’t diminish the fact that Tech was non-competitive against a team the Horns lost to. The bottom of the poll is something of a disaster right now, and I have no clue what to do with the ACC. Help me.

Posted under Football

Hosted at College GameBalls.

1. By now everyone has heard that if there is a three way tie in the Big 12 South the highest ranked team in the BCS will play in the Big 12 Championship Game. That means the humans (66% of the BCS Poll) will determine the Big 12 South representative. Let’s assume Oklahoma sinks the pirate ship at home next week. Try to sway the pollsters by arguing which team you think should face off against the Big 12 North.

I’d like it to be Texas Tech, if only because they’re certainly the most exciting team of the three. Of course, assuming an Oklahoma victory on Saturday, they’re probably the least likely to head to Kansas City, on account of historical reputation (unfair) and having played two 1-AA teams (fair). Assuming that those two factors hurt Texas Tech too much, it’s narrowed down to Texas and Oklahoma. In that case, the head-to-head result favors the Longhorns.

2. ESPN is aggressively bidding on the rights to the BCS when Fox’s contract expires after the 2009 season. My half baked theory is if they do win the rights they will push for a +1 system. Lucrative television deals have landed ESPN in bed with each of the BCS conferences. The revenue a playoff would generate could be a huge motivator for the four letter to be the common denominator and unifier among the conferences that finally helps them all to see the light of why a playoff would be good for college football. Help expand upon or debunk this theory.

A +1 system would likely result in a lot more revenue for ESPN, though it would certainly take away one thing for their analysts to complain about all the time. I think, however, that the current BCS system is a little too entrenched for ESPN to have that much of a say, considering their 3-year contract isn’t exactly a show of ownership of the BCS system. I think University presidents (particularly of the BCS conferences) would have a slight issue with this, as it means there are 2 fewer at large teams, and therefore less money for their schools. A playoff is eventually going to happen, but I doubt ESPN’s BCS contract is going to be the factor that turns the tide.

3. Rivalry week is around the corner. How do you think your team will fare? Feel free to talk a little or a lot of trash.

Bad. Nick Sheridan doesn’t always equal death, per se, but his presence certainly implies some form of impending doom. I foresee nothing good to come out of this weekend’s game with Ohio State.

4. And now for a little fun… Assemble your dream announcing team. Pick a play-by-play announcer, color commentator, sideline reporter and for the hell of it celebrity guest that drops on by.

I like the Nessler-Griese pairing, and if I could just eliminate Maguire, it would get exponentially better. I also like Chris Spielman, and it might be worth an experiment to throw him into that grouping. And, because I’m a sports blogger, I’m obligated to say Erin Andrews would be the sideline reporter.

Posted under Football

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas Tech	—
2	Alabama	—
3	Texas	—
4	Florida	1
5	Oklahoma	1
6	Penn State	—
7	Southern Cal	—
8	Utah	—
9	Oklahoma State	—
10	Boise State	1
11	Georgia	1
12	Ohio State	1
13	Missouri	1
14	TCU	—
15	Michigan State	—
16	Brigham Young	—
17	Pittsburgh	1
18	Maryland	3
19	Cincinnati	7
20	Oregon State	6
21	Ball State	2
22	North Carolina	3
23	Georgia Tech	1
24	Miami (Florida)	2
25	California	5

Changes from Draft: Nothing major. Ignored a request to switch Tech and Bama (disagree with the logic – Alabama’s schedule is weak, weak, weak). I ranked Miami of Florida near the bottom, but the entire ACC is so mediocre that I couldn’t really separate the teams from one another. There was some debate about whether Penn State should be ahead of USC, but I left them the way they were on the basis of Penn State’s overall schedule being a bit tougher, and performance against common opponents.

Posted under Football

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas Tech	—
2	Alabama	—
3	Texas	—
4	Florida	1
5	Oklahoma	1
6	Penn State	—
7	Southern Cal	—
8	Utah	—
9	Oklahoma State	—
10	Boise State	1
11	Georgia	1
12	Ohio State	1
13	Missouri	1
14	TCU	—
15	Michigan State	—
16	Brigham Young	—
17	Pittsburgh	1
18	Maryland	3
19	Cincinnati	7
20	Oregon State	6
21	Ball State	2
22	North Carolina	3
23	Georgia Tech	1
24	Virginia Tech	7
25	California	5

Posted under Football

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas Tech	2
2	Alabama	—
3	Texas	1
4	Oklahoma	2
5	Florida	2
6	Penn State	5
7	Southern Cal	1
8	Utah	1
9	Oklahoma State	4
10	Georgia	2
11	Boise State	1
12	Missouri	1
13	Ohio State	1
14	TCU	3
15	Michigan State	—
16	Brigham Young	—
17	Virginia Tech	9
18	Pittsburgh	2
19	North Carolina	7
20	California	2
21	Maryland	2
22	Florida State	1
23	Ball State	3
24	Georgia Tech	7
25	Tulsa	3

Changes from Draft: None. Despite some of my own second-guessing on a few of my choices, it seemed as though readers didn’t have as much of an issue with the draft as I expected.

Posted under Football