2009 Blogpoll Ballot, Week #1 (draft)

We skipped the first week of the Blogpoll for a couple reasons. I’d like to say it was about sticking to our principles (that we think preseason polls are dodgy at best) but it was really about not getting it submitted on time.

This year, we’re trying a new way to doing these things. In years past, since we have multiple writers here at the site, we’ve each filled out a ballot that I’ve aggregated together and submitted as a group effort. This year, I’m going to put the ballot together and present it here for everyone to comment and discuss. We’ll make the necessary adjustments and then submit a final ballot each Wednesday.

So I present our first Blogpoll ballot for your derision and correction:

Rank Team
1 Tebows
2 Texas
3 Southern Cal
4 Alabama
5 Mississippi
6 Oklahoma State
7 Ohio State
8 Penn State
9 Brigham Young
10 California
11 Boise State
12 LSU
13 Georgia Tech
14 Oklahoma
15 TCU
16 Nebraska
17 Utah
18 Notre Dame
19 Oregon State
20 North Carolina
21 Kansas
22 Miami (Florida)
23 Cincinnati
24 Virginia Tech
25 Michigan

1-10, I’m pretty confident in. 11-20, I’m shaky. 21-25 is a crapshoot. Yes, I threw Michigan in there. No, I don’t know why. I also struggle ranking teams that are winless (Oklahoma, Virginia Tech) but I don’t know how to handle teams that I thought would eventually be top-ten teams.

So please, straighten this out. Help me submit the perfect ballot.

Comments

  1. Sylvester Yon-Rambo says

    I have a hard time doing the rankings this early in the season. I wont push too hard for any changes BUT…..

    as of right now today NO WAY Ohio State is a top 10 team. When we are 2-3 weeks in the season and can judge these teams better I will be more thoughtful in my opinions but I always do my rankings off of can a team beat the other teams in a mythical head to head lol…. OSU might be good this year but we wont know until Saturday. So I say OSU is somewhere in the 11-15 range.

    Just my thoughts

  2. Uh, seriously? UofM over MSU? Boise on the outside of the top ten looking in at BYU? I’m still reliving the glory of last year’s parade of suck from ND, too… Although, perhaps my opinion will be more valid in a couple weeks or so!

  3. Sylvester Yon-Rambo says

    BYU is considerably better than Boise St…..

    based solely on the level of competition they beat….

    BYU beat a top 5 team who was poised to make a NC game run.

    BSU beat a team whose best hit was after the game….

    no team north of Toledo should be ranked yet lol.

    ND will win 10 games this year and then lose badly to a good team in a bowl game.

  4. Thoughts…

    1. LSU looks about right. Hopefully for LSU fans, there is room for improvement, because once Sark let Locker run it was a different ballgame.
    2. Michigan is not a Top 25 team…not based on a high-octane showing against a MAC team.
    3. Cincy is probably a Top 20 squad, but we’ll see how they do when they play a team that has a defense.
    4. Ole Miss…really? They looked kind of crappy, but as long as ESPN tells us Snead is awesome, I suppose I have to believe it.
    5. Ohio State. Playing to the level of it’s competition since 2002 (except for those MNC games in 2006 and 2007). Maybe just maybe, Sneaky Pete wont be ordering up a “Number 6” on the Buckeyes this week. I really feel like OSU deserves a 12-15 ranking until they can prove that they deserve to be in the Top 10.

  5. @Sylvester – I know, I feel uncomfortable with where I have OSU ranked right now. Maybe 11?

    @NMU – I agree with Sylvester on my BYU/BSU ranking. It looks like Oregon is going to stink up the joint this year, whereas BYU beat a solid (if not injury-riddled) Oklahoma team. As far as Michigan, I don’t know if they belong in the top 25, but compared to MSU, I’ll take a win over any MAC school before a big win over Montana State.

    @YNBA – I don’t know how to gauge that LSU/UW game because I didn’t see the whole thing, but based on what I saw, they are both solid teams. Maybe LSU is a little high here.

    I only caught bits of Ole Miss, but what I did see looked decent. But Memphis wasn’t much resistant.

    See my above comment about OSU. I may bump them down a spot or two.

  6. Bama is the only top 10 team to play and beat a top 10 team. IMO, that puts them up above USC for sure. Don’t have a problem with Tebows and Texas at #1/2.

    Homerism aside, I gotta vote for PSU above OSU this week. Next week, we’ll see.

    I have a problem with the distance between BYU and OK. Either you have BYU really high, or OK too low. Can’t have it both ways… either OK isn’t top 10 material, in which case needing the QB and TE to go out w/ injuries & still only squeaking out a victory isn’t “top-10” impressive, or OK is so good that when a top-10 BYU team takes out it’s QB and TE they still almost win (making #14 too low).

    Boise > California, if for no other reason than surviving ULTIMATE FALCON PUNCH alone.

    Cincinnati should be above Miami. Defending Big East champs continue offensive machine crushification of conference opponents. Cincy’s decisive, clean victory at Rutgers (setting QB records, btw) beats the Canes’ sloppy thug-filled win against Bowden’s band of academic violators. In fact, Cincy may deserve closer to #15.

    Finally, Michigan has to do a LOT better than win one game against a Mac team to get ranked, dude. They were 3-9 last year, and one victory against the MAC whipping boys does not a top 25 ranking make. I’ll listen if they beat ND, or play hard against PSU, OSU, etc.

  7. @sportsMonkey – I’m moving OSU down, for sure. Maybe to 10?

    Good point on OU but they haven’t won a game yet. They may yet turn out to be a top ten team, but they’ve got to earn it. BYU was a heavy underdog and overcame adversity of their own (their best RB didn’t play, their best defensive player went down in the 1st quarter).

    Finally, give me someone, ANYONE, to replace UM with and I’ll do it.

  8. Yeah, that’s a good point about BYU (I live in Japan so I really only check Big Ten and MAC scores/highlights). And beating a MAC team is more impressive than beating a I-AA team, although I still think that adding UofM to the top 25 is a bit optimistic this early (claiming MSU’s North-of-Toledo superiority at this point is also a little premature, perhaps I’ll give a half-hearted apology later).

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