2010 Blogpoll Ballot, Week #2 (draft)

SB Nation BlogPoll Top 25 College Football Rankings

Men of the Scarlet and Gray Ballot – Week 2

Rank Team Delta
1 Boise St. Broncos Arrow_up 2
2 TCU Horned Frogs Arrow_up 6
3 Oregon Ducks Arrow_up 9
4 LSU Tigers Arrow_up 19
5 Alabama Crimson Tide Arrow_down -4
6 Ohio St. Buckeyes Arrow_down -4
7 Nebraska Cornhuskers Arrow_up 4
8 Iowa St. Cyclones
9 Miami Hurricanes Arrow_up 1
10 Florida Gators Arrow_down -6
11 Texas Longhorns Arrow_down -5
12 Utah Utes
13 Wisconsin Badgers
14 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
15 Georgia Bulldogs
16 USC Trojans
17 Florida St. Seminoles Arrow_up 1
18 BYU Cougars Arrow_down -3
19 Oklahoma Sooners Arrow_down -14
20 Auburn Tigers Arrow_down -1
21 Iowa Hawkeyes Arrow_down -12
22 Penn St. Nittany Lions
23 Arkansas Razorbacks
24 South Carolina Gamecocks
25 Virginia Tech Hokies Arrow_down -18
Dropouts: Washington Huskies, Navy Midshipmen, Cincinnati Bearcats, Pittsburgh Panthers, Oregon St. Beavers

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

Okay, here’s the deal with this ballot. It’s part “resume ranking” (who you’ve beaten so far), part “power ranking” (who you should beat in the future) and a sprinkling of “preconceived notion” (bias). Rip it apart how you see fit.

I let you all digest this and we’ll discuss in the comments. Just keep this in mind: I currently have the Michigan Wolverines ranked #26th.

Update – I have no idea how I missed it, but Iowa State should not be ranked. That was a blogpoll ballot entry snafu that will be corrected tonight.

Comments

  1. yeah but who did Oregon beat?

  2. @maclaren – Thank you for bringing this up, as I knew it would. Yes, Oregon didn’t beat anyone worth writing home about. BUT, they did score 72 points and over 700 yards of offense. That has to count for something, right? At least their not Samford or Youngstown State.

  3. I think Youngstown State might be able to beat New Mexico.

  4. Are the refs sharing the #1 spot with Boise St.?

  5. This is a joke right? Even if I buy into your theories here you would lose all credibility by moving down BYU who beat a favorite to win the PAC 10 and Heisman Candidate and next years No.1 draft pick in Jake Locker. So by your theories BYU should at least be No. 1A.

  6. LSU barely beat a team that had 18 players suspended and 12 starters missing. They needed a goal line stand in the last 30 secs to win.

    I cant believe what I am seeing in this poll lol. This feels like a poll I would have made over the last few years that you would have made fun of and scoffed at.

    Honestly this poll will be looked at by people and we will lose any and all credibility just for putting it one here IMO. Please reconsider your new found way of placing teams in the poll and go back to if a team played 10 times who would win the most.

  7. Iowa State is ranked at all is funny but in the top ten?

    You mock FSU for playing a team like Samford and then you move FSU up in the polls?

  8. @Greg – care to elaborate? I thought that game was fairly well refereed. They were B10 refs, FWIW.

    @SYR – BYU may deserve to be ranked higher, based on beating UW, but was has UW done in the past three years? Locker is good, but they haven’t done anything but get hyped by the media, only to go and lose a bunch of games. BYU didn’t exactly dominate them.

    The UNC/LSU game is tough to gauge. I would consider dropping them, but you’re telling me that UNC is no better than Marshall or San Jose State? I would beg to differ, 12 starters gone or not.

    Iowa State was a mistake. I did not mean to include them in the poll. Please disregard. Florida State only moved up one spot.

  9. What has NC done but lose a bunch of games over the last few years but you moved up LSU 19 spots for beating them…..

    There is too much sloppy opinions in this and not enough reflective facts lol

  10. oh, man, eK… I’ve got to back up SYR again. It does not seem reasonable that any top 5 team would give up 412 yards of passing to a North Carolina team with over a dozen starters suspended. Not to mention turning the ball over 5 times.

    I agree with you that LSU deserves credit for its resume – but if you jump them 19 spots based on last week’s performance you’d better be prepared to lose some credibility.

    Another suggestion might be to reward PSU for a pretty good game. They scored 41 unanswered and didn’t throttle down until the last whistle. Yes, I-AA, but might be worthy of a “teen” ranking. E.g., I could see them beating Ga Tech, who’s at #14 in your draft poll.

  11. This poll looks like something out of “The Onion”. Yikes.

    The ‘homer’ in me finds it hard to believe that any of the top four teams are better than Alabama / Ohio State at this point. I somewhat understand concen with AL because of Ingram’s injury situation, but not to the degree shown.

  12. El Kaiser loves only one thing more than OSU and that is the triple option of Georgia Tech lol

  13. Did you watch the UNC/LSU game? Actually did you watch any of these games?
    You’re going to reward LSU for barely beating a team that fielded a defense of backups (7 of 11)?
    You incinerate a Va Tech team that took it to the wire with your # 1?
    And you let USC stand pat after giving up 36 to Hawaii?
    WOW

  14. @SYR – answer me this: name the top 5 teams that lost this past week. You’ll be surprised to see what you come up with.

    @Monkey – Let’s throw out my preseason rankings. What if I started LSU higher and the jump was smaller. Would that make a difference? I’ll take Penn State’s courageous victory into consideration. 🙂

    @Ken – It may be that Alabama and OSU are better, but at this point, after one week of football, I’d say Boise and TCU proved against strong opponents that they are good.

    @All – please take into account that I don’t think Boise or TCU is the best team in the country. If everything falls in to line, according to “plan” than in a few weeks, my top 25 will look a lot like what we’re talking about here. I know there are arguments of how to rank teams. Right now, I’m trying this one out. Let’s give it a couple weeks and see how things turn out.

  15. @cjkanski – I did watch the LSU game and I know they barely won. But they did, in fact, WIN. Name me a better team than UNC that lost this past week (besides VT, which is the only team I ranked with a loss).

    This first week is a Resume Ranking. Who did you beat and how good did you look doing it?

  16. lol No good teams lost this past weekend…. if they lost they arent good.

    I think El Kaiser could have made a better explanation as to why he is ranking like this…. as it is most people just think you have smoked too much crack.

  17. good thing the blogpoll doesn’t factor in to the BCS algorithm….

    only thing I agree with is the Florida drop because the final score is not indicative of how close Miami OH played them.

  18. I getcha, eK. Didn’t realize until we commented/spoke that you were experimenting with a new approach.

  19. @SBB – That’s not fair and you know it. No, the Blogpoll isn’t a factor in the BCS algorithm. NEITHER is the first week of the Coaches’ Poll. Come on, be reasonable. The BCS rankings don’t even come out until SIX weeks of football have been played. Give my poll time. As time goes on, the cream rises and the sludge sinks. Give it time.

    @sportsMonkey – Thank you for being a voice of reason among these naysayers.

    Again, everyone — you say these rankings are flawed. Give me some examples of how I should rearrange them. And do it with logical reasoning. I’m open-minded. Let me help you help me.

  20. again Kaiser I implore you to better explain your thinkings to the readers…. it isnt clear to most people.

  21. Monkey beat me to it…I give you credit for trying a new approach. It makes a lot of sense to look at this season’s credentials and this season only.

    How much does last year play into the preseason rankings? BTW, my intention is in no way to open up a debate on the validity of preseason rankings! IMO, last year should play into preseason rankings for things like how many starters are returning. It is necessary to use “last year” to prognosticate the future. That being said, once the season starts and games have been played, I think you (pollsters) have free reign to change as they see fit.

    OK, now that is off my chest, here a couple of comments about the poll itself:

    @Bacon Ninja – I live in MWC territory and would agree that the mighty penguins could be New Mexico; the Lobos are awful. I would put Oregon below ALA and OSU.

    @ Kaiser – I didn’t see the Iowa game. What’s the reason for the drop there? Was Iowa State supposed to be Iowa in your poll?

    If I completely missed the foundation or basis of your new approach, let me know…

  22. @SYR – Here, maybe an example will help out. I am mainly basing these rankings on what these teams did this far in the season (so far, just one week). So I think Boise’s victory over VaTech was better than TCU’s victory over Oregon State, which was better than Oregon’s victory over New Mexico. So that’s why they’re ranked 1, 2, and 3 respectively.

    Now, let’s speak hypothetically. Boise state is idle this Saturday. That will slightly effect their overall resume. TCU plays Tenn. Tech, which will not really help them. Oregon plays Tennessee, which is decent. Their victory will be worth something, but not a whole lot. That same week, OSU plays Miami and Alabama plays Penn State. Let’s say both OSU and Alabama win by a score of 28-17. In this case, OSU’s resume would now be stronger because, all things the same, Ohio State’s opponent was stronger. Following these results, I would probably rank them 1. OSU, 2. Alabama and 3. Boise.

    Does that make sense? It get’s more complicated as the season goes on but I still think it’s manageable.

    (I really feel like I’m doing a poor job of explaining this. It makes sense in my head)

  23. @Trevor – Yes, the Iowa/Iowa State mishap was a mistake. I’ll be fixing that tonight.

    Here’s how I see this shaking out a bit. Maybe LSU is too high. I’ll drop them below OSU and Bama. Oregon might need to drop a little, too. I’m guessing everything else looks okay? We’ll see when I post the final ballot.

  24. You’re joking. RIGHT?????

  25. @Paul – Maybe? Yes? No? I have no idea how to answer your question as you provide absolutely no context as to why you might think I’m joking.

    I do try to be humorous. I like to joke. But you need to elaborate if you want me to answer your question.

  26. This is a huge flaw I see with college football. The subjectivity used to determine the best teams in the land is as out of date as leather helmets.

    Why is this acceptable at all? Rather than settling it on the fielder have a group of d-bag writers and biased coaches picking the two best teams.

    I really don’t want to hear about how thecurrent system is what makes college football special blah, blah, blah. Take the best teams from the best conferences, slap on some pads and a helmet and play some damn football.

  27. With that said I like what EK has done here. Rather than go by what a team did last year and what they MAY do, teams are awarded only for their current achievements. It makes more sense that the actual system.

    Boise beat the highest ranked team so that makes them the most achieved team. As the season goes on BSU should go down as they have an easy schedule.

  28. El Kaiser I understand your concept.
    “Who did you beat and how good did you look doing it?”
    That’s what has me cranked up about your order.
    Florida looked horrible at home against Miami OH. LSU struggled against a team that played their asses off but wasn’t the team that earned that pre-season 18 ranking. USC looked very bad against HI.
    If it’s truly who’d you beat & how’d you look then if you can’t snap the ball better than a high school j.v. team you shouldn’t be in the top 25. If you played a 1AA scool and did not crush them like Miami did, then you do not get in there either. I don’t mean to harsh I just can’t stand when “big names” play crappy football and get rewarded with top 10 or top 25 rankings.

  29. @cjkanski – I agree with what you’re saying. In fact, I bumped USC down a few spots after considering your first comment. Florida was pretty bad, too. But I have to start somewhere. Hopefully, over time the cream will rise.

    You’re definitely not being harsh. I post the draft ballot to have these type of discussions. Please, continue to critique the ballot in the coming weeks.

  30. When I first looked at your rankings, I thought you were high. Then I started messing around with a little bit of computer ranking of my own and began to see the genius of your method.

    Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t have had LSU ranked so high either, but as you said, that’s why you have a draft ballot.

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