Poll Dancing: Week Two

( This is a guest series by MotSaG reader Jason Nafziger. He’ll be taking a weekly look at the college football polls and pointing out the absurd, the laughable and the head scratchers. Please note that Jason is not talking about the BlogPoll. Or my ballot to the BlogPoll.)

Now the fun begins, as we start breaking down the maddeningly nonsensical week-to-week adjustments in the polls that will eventually decide the two teams allowed to play for the National Championship.

1. Alabama
2. Ohio State

Again, no movement here, and as long as these two teams continue to win, the pollsters will have an easy job this year. Both were impressive in their wins against top teams this week, and more importantly, they were more impressive than the teams right behind them in the poll. Trust me, if the Tide and the Buckeyes stay perfect, no one outside of the Linen District will care if the Broncos did too.

3. Boise State

Ah, those Broncos with their “big” win over the Hokies of Virginia Tech. You remember the Hokies, right? That’d be the team that managed a single early TD in a loss to James Madison this weekend. I think James Madison is a college, but if you tell me that Virginia Tech lost to the re-animated corpse of America’s fourth president, I won’t argue with you.

Somehow, though, the immediate and major devaluation of their only win did not hurt Boise’s ranking. It’s still a little early to call this an agenda, but Oliver Stone is watching you, pollsters.

4. Texas
5. TCU

The remainder of the top 5 holds steady as well, as both Lone Star teams cruised to fairly easy victories this week.

6. Oregon
7. Florida

Ranked team faces relatively weak BCS-level opponent. Struggles a little early, finds themselves in a low-scoring tie at halftime. Regroups and explodes for 30+ points in the second half, making the scoreboard look a little better than it should. Somehow, that equals a 2-spot boost for the Ducks, but a 1-spot drop for the Gators.

There are two possible explanations for this, and neither is logical. The first is that the voters wanted to put Oregon higher in the pre-season, but were scared off by the exit of Jeremiah “For My Next Trick, I’ll Kidnap John Hodgman And Justin Long” Masoli. Now that the Ducks are performing well, they’re ranking them where they wanted to in the first place. The second is that scoring 120 points in 120 minutes of football is just too appealing to the bottom-line watchers that fill out the ballots.

8. Nebraska
9. Oklahoma
10. Iowa

In contrast to the Ducks, all three of these teams thoroughly dominated their opponents, with each game easily over by halftime. And yet, only Oklahoma (who dismantled then-#17 Florida State) moved up, and that was only one spot. To recap: Oregon got a 2-spot bump for struggling to put away Tennessee while the Sooners got a 1-spot reward for blasting the Seminoles like a San Bruno gas line.

Apparently to accommodate the Ducks, Nebraska and Iowa actually lost a spot for their convincing wins (and Iowa’s was even over a Big 12 team who happens to be their in-state rival). And the season has just begun.

Of Note: Denard Robinson ranked 22nd this week, rest of team to transfer.

Comments

  1. Y’know, the only problem I have with this article is that you failed to mention that Virginia Tech is the second ranked team to lose to a 1aa team at home in the history of NCAA 1a football, the first being UofM. Hahahahaha, brightens my day, it does.

  2. @NMU – You do love reminding everyone that VT wasn’t the first to accomplish that feat, don’t you? 🙂

    @Jason – Don’t worry about Denardverines, they’ll be holding try-outs for the “openings” that have become available.

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