2011 Blogpoll Ballot, Week #2 (draft)

I never got clear instructions on how to handle this week’s ballot, what with the nail-biter Monday night game (even though I didn’t think I’d be ranking either team anyway) so here’s the ballot I submitted late last night. It’s loosely based on a one-week resume with a side of the previous week’s preseason expectations. I know by not ranking Oregon or TCU I’ll deserve some rebuking, but I’m willing to take those lumps. Those guys will earn their way back into the rankings.

Have at it:

SB Nation BlogPoll Top 25 College Football Rankings

Men of the Scarlet and Gray Ballot – Week 2

Rank Team Delta
1 LSU Tigers Arrow_up 17
2 Boise St. Broncos
3 Oklahoma Sooners Arrow_down -2
4 Wisconsin Badgers Arrow_up 8
5 Baylor Bears
6 South Florida Bulls
7 Stanford Cardinal Arrow_down -4
8 Florida St. Seminoles Arrow_up 1
9 Alabama Crimson Tide Arrow_down -5
10 South Carolina Gamecocks Arrow_down -3
11 West Virginia Mountaineers Arrow_up 14
12 Nebraska Cornhuskers Arrow_down -2
13 BYU Cougars
14 Ohio St. Buckeyes Arrow_down -1
15 Oklahoma St. Cowboys Arrow_down -1
16 Arkansas Razorbacks Arrow_up 5
17 Mississippi St. Bulldogs
18 Texas A&M Aggies Arrow_down -7
19 Houston Cougars
20 Florida Gators
21 Virginia Tech Hokies Arrow_down -15
22 Michigan St. Spartans Arrow_down -7
23 Iowa Hawkeyes Arrow_down -7
24 Missouri Tigers
25 Penn St. Nittany Lions Arrow_down -2
Dropouts: Oregon Ducks, TCU Horned Frogs, USC Trojans, Georgia Bulldogs, Texas Longhorns, Nevada Wolf Pack, Notre Dame Fighting Irish

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

Comments

  1. Was WVU really that impressive in their win over Marshall?

  2. What methodology are you using? For some teams it looks like you’ve placed them where they’d fit had this been the first poll of the season… for others, it looks like you’ve placed them against where they fit last week. Are you resume or performance ranking?

    Hope this isn’t too harsh πŸ™‚ but honestly the whole thing seems like a mess.

  3. @Scott – probably not. This was a case where I rated their opponent a little better than others. I probably overvalued Marshall. I have no problem moving that down.

    @sportsMonkey – it is a mess. Look at those deltas. This is mostly resume ranking, with a smattering of where I had them in the preseason.

  4. So… resume as in quality of opponents, or resume as in “this team looks this tough”?

  5. @sM – can I say both? Right now, this is “quality” of opponents, which I realize is flismy but is what I’m working off of.

  6. Ah, OK. So Oklahoma State is the worst team in the country then because they played Lousiana Lafayette (worst scoring defense). Got it. As long as there’s a methodology that makes sense. πŸ˜‰

  7. ^ Apologies for the sarcasti-post. LOL. Just making a point.

    Seriously though, it seems as if the quality of opponent point of view is very arbitrarily and inconsistently applied. By moving Baylor from nothing to top 5 indicates that you think TCU is a top 5 opponent (which clearly they aren’t if they’re getting beaten by unranked teams). It seems arbitrary to justify raising one team because of an upset (Baylor) at the same time that not rewarding a team that absolutely thumped its overmatched competition (Va Tech).

    In other words, it seems like you’re ranking based on “dramatic-ness of the victory” as opposed to actual perceived strength. Which (IMO) provides a flaw where you overweigh upsets and underweigh teams that do their job easily and get off the field.

  8. @sM – it is arbitrary, yes. Everything is when it comes to rankings. TCU was a top 5 team last year, that returned some (not all) of a top 5 defense. Baylor dropped 50 on that defense. That has to count for something. Where would you rank it? Why can’t “dramatic-ness” be a factor? I think TCU will still be a good team but I have to base the strength of opponents on something.

    You bring up VT’s victory. That was over Appalachian State, a D-1AA school (albeit a good one). Even you don’t think that TCU and App State are on the same level.

    Also, isn’t scoring 50 points on a great TCU defense “doing their job and getting off the field”?

  9. sportsMonkey says

    eK – all good points.

    I wasn’t trying to suggest that TCU and Appy St are on the same level. But the same logic that we use to know that fact is the same logic that we use to know Baylor isn’t a top 5 team. πŸ˜‰

    My only point about ‘dramatic-ness’ was that it seems that it would breed bias. A dramatic victory over a so-so opponent might seem more weighty than a methodical spankification over another. In fact, this same type of bias is at the root of the SEC superiority myth.

  10. sM – I agree that a dramatic victory over a so-so opponent might seem more weighty. But in this case, I don’t think TCU is a so-so opponent, so a dramatic, down to the wire UPSET deserves maybe a little more weight. Maybe not a top-5 jump, but a significant jump nonetheless.

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