A little late, with a couple tweaks.

This feels mostly good, but my gut feels tied in knots about ranking a one-loss team (at this point) over an undefeated team, but I just don’t know what to do with Alabama.

It also feels really weird ranking Michigan State that high. But where else would the be slotted? Below Bama and/or Utah?

Thrown together hastily, please assist.

Based on feedback from the smartest readers in the world.

I’m going to need some help from the readers this week. I was out of town and wasn’t able to catch my full Saturday slate of football. I saw as much as I could but I had to rely on box scores and gut feeling. The bottom 5 teams feel wrong to me. All comments are appreciated.

Okay, have at it. Here are a few thoughts:

Of the three big movers, Boise State gets dinged because I couldn’t find James Madison on my ballot. Sheesh, that Virginia Tech win is going to look like Boise State beat a Pop Warner team by the end of the season. Oklahoma moves up because what they did to Florida State was impressive (over 300 passing yards in the first half). I still stand by my prediction that Oklahoma will be in the BCS title game, and that prediction looked shaky after week one. Finally, I left Miami in the poll as the only team with a loss.

Remember: this is mostly a resume ranking, not a power ranking. Ohio State is ranked higher than Alabama because I think their opponent (Miami) was better and they looked dominant on the field. That’s not to say Alabama didn’t look impressive or that Penn State is a bad team. At this moment, Ohio State’s body of work is a smidge better than Alabama’s. At this moment.

So please, have at it.

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.