Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas	2
2	Florida
3	Alabama	2
4	Iowa
5	Boise State
6	Oregon	3
7	TCU
8	Cincinnati	2
9	Penn State	1
10	LSU	1
11	Georgia Tech	1
12	Houston	4
13	Southern Cal	5
14	Ohio State	1
15	Pittsburgh	1
16	Miami (Florida)	1
17	Utah	3
18	Notre Dame	3
19	Arizona	3
20	Oklahoma
21	Wisconsin
22	Oklahoma State	9
23	California
24	Brigham Young	1
25	Mississippi	1
Last week’s ballot

Dropped Out: West Virginia (#18), Virginia Tech (#19), Connecticut (#25).

Big shakeup at the top for me. It appears one of Alabama’s signature wins, Virginia Tech, is looking less and less impressive. Couple that with dominating performances of Texas over a ranked Okie State and Florida over a perennial rival, and we’ve got changes at the top.

When they announced the Iowa/Indiana score while I was at the OSU game, I was surprised how many people cheered for that. Cheering for Michigan to lose to Appalachian State was one thing, but I want an undefeated Iowa team to come to the Horseshoe next week. They keep winning and I think we should keep rewarding them.

I can’t bring myself to rank an undefeated Boise State lower than Oregon, even though this Oregon team is clearly not the one Boise State played at the beginning of the season. Every Big Ten team should be quaking in their cleats with the possibility of facing the Ducks in the Rose Bowl. Sheesh.

Ohio State’s perspective is this: two top ten teams in two weeks. Victories over these two teams will put them in the Rose Bowl (again, SHEESH) and should repair some of the damage and credibility hit we took after Purdue. Plus it will be glorious to see two fan-bases completely meltdown. Can’t wait.

Of course, please tell us what you think. Comments and corrections welcome.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas
4	Iowa
5	Boise State
6	Cincinnati	1
7	TCU	1
8	Southern Cal	2
9	Oregon	1
10	Penn State	1
11	LSU
12	Georgia Tech
13	Oklahoma State	1
14	Pittsburgh	2
15	Ohio State	4
16	Houston	1
17	Miami (Florida)	4
18	West Virginia	5
19	Virginia Tech	1
20	Utah	4
21	Notre Dame
22	Arizona
23	Brigham Young	8
24	Mississippi
25	Connecticut
Last week’s ballot

Dropped Out: Idaho (#20), Oregon State (#21), Texas Tech (#22), Navy (#25).

I’m struggling with the top three right now. I still think Alabama has the best overall resume. Both Florida and ‘Bama struggled with Tennessee, but Florida hasn’t dominated this season the way Alabama has. ‘Bama roll over Arkansas, who should have upset Florida. And let us not forget Alabama’s over Virginia Tech. Which brings us to Texas. They had played nobody up until two weeks ago and they looked lukewarm up until that point. But their victory over Missouri was impressive. Right now, Texas looks like the best team, but the Big 12 as a conference is playing such terrible (and unexplainably weird) football that I think it detracts from what Texas has done thus far. So I’m sticking with my 1-2-3 of Alabama, Florida and Texas. Do you disagree? Please tell me why.

After that, I put Iowa over TCU and Donkey State because the Hawkeyes have a victory over a top ten team and play in a real conference, not a pretend one like the WAC or MWC. But I will give the two undefeated teams the nod over USC who has not played dominating football over anyone of note yet. (Cincinnati fits in there somehow, too).

After that, it gets harder to justify one over the other, but I’m comfortable with how I shook things out. Penn State and Oregon flip-flopped for some reason, which may have been a brain fart, but both teams had impressive wins, so consider them 9a and 9b.

UConn is #25 this week out of respect.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Florida	1
3	Texas	1
4	Virginia Tech	6
5	Iowa
6	Boise State
7	Southern Cal
8	Ohio State
9	Cincinnati
10	TCU	1
11	Penn State	1
12	Oregon	1
13	LSU	9
14	Miami (Florida)
15	Brigham Young	1
16	Auburn	4
17	Nebraska	2
18	Georgia Tech	5
19	Kansas	2
20	Oklahoma State	5
21	Oklahoma
22	South Carolina
23	South Florida	1
24	Michigan
25	West Virginia
Last week’s ballot

Dropped Out: Missouri (#18), Mississippi (#21), Wisconsin (#22), Georgia (#25).

It’s been a crazy day at the homestead, so no time right now for explanation. Leave your thoughts in the comments and we’ll discuss when things calm down around here.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Texas
3	Florida
4	LSU	2
5	Iowa
6	Boise State	2
7	Southern Cal	2
8	Ohio State	1
9	Cincinnati	1
10	Virginia Tech
11	TCU	2
12	Penn State	2
13	Oregon	5
14	Miami (Florida)	2
15	Oklahoma State
16	Brigham Young	1
17	Kansas	5
18	Missouri	5
19	Nebraska	6
20	Auburn
21	Mississippi	3
22	Wisconsin
23	Georgia Tech
24	South Florida
25	Georgia	5
Last week’s ballot

Dropped Out: Oklahoma (#11), Houston (#12), Michigan (#19), California (#21).

Slightly tweaked, based on your feedback. Oklahoma, my how the mighty have fallen.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Texas
3	Florida
4	Boise State
5	LSU	1
6	Iowa	1
7	Southern Cal	2
8	Ohio State	1
9	Cincinnati	1
10	Virginia Tech
11	TCU	2
12	Penn State	2
13	Oklahoma State	2
14	Oregon	4
15	Miami (Florida)	1
16	Brigham Young	1
17	Kansas	5
18	Missouri	5
19	Nebraska	6
20	Auburn
21	Mississippi	3
22	Wisconsin
23	Oklahoma	12
24	South Florida
25	Georgia	5
Last week’s ballot

Dropped Out: Houston (#12), Michigan (#19), California (#21).

First, I know I keep flip flopping OSU and USC, but I just don’t know what to do. I think beating Cal is probably more impressive than beating Indiana, but maybe not. It’s starting to look like Cal was a paper tiger and just isn’t that good of a team. So this week USC gets the nod over OSU. I just wish someone would beat USC and does us Buckeye fans all a favor.

I want to drop Iowa for struggling with Arkansas State, but I’m not sure I can drop them below teams that have one loss.

Cincinnati continues to be disrespected by me. Until they beat someone, the disrespecting will continue.

Did I drop Oklahoma too much? Because that felt good.

Other than that, what else did I screw up?

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Texas
3	Florida
4	Boise State	4
5	Iowa
6	LSU	1
7	Ohio State	4
8	Cincinnati	5
9	Southern Cal	1
10	Virginia Tech	5
11	Oklahoma	1
12	Houston	4
13	TCU	1
14	Penn State	9
15	Oklahoma State	2
16	Miami (Florida)	7
17	Brigham Young	2
18	Oregon
19	Michigan	2
20	Georgia	2
21	California	17
22	Kansas
23	Missouri
24	Mississippi	18
25	Nebraska
Last week’s ballot

Dropped Out: North Carolina (#20), Washington (#23), Florida State (#24).

I tried to take into consideration the comments everyone left on the draft ballot post. I agree that if I think Iowa is a top five team, Penn State shouldn’t drop as much. I also agree that Oregon was ranked too low. I dropped Cal and moved Southern Cal up, but I still think OSU deserves a higher ranking. Maybe that’s homerism (it is), but I think OSU’s close game to SC is better than the stinker of a game SC had against Washington.

I would like to note that no one seemed to have a problem with me dropping Ole Miss like a hot rock.

This group effort thing is working out. It’s coming together nicely.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Texas
3	Florida
4	Boise State	4
5	Iowa
6	LSU	1
7	Ohio State	4
8	Cincinnati	5
9	Virginia Tech	6
10	Oklahoma	2
11	Houston	5
12	TCU	2
13	Oklahoma State	4
14	Southern Cal	4
15	Georgia	3
16	Michigan	5
17	Penn State	12
18	Miami (Florida)	9
19	Mississippi	13
20	California	16
21	Brigham Young	2
22	Kansas
23	Missouri
24	Nebraska	1
25	Oregon
Last week’s ballot

Dropped Out: North Carolina (#20), Washington (#23), Florida State (#24).

On the cusp: Georgia Tech, Notre Dame, Wisconsin, Auburn

If there was ever a case for not having a poll until the fourth week, this week clearly made it. Four “top ten” teams lose and another could be in trouble. Some thoughts:

• The top 3 stay the same, now more than ever because Florida’s outlook is cloudy. I do have to say this, though: I have no ill-will toward Tim Tebow. He’s seems like a nice guy and he’s a great football player. But I couldn’t help myself be a little happy inside when I saw him go down against Kentucky. I don’t want the guy to be permanently injured, but I am fiercely protective of Archie’s mark of two Heismans, and if this injury prevents Tim from duplicating that, then I’m all for it. But it looks like it could harm Florida’s future in more ways than one.
• Alabama and Texas continue apace. I can’t wait until Texas actually plays someone. I’m guessing that will happen in January?
• I believe the tide is turning against the superiority of the SEC. Their fans can’t point to the Ole Miss/South Carolina game and say “it’s the SEC!” No, it’s not. South Carolina is barely a good team. Ole Miss looked terrible. There’s no other way to put it. Charles Barkley TRBL
• Speaking of TRBL, if you get pressure on Penn State’s Darryl Clark he turns into a pretty terrible QB. We had no way of gauging both Iowa and Penn State, both teams playing a bunch of nobodies. So is Penn State that bad or is Iowa better than we thought? I chatted with my dad about this, and he thought it was a little of both. I think it’s the former. Penn State is not a top ten team. I don’t think Iowa is, either. Where should the go?
• I don’t know what to say about Cal. That loss to Oregon was gross. I almost want to take them out of the top twenty-five altogether, but even I can’t justify that.
• Miami’s back! No, wait, no they’re not. It turns out that the ACC is just as bad as we all thought it was. Florida State turns out to be pretty terrible (barely beats Jacksonville State, loses to USF). Virginia Tech has been the only steady team. Maybe Miami will be back in time for their visit to Columbus next year.
• Cincinnati still impresses, but Ohio State’s second dominating effort still gets them ranked ahead of the Bearcats.
• The middle is muddled. I don’t know what to do with TCU, BYU and Michigan. TCU continues to handle its business, BYU bounced back and Michigan needed late-game heroics, again, against Indiana. INDIANA.

As always, help us straighten this out. I know I left someone off or have someone underrated. All comments welcome, but you need to back it up.

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

Dropped Out: Georgia Tech (#12), Utah (#17), Oregon State (#20), West Virginia (#22).

This is starting to look a little better.

Things are all screwy now. I didn’t think USC would crap the bed this early, I thought BYU would at least keep it close, I think Alabama is overrated, yet I ranked them #1 and all the one loss teams are all jumbled. Take a look and straighten me out.

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

Dropped Out: Georgia Tech (#12), Utah (#17), Oregon State (#20), West Virginia (#22).