Rank	Team	Delta
1	Oklahoma	—
2	Southern Cal	2
3	Ohio State	—
4	Georgia	2
5	Florida	—
6	Missouri	—
7	LSU	—
8	West Virginia	—
9	Auburn	17
10	Wisconsin	—
11	Texas	—
12	Penn State	3
13	Alabama	8
14	Brigham Young	3
15	Oregon	3
16	UCLA	10
17	Texas Tech	5
18	Arizona State	2
19	Kansas	1
20	Fresno State	6
21	Wake Forest	2
22	South Florida	3
23	Utah	3
24	Cincinnati	—
25	Nebraska	1

Dropped Out: Clemson (#9), Illinois (#13), Virginia Tech (#14), Tennessee (#22), Michigan (#25).

We usually have a mini blogpoll between the MotSaG writers, but with the goofy weekend and what-not, this week’s ballot is a collobration of Zeke and me, so you get what you see. Past 20 or so and it’s a crapshoot.

USC gets a bump due to their impressive win over Virginia and as a defense mechanism, should things go south for the Buckeyes in a couple weeks. OSU goes ahead of Georgia because holding YSU to no points and negative rushing yards is better than giving up 21 points to Georgia Southern. Oklahoma and their 50-point first half secures the top spot. Even if it was against Chattanooga Community Center, or whoever they played. Leaving Auburn out of our original ballot was an egregious error that has since been corrected.

Obviously, things will become clearer as the weeks progress, but we’re laying the foundations now. Comments, suggestions and ridicule is expected and appreciated.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Ohio State	2
2	Oklahoma	7
3	South Florida	2
4	Boston College	—
5	Kentucky	10
6	LSU	5
7	South Carolina	—
8	Oregon	3
9	Arizona State	1
10	Missouri	4
11	California	9
12	Virginia Tech	—
13	Southern Cal	6
14	West Virginia	2
15	Kansas	2
16	Florida	4
17	Hawaii	3
18	Auburn	6
19	Tennessee	4
20	Virginia	2
21	Cincinnati	11
22	Georgia	4
23	Boise State	3
24	Kansas State	2
25	Indiana	1

Dropped Out: Illinois (#13), Wisconsin (#18), Connecticut (#21), Florida State (#25).

A few thoughts:

It pains me to see a dearth of Big Ten tems in the BlogPoll Top 25. Heck, I don’t even know if Indiana deserves the #25 spot, but someone else from the Big Ten needs to step up. Michigan is on the cusp in my book and will probably be up there next week if they take care of business. The sportsMonkey and I tried to justify that the Big Ten isn’t as weak as it’s perceived nationally, but we just couldn’t do it. Looking at everyone’s non-conference schedules was a dead-end. Looking at conference performance didn’t help, either. The truth of the matter is that we don’t really know how good (or bad) the Big Ten is and we won’t know until Bowl Season. The few good teams that Big Ten teams have played have almost all resulted in losses: Oregon over Michigan, Missouri over Illinois. Ohio State beat a decent Washington team, but Washington has come up short against its conference opponents, which cheapens Ohio State’s win.

That being said, Ohio State absolutely deserves to be in the discussion for the National Championship. It has the best defense in the country, bar none. The offense does more than just “not lose games.” Blogpollers shouldn’t punish OSU due to the perceived weakness of the Big Ten or for beating down weaker opponents. I read a blog comment earlier this week that I’ll repeat here: Some teams are good because they beat bad teams. Some teams are good despite beating bad teams. It’s not Ohio State’s fault that its opponents suck. They just surgically take care of business.

We only had three of our four “voters” get their ballots in on time, but I’m happy with how the top ten looks. I think Oklahoma is the best one-loss team in the country. South Florida is setting itself up for a fall, and the fall will be mighty. Prepare to see them out of the top ten soon. Ditto with Boston College. If the Big Ten is weak, the ACC and Big East ain’t far behind.

Comments? Suggestions? Feces to be flung in our direction? That’s what the comment box is for.