BlogPoll - #8 - 2010

by Scipio Tex on Oct 18, 2010 1:04 AM CDT in Texas Longhorns and Other Football

Here it is.

Give me your comments and I'll try to get more up later.

Barking Carnival Ballot - Week 8

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Oregon Ducks	--
2	TCU Horned Frogs	1
3	Auburn Tigers	2
4	Alabama Crimson Tide	2
5	Oklahoma Sooners	6
6	Boise St. Broncos	1
7	Utah Utes	3
8	Stanford Cardinal	--
9	Michigan St. Spartans	6
10	Ohio St. Buckeyes	-8
11	LSU Tigers	1
12	Iowa Hawkeyes	2
13	Wisconsin Badgers	7
14	Missouri Tigers	2
15	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-11
16	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	5
17	Florida St. Seminoles	1
18	West Virginia Mountaineers	-1
19	South Carolina Gamecocks	-6
20	Arkansas Razorbacks	-11
21	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	--
22	Arizona Wildcats	--
23	Texas Longhorns	--
24	Miami Hurricanes	1
25	USC Trojans	--
Dropouts: Air Force Falcons, Nevada Wolf Pack, Florida Gators

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

The Texas Longhorns are back in the Top 25 and the timing of the next two home games against Iowa State and Baylor is fortuitous. Two confidence-boosting wins carries Texas into Manhattan, Kansas followed by a three game home stretch against OSU, Florida Atlantic, A&M. Win out and who knows what might fall into our lap?

If there was ever a year ripe for BCS mischief, it's this one. We're going to see a choice between several 1-2 loss major conference champions and undefeated mid-majors like TCU, Utah, Boise State with a massive PR campaign waged by all sides to politic their way into a bid. With a sympathetic press eager to embrace a massive BCS meltdown. I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out. We're going to have a national champion that isn't all that great - not quite the travesty of BYU '84 but more along the lines of Tennessee '98, Colorado '99, or LSU '07.

Speaking of, Boise State remains stubbornly outside of my Top 5. Their Virginia Tech and Oregon State wins are degraded no matter what Virginia Tech does to the rest of the awful ACC and no matter how scrappy Oregon State looks playing .500 ball (Washington? Really?). Their marquee wins are two teams with a combined 5 losses, including a non-FBS school. Penalizing teams unduly with one loss who are playing real conference schedules while Boise coasts doesn't fly. Nevada getting pantsed out in Hawaii helps their cause not at all. They're fortunate to be at #6.

Don't look now, but Oklahoma is improving. I'm still not terrifically impressed with their talent and they have big holes on their defense, but they massacred Iowa State in Norman. The real test will be how they handle road environments @ Missouri, @ Texas A&M, and @ Oklahoma State down the stretch.

LSU continues its hilarious run, struggling with lowly McNeese State (16-10 halftime lead) before finally pulling it together enough to win unimpressively. I wish them nothing but success and I hope the Bayou Bengals continue to exhibit nine lives every Saturday. A closing stretch that features @ Auburn, Bama, & @ Arkansas doesn't look good for them though.

Auburn's Cameron Newton is single-handedly making the TigerWarEagles relevant and though they play no discernible defense at all, it's fun to watch a 6-5 250 pound guy with wheels running wizard schemes. They won't stay a #3 long, but I hope they enjoy it while they can.

And finally, last week's commenters have been answered as to why I had Alabama ranked significantly ahead of South Carolina despite a head-to-head win in Columbia.

Kentucky - 31 South Carolina - 28

Now you get to puzzle over how I could have Ohio State ranked ahead of Wisconsin and we can do this again next week.

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Comments

If you weren’t correct all the time and if you didn’t support your thoughts with substance, I would say you are arrogant.
Good post. My top ten is exactly the same.

by trahan on Oct 18, 2010 3:43 AM CDT reply actions

“Their marquee wins are two teams with a combined 5 losses, including a non-FBS school.”

I still do not get how TCU’s resume looks any better. Their only real win was against that very Oregon State team that you do not like. Oregon State did beat Arizona on the road which was a nice win.

by Newy25 on Oct 18, 2010 6:32 AM CDT reply actions

Nebraska eight spots higher than Texas?? Didn’t we just beat them Saturday?

by J.R.69 on Oct 18, 2010 6:33 AM CDT reply actions

Nebraska eight spots higher than Texas?? Didn’t we just beat them Saturday?

Beating the Nowledge on Oct 16 does not make Sep 25 just go away. That one is going to be our albatross for a while.

by Johnnymac on Oct 18, 2010 7:21 AM CDT reply actions

Trahan said: “If you weren’t correct all the time and if you didn’t support your thoughts with substance, I would say you are arrogant.”

Scipio wrote: “….not quite the travesty of BYU ’84 but more along the lines of Tennessee ’98, Colorado ’99, or LSU ’07.”

Trahan: The above sentence illustrates that even Scipio can be wrong.

Think Urban Meyer wishes he still had Cam Newton? Newton is a more agile Daunte Culpepper out there.

This is going to shape up well for Alabama.

by magnusbleuveigner on Oct 18, 2010 7:36 AM CDT reply actions

Colorado ’99?

by maninblack on Oct 18, 2010 7:37 AM CDT reply actions

Colorado was 90…for those unaware, the 0 and the 9 are side by side on the keyboard.

by Hiphopopotamus on Oct 18, 2010 7:46 AM CDT reply actions

Or maybe he meant Florida St. Those teams are easily mixed up.

by jinx on Oct 18, 2010 8:12 AM CDT reply actions

If you weren’t correct all the time and if you didn’t support your thoughts with substance, I would say you are arrogant.

No one stays on Clipper Cooper’s assistant’s speed-dial without an awareness of his own talent.

by parlin on Oct 18, 2010 8:29 AM CDT reply actions

Oregon will save the BCS by running the table. Their offense is, as they say, “scary” good, and
they have just enough defense to keep the other team in check till the offense gets rolling.

TCU looks better than ever, but the schedule sucks. They did beat currently 5-2 Baylor 45-10, though.

I’m willing to give Boise a shot this year because, outside of Oregon, nobody impresses me.

LSU stands for “Les Says Ugabuga!”
I actually LIKE teams that consistently win with smoke and mirrors against decent opposition. (Ohio State 2002 is on that list.) It’s called show business. Keep’em guessing and coming back for more. I might add that LSU is winning with a negative turnover ratio and a passing attack rated even lower than ours in efficiency. How’s that for showmanship?
Of course, they haven’t had to face friggin’ UCLA, either.

by LurkerintheDark on Oct 18, 2010 9:08 AM CDT reply actions

I can’t bring myself to rank Auburn or Alabama that high. Auburn plays less defense than OU does (yikes), and Alabama has a loss to dudes who just got punked by Kentucky. I can see the justification in doing so, but I just can’t agree with it. Reasonable people can differ, I suppose. And so can I.

by NateHeupel on Oct 18, 2010 9:12 AM CDT reply actions

Praying for an undefeated Auburn-Alabama matchup on 11/26 for an insight into how the SEC handles game theory. Do the refs give the game to Auburn figuring an undefeated SEC team is a shoo-in, or do they roll the dice and give the game to Alabama hoping that their prestige as a one loss team can carry them over the undefeated mid-majors?

by nobis60 on Oct 18, 2010 9:40 AM CDT reply actions

“Do the refs give the game to Auburn figuring an undefeated SEC team is a shoo-in”

I believe Aubie already gave themselves a shoot-themselves with a late season homecoming game vs…. Chattanooga. You’d think the Barners would figure this out a little better after going undefeated with a similarly shit SOS keeping them out of the NC game when Campbell was their QB. But nooo, their entire non-conf schedule rests on Clemson making noise on the ACC wheel of destiny…not going to happen. Speaking of the ACC, what’s the difference between the SEC East and the Coastal division? SEC title game is going to be shite.

by Phaeded on Oct 19, 2010 12:41 AM CDT reply actions

Yes, really. James Rogers was lost for the season last week, thus the offense that faced Washington was noticeably weaker than it was against TCU and Boise.

Alabama is horribly overrated (as is the SEC in general, and the Big 12-2 this week.) Since the Bull Crap System forces us to make all kinds of forced comparisons and stretched logic, then the following argument for Boise is as good as any that can be made against them:

AL at home over SJSU 48-3
Boise on the road over SJSU 48-0.

Also consider:

Boise @ WY 51-6
TCU at home over WY 45-0
Texas at home over WY 34-7
Utah @ WY 30-6

Of course you can also argue:

Boise vs VT 33-30
James Madison @ VT 21-16

but then you also have:

VT @ BC 19-0 shutout of a team FSU struggled to beat. Which is why it is all meaningless bullshit without a playoff. The SEC will incestuously circle jerk its bogus rep into a sure appearance in the beauty contest.

Bottom line, I see more and more evidence that Boise is every bit as good as AL (which may not be saying that much.)

by BCS sucks on Oct 19, 2010 2:02 AM CDT reply actions

I still do not get how TCU’s resume looks any better.

It’s puzzling, to say the least. It’s like TCU gets the same uncritical pass from Scipio that Boise State gets from the mainstream media.

by bigdukesix on Oct 19, 2010 12:04 PM CDT reply actions

BCS Sucks – the computers are showing that Boise has a decent SOS. FOR NOW.

Just don’t whine down the stretch when the Broncos are chewing milkshakes against toothless opponents, while the SEC and Big-12-minus-2 contenders are playing real teams. BSU’s strength of schedule will plummet, and drag the computers down with it.

by Vulcan on Oct 19, 2010 2:21 PM CDT reply actions

Football Outsiders’ FEI Ranking are out: http://footballoutsiders.com/fei-ratings/2010/fei-building-resume

It’s an interesting metric, measuring offensive and defensive efficiency in non-garbage time possessions, with each performance weighed in the context of the quality of the opponent.

by bigdukesix on Oct 20, 2010 2:50 PM CDT reply actions

Still waiting for a defense of TCU’s ranking other than a love for the color purple.

by bigdukesix on Oct 20, 2010 2:52 PM CDT reply actions

heir marquee wins are two teams with a combined 5 losses, including a non-FBS school. Penalizing teams unduly with one loss who are playing real conference schedules while Boise coasts doesn’t fly. Nevada getting pantsed out in Hawaii helps their cause not at all. They’re fortunate to be at #6.

FEI ranks Boise’s SOS 53, TCU’s 93. Got any evidence that TCU’s schedule hasn’t been significantly weaker than the Broncos’ so far?

by bigdukesix on Oct 20, 2010 2:56 PM CDT reply actions

I’m not ranking them solely on schedule. Eyeballs count too.

And FEI is interesting, but Boise’s ability to efficiently dispatch bad football teams has never been questioned. The issue they have is running up against an athletic wall when teams have upgraded athletes across from them.

by Scipio Tex on Oct 21, 2010 2:38 PM CDT reply actions