Andy Hutchins breaks down SB Nation's conglomeration of Blognescenti opinion revealing Florida, Clemson, Georgia Tech, and Arizona State as the big movers.
You'll also find an Explore Ballots by team function that allows you to see exactly how your team is being voted. The distribution for Texas is fascinating. We're voted as high as ninth (thanks to the excellent Oklahoma State blog Cowboys Ride For Free), with most of our votes settling between 15-24. Interestingly, we're still unranked on a number of ballots (I think that's totally defensible) and that's something that the next three weeks will suss out rather quickly as the Longhorns take on what will likely be a succession of three undefeated teams in ISU, OU, OSU. We're going to find out what we are in short order.
Here's my ballot for your intense mockery:
Barking Carnival Ballot - Week 5
Rank | Team | Delta |
---|---|---|
1 | LSU Tigers | -- |
2 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
3 | Oklahoma Sooners | -- |
4 | Boise St. Broncos | -- |
5 | Wisconsin Badgers | -- |
6 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys | -- |
7 | Stanford Cardinal | -- |
8 | Oregon Ducks | 3 |
9 | Florida Gators | 8 |
10 | South Carolina Gamecocks | 3 |
11 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | 1 |
12 | Texas A&M Aggies | -2 |
13 | South Florida Bulls | 1 |
14 | Virginia Tech Hokies | 1 |
15 | Michigan Wolverines | 6 |
16 | Arkansas Razorbacks | -8 |
17 | Baylor Bears | 5 |
18 | Texas Longhorns | -- |
19 | West Virginia Mountaineers | -3 |
20 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | 3 |
21 | Illinois Fighting Illini | -1 |
22 | Clemson Tigers | -- |
23 | Arizona St. Sun Devils | -- |
24 | TCU Horned Frogs | -- |
25 | Florida St. Seminoles | -16 |
Dropouts: USC Trojans, Houston Cougars |
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "
Comments:
- If you don't have LSU #1 at this point, I'm not sure what else you need to see. At least if resumes matter. Three wins outside of Baton Rouge over quality opponents in Oregon, Mississippi St, and West Virginia. This is the toughest team in college football and their games against Florida and @ Bama promise to be epic.
- Boise State continues to pass my eyeball test (which is about all you can do when they're playing bad opponents). This is the most athletic Boise State team I've seen and though they will have an athlete deficit against the very highest level of competition, their ability to secure talent in the DL and OL should really make a difference against TCU and a quality bowl opponent.
- I think Texas A&M is being unduly punished. I'd underrated them all year compared to my peers, so the OSU loss was expected and predicted. Blowing a game on national television with the backdrop of A&M's SEC worthiness being assessed increased the Aggies are never ready for prime time backlash, but the bottom line reveals a 1 point loss to a Top 10 team in which Texas A&M had dominated a half of play only to see their chances sunk by a coaching staff abandoning their game plan and four turnovers in the passing game. The writing off of A&M is a bit overdone. They have a chance to get it right against the Pigs in Dallas. There should be just the right amount of desperation in this game from both sides and that makes for good football.
- I jumped Baylor up the rankings a bit and I'm not entirely sure why beyond my man-crush for RGIII. They beat Rice by the same margin we did and though Rice isn't particularly good, I actually found them a more useful gauge than Baylor's TCU win. Good teams should crush Rice while average and subpar teams will struggle with them a bit (see Purdue).
- The Big 10's overall weakness is striking. They lack depth and their top teams have major, obvious holes. Minny has losses to New Mexico St and North Dakota St. Purdue lost to Rice at home. Ohio St was whipped by a flawed Miami team. Northwestern lost to Army. Indiana has losses to Ball St and North Texas. Several other teams had to scrape out wins over MAC squads. Just brutal.
- Arizona State showed in their dismantling of USC why I like them to win the Pac 12 South. They've got some athletes and though their DL and OL are mediocre, they have just enough high impact guys at LB, RB, WR, QB to punish opponents. A Pac 12 championship game played at Autzen in December should be less than fun for the Desert Dwellers.
thoughts?