Week 2 Preliminary Blogpoll

Posted by: Avinash on Monday, September 8th, 2008
Rank Team Delta
1 Florida 1
2 Oklahoma 2
3 Georgia 4
4 Southern Cal 1
5 Ohio State 4
6 Texas —
7 LSU 2
8 Missouri —
9 Penn State 2
10 Oregon —
11 Auburn 2
12 Texas Tech —
13 South Florida 4
14 East Carolina 12
15 Wake Forest 6
16 Utah 3
17 California 3
18 Alabama 3
19 Arizona State 4
20 Brigham Young 6
21 Mississippi 3
22 Kansas 2
23 Wisconsin 2
24 Vanderbilt 2
25 Illinois 1
Dropped Out: West Virginia (#9), South Carolina (#16), Clemson (#22).

I think it’d be wise for readers to read my blogpoll so I don’t make crucial errors like South Carolina at #16 again (Brian Cook be a wise man, he be).  Again, here are the biggest issues one could raise about this ballot at first glance.

Florida at #1? They sucked for three quarters. As I pointed out before the season, Miami was a talented team, having them ranked in the preseason blogpoll. Until the fourth quarter, when experienced talent beat youthful talent, Miami matched Florida notch for notch.

However, the Hurricanes never really threatened to take the lead–they got into Gator territory once after their scoring drive, and they only reached the 49 before punting. It was a solid gutcheck for the Gator faithful before entering conference play, and they fared reasonably well.

USC and LSU dropped for having a week off? What are you stupid? I never understand pollsters who just leave a team at a spot for having the week off. They didn’t do anything, so they should just stay where they are? Other teams at their talent level played strong football. Georgia erased their sluggish first week performance by destroying MAC contender Central Michigan, and Oklahoma rolled against a decent Cincinnati squad. No one’s giving them gold medals, but it’s better than existental wanderings.

South Florida barely held on against Central Florida and they jump five spots. You are full of crap. You could make a case UCF is just as–if not more–talented as Miami and Florida State these days, and they’ve been looking to even up the I-4 rivalry for quite some time, especially in their new dig. South Florida wasn’t at their best, but the Golden Knights are better than most people think.

Utah at 16. Haha, good one. Yes, their Big House win was nothing extraordinary, but they took care of the business against a strong Michigan defensive front. Down 14-7 against a solid UNLV team, they rolled off 35 straight points and took away any doubt who was the stronger team. 7.2 yards per play is a maddening total to combat.

Nits and picks…Ohio State falls four spots as one would expect, but Tressel has a history of pulling these shenanigans before big games, so the USC matchup isn’t any less compelling…likewise, East Carolina leaps all the way up after their domination of two ranked teams; of all the teams in the blogpoll they have been the most impressive; more than BYU they appear to be the BCS mid-major spoiler…speaking of which, BYU appears to be the Hawaii of 2008 after a slugfest with bottom-dweller Washington in which they should have been taken into overtime. They might very well go undefeated if they get past UCLA and Utah, but if they qualify for the BCS they better be lined up with some ACC team…Wake Forest gets massive props for edging the sixth/seventh best team in the SEC, an Ole Miss squad that is on its way up (and actually stays in the top 25 on my poll after that spirited effort)…

Clemson, in addition to their pounding, was granted an off week, which is unacceptable and is punishable by expulsion from my blogpoll (take that Bowdenites!)…Nevada hung around with Texas Tech, but ultimately killed themselves in the end. It’s a worrisome sign for the Red Raiders that they played so sloppily and are expected to contend for a Big 12 title…Oregon and Texas laid the smack-down on crappy teams and stayed where they are…Arizona State turns in their usual performance (Stanford goes up early, then they get stuffed for two and a half quarters) and puts a halt to the Legend of Toby Gerhart…Kansas and Wisconsin jump up, almost by default…and Vanderbilt gets an honorable mention, and a chance to stay there when they play Rice this week.

As for Cal, they’re knocking on the top 15, although I’m not quite ready to put them there yet. Another “Oski SMASH!” at College Park would get us there.

If you guys see anything wrong with these rankings, leave your thoughts about them in the comments.

Here’s the preseason and Week 1 blogpolls for your consumption, if you’d like to compare.



Topics: blogpoll, College Football, Teams

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