A Nation of Upsets: Week 5 Blogpoll

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

And this is the part of the story when things got interesting. IT IS ON!

I have indigestion writing it, but LSU is back at #1. Although they have neither the most talented team that remains undefeated–that honor goes to Oklahoma–nor the most impressive victories on the schedule–that honor clearly goes to Alabama–they are about second in each category. Oklahoma pasted TCU, which was totally predictable and I couldn’t give a damn because it’s Oklahoma and Bob Stoops runs Oklahoma and he can go eat a dick.

By résumé alone, ‘Bama remains perched at the top of the college football world. You could argue how much that Clemson win was worth, but there’s no debate as to how decisive that Georgia detonation was. But I can’t be totally sold on a team that was struggling to win six games a year ago, a team that lost to UL-Monroe at home all but seven games ago, a team that wasn’t even ranked in the top 25 of Phil Steele’s rankings. One could argue that Nick Saban is a psychological genius, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they lost an upset or two as the season wears on and someone exploits upon the team’s inexperience.

The other team that looked mighty impressive was Penn State, which dueled Juice Williams until halftime before pulling away. Give credit to JoePa. Unlike that redneck Bowden, whose time at the top of a lopsided conference has come and gone, Paterno endures. This would mark the fifth decade (1968-77, 1978-87, …, 2008-?) where he contends for a major bowl bid. Truly remarkable.

You could argue plenty of ways as to who had the most embarrassing weekend: USC for looking flat for a half against the Beavers and not being able to catch up; Florida, for being totally Nutted in the Swamp by a markedly less talented team; or Georgia, who were blacked out for a half before placing impressive garbage points late. I just docked them each ten spots from last week’s polls and moved on. We could put odds at -10000 that they’ll be back in the top 10 in three weeks.

And I do hate to toot my horn, but I did say Ole Miss had top-25 worthy talent to begin the season. I am AWESOME!

Utah and BYU move up by default because they are undefeated and you’re not…South Florida, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma State wrap up the patsies on their schedule and move onto rugged competition…Ohio State begins its long climb back to national relevance…Oregon got to beatup the worst team on Earth…the ACC is on the cusp of irrelvance this season, with the winner of the rat race likely to face a solid beating at a midmajor to further black-eye the conference…but Virginia Tech saves them from being wiped off the planet after winning in Corn Nation…

And finally it’s time to acknowledge the work of those who remain among the unbeaten. UConn, Northwestern and Ball State and Kentucky have squeezed their way through pretty easy scheduling. Donald Brown is a fantasy god who continues to rake up impressive stats–one of these days it’ll end and I’ll be very sad. Northwestern this year is looking like Virginia last year, winning thrillers against Ohio (16-8) and Duke (24-20).  Hell, that’s Duke’s only loss, a statement that should make the entire establishment shudder.

Although I expect none of these teams to last in the big picture, 5-0’s still 5-0. A college football team that can win five games deserves to be ranked over the Wake Forests and the Virginia Tech’s of the world. And nothing gives me more delight than seeing FOX and the BCS commissioners shriek in horror at the thought of Ball State playing the ACC champ in the Orange Bowl.

All is content with the world right now. Which only means chaos is on the horizon.

(Thanks again to MgoBlog for setting this all up; you can view ballots by voter and ballots by team here)



Topics: blogpoll, College Football, Teams

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