Week Eleven BlogPoll Ballot Draft
by T Kyle King on Nov 16, 2009 10:41 PM EST
in Football
12 comments
I’m not going to lie to you: I got home from Saturday night’s win between the hedges at 2:30 in the morning after what had already been a full week and a full weekend, so, this week, I started with the final draft of last week’s BlogPoll ballot and adjusted teams based upon their most recent performances. Accordingly, the up and down arrows have significance in this, the rough draft of my top 25:
 | ||
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama | |
| 2 | Texas | |
| 3 | Florida | |
| 4 | Cincinnati | |
| 5 | TCU |  1 |
| 6 | Boise State |  1 |
| 7 | Oregon | 1 |
| 8 | Ohio State | 1 |
| 9 | Iowa | 2 |
| 10 | Georgia Tech | 2 |
| 11 | Pittsburgh | 1 |
| 12 | LSU | 2 |
| 13 | Wisconsin | 6 |
| 14 | Houston | 3 |
| 15 | Oklahoma State | 1 |
| 16 | Penn State | 1 |
| 17 | Stanford | 8 |
| 18 | North Carolina | |
| 19 | Virginia Tech | |
| 20 | Clemson | |
| 21 | Southern Cal | 6 |
| 22 | Miami (Florida) | 9 |
| 23 | Oregon State | |
| 24 | California | |
| 25 | Rutgers | |
| Last week's ballot | ||
The Alabama Crimson Tide (10-0) and the Texas Longhorns (10-0) won more convincingly than the Florida Gators (10-0), although all three played on the road and the Sunshine State Saurians faced the toughest test among the top three teams. Nothing that happened on Saturday persuaded me to rearrange these squads, although, of course, the Gators will have their opportunity against the Tide in the Georgia Dome.
The Cincinnati Bearcats (10-0) held off the hard-charging TCU Horned Frogs (10-0) for the fourth spot on the strength of Cincy’s wins over Oregon State and Rutgers, which together trump Texas Christian’s quality win over Clemson. The Frogs get minimal credit for clobbering an overrated Utah club and a BYU outfit that squeaked by winless New Mexico, but their performance against the Utes was enough to leapfrog TCU (sorry) past the Boise St. Broncos (10-0), who remain high on the strength of their season-opening victory but are unable to inch up because their resume otherwise consists of empty calories.
Boise State’s aforementioned season-opening victory, of course, was over the Oregon Ducks (8-2), who inched up a notch after the Ohio St. Buckeyes (9-2) edged the Iowa Hawkeyes (9-2). Because Ohio State won at home in overtime, I moved Jim Tressel’s crew one spot in front of Kirk Ferentz’s bunch.
I’m not any happier than you are about having to rank the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (10-1) in the top ten, but the Golden Tornado took the place previously held by the Pittsburgh Panthers (9-1) because the Ramblin’ Wreck’s triumphs over Clemson, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech collectively have more heft than Pitt’s wins against Navy, Rutgers, and South Florida. We simply live in a world in which a victory over the Duke Blue Devils on the road counts for more than a victory over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish at home.
It is simply impossible to justify ranking any team in the teens as high as that team is ranked, but it’s just been that kind of year in college football. Giving the LSU Tigers (8-2) the No. 12 ranking after the Bayou Bengals trailed the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs at halftime is enough of a stretch, but the Wisconsin Badgers (8-2), Houston Cougars (8-2), Oklahoma St. Cowboys (8-2), and Penn St. Nittany Lions (9-2) either looked good against a bad team, won unconvincingly against a mediocre team, or lost outright. The Cougs remained ahead of the Pokes due to the head-to-head result between the two teams and the fact that the second-best wins carded by each were close contests against Texas Tech at home.
Nos. 17 through 24 are a muddled hodgepodge of 7-3 squads from the ACC and the Pac-10; if you can sort ‘em out, you’re a better man than I am. The Stanford Cardinal---good call, Big Jon!---staked out the top spot among the thrice-beatens by virtue of back-to-back triumphs over Oregon and Southern California. Although their 55-21 home loss to the Cardinal caused the Men of Troy to land four spots behind Stanford, the USC Trojans remained ahead of Cal and Oregon State teams they defeated in October. The Oregon St. Beavers likewise edged the California Golden Bears because the former beat the latter at Berkeley on November 7.
A similar logic applied to the Atlantic Coast Conference clubs. Despite ugly losses to Florida State, Georgia Tech, and Virginia, the North Carolina Tar Heels rode last weekend’s win over the previously 13th-ranked Miami Hurricanes to a No. 18 ranking, one slot above the Virginia Tech Hokies. UNC beat VPI by a field goal on October 29. Both the 19th-ranked Gobblers and the 20th-ranked Clemson Tigers notched victories over the 22nd-ranked ‘Canes, with the latter winning by a little and the former winning by a lot.
Finally, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights (7-2) found their way into the poll following a 31-0 throttling of the South Florida Bulls, whom I had in the top 25 at the time. Thursday evening’s Rutgers-USF tilt was among the weeknight fare I took in last week, along with Tuesday’s Buffalo-Ohio (Ohio) affair, Wednesday’s Central Michigan-Toledo outing, and Friday’s Cincinnati-West Virginia matchup. Parenting duties on Saturday kept me away from my television---I told you it was a full weekend!---so I saw only snippets of the Notre Dame-Pittsburgh and Florida-South Carolina contests at the praise-winning Tent City tailgate before I attended the Georgia-Auburn game. On Sunday night, just for good measure, I watched the East Carolina-Tulsa tussle.
As always, this is a draft ballot and I have until Wednesday morning to make corrections. Feel free to point out inconsistencies, argue for alternative placements, defend omitted teams, or otherwise offer feedback and constructive criticisms of my top 25. Like Frasier Crane, I’m listening.
Go ‘Dawgs!
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Just for the sake of argument...
… how about a team that has beaten 4 SEC teams, one ranked team, and is currently sitting in second place in their division? Their schedule is one of the most difficult in the country, having opened against a team that is currently second in their division in the Big 12 in addition to their SEC slate and additional OOC games against a Pac-10 foe and a team that will be playing in the ACC Championship Game.
The biggest negatives are: they have 4 losses, one of which was an ugly blowout to a bad team, and another of their out of conference games was a very narrow victory at home against one of the worst teams in the Pac-10 this year.
Yes, I’m suggesting that the Georgia Bulldogs be considered for ranking in the #25 spot. In this year’s college football season, there just aren’t more than about 13 or 14 teams that really deserve to be in the top 25, so why not consider a team with 4 losses and the schedule we’ve had?
Perhaps more to the point, though, consider Georgia vs. Rutgers, your current #25. Georgia is 6-4 and Rutgers is 7-2, but a closer look at the schedule will show that both teams have defeated exactly one ranked opponent (#24 South Florida for RU, #25 Auburn for Georgia), but Georgia has played 4 ranked teams thus far (with Tech still to come), and Rutgers has only played 1. Georgia’s 6 wins are over South Carolina, Arkansas, Auburn, Arizona State, Vandy, and Tennessee Tech. Rutgers 7 wins are over South Florida, UConn, Maryland, Army, Florida International, Texas Southern, and Howard.
So, Georgia plays a tough schedule and has 6 wins, and Rutgers plays 2 1-AA teams and has 7 wins… I’d lean towards the Dawgs.
by vineyarddawg on Nov 17, 2009 9:51 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
UGA is not a top 25 team, not now
And not based on anything we’ve done this season. Rutgers isn’t a great #25, no, and their record’s comparison with ours just shows how not-worthy of that spot they are, not how worthy of it we are. I’d put Brigham Young, Utah, and Arizona at that spot before Rutgers or the Bulldogs.
by The ArchDawg on Nov 17, 2009 10:32 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
No two-loss mid-majors.
Even if Rutgers has played two I-AA schools.
by drothgery on Nov 18, 2009 1:54 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Houston
Hasn’t lost to one bad team. They’ve lost to two (6-4 UCF and 3-7 UTEP). Undefeated mid-majors get ranked. One-loss mid-majors can be ranked if they’ve got a quality non-conference win, or at least play in the Mountain West. But two-loss mid-majors who lose to sub-.500 and one-game-above .500 CUSA teams have no business in the top 25.
by drothgery on Nov 17, 2009 11:40 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Fair points
The problem I had is with what to do with Oklahoma State. The Cougars beat the Cowboys head-to-head and both have close home wins over Texas Tech. The Pokes’ other loss is to a better team, but it was a manhandling. I have a hard time saying Houston’s resume is markedly different from Oklahoma State’s, so booting Houston would require booting Okie State, as well, and I had a hard enough time finding 25 worthy teams as it was.
Your thoughts?
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Nov 18, 2009 9:21 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Football is not transitive
Especially college ball, which is played by highly emotional twenty-year-old kids. And you’ve been writing about it a long time, and so are well aware of this.
Pitt lost to NC State. Ohio State lost to Purdue. North Carolina did not lose to UConn, but most certainly should have. Etc.
by drothgery on Nov 18, 2009 10:52 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Along that line of thought...
… USC lost to Stanford, who lost to Wake Forest, who lost to Navy, who lost to Temple.
So, you see, Temple is actually a better team than Southern Cal. They even have a better record than SC (8-2 to the Trojans’ 7-3). Also, unlike the Trojans, the Owls have an undefeated conference record.
(You tell me how upside-down this year in college football is when Temple is potentially going to have a 10-win season.)
by vineyarddawg on Nov 18, 2009 11:08 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
There's a web site out there
… that finds transitive victory paths for any two non-undefeated teams. It managed to find one between my midling division III alma mater and the one-loss national champion a few years ago.
by drothgery on Nov 18, 2009 4:06 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I didn't take it further...
… because I wanted to focus on Temple. But Temple lost to Villanova to begin the year, and Villanova lost to New Hampshire, who lost to UMass, who lost to Maine, who lost to the State University of New York at Albany, who lost to Georgia Southern.
So, you see, on any given Saturday, the Georgia Southern Eagles could beat Southern Cal.
by vineyarddawg on Nov 18, 2009 5:24 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
oregon
explain to me why you moved oregon up a spot after they lost this week to stanford.
by slobb209 on Nov 19, 2009 12:49 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Oregon didn't lose to Stanford this week
The Ducks lost to the Cardinal last week, and that loss looks more forgivable in the wake of Stanford’s subsequent demolition of the Trojans. This week, Oregon beat Arizona State 44-21 to take charge of the conference race in what is shaping up to be a pretty solid Pac-10.
I don’t think the transitive property was in play on my ballot. The transitive property applies only when comparing teams with a common opponent (Auburn beat Tennessee, Tennessee beat Georgia, therefore Auburn would beat Georgia); I was going by the head-to-head meeting between Houston and Oklahoma State, who have the same record. The Cougars’ second-best win was a close home victory over a Texas Tech team the Cowboys also beat at home in a close contest, and Houston’s best win (over Oklahoma State) is better than any in the Pokes’ resume.
I’m not claiming UTEP is better than Oklahoma State because UTEP beat Houston and Houston beat Oklahoma State. I’m claiming that Houston is better than Oklahoma State because they met on the field, the Cougars won, and the rest of their resumes are comparable. I may have both teams too high, but I’m comfortable having Houston higher than Oklahoma State.
Naturally, if Georgia goes 8-4 and the Waddies’ win over the ‘Dawgs in Stillwater acquires fresh luster, I may revise that estimation, but I think we all know that isn’t going to happen.
Go 'Dawgs!
by T Kyle King on Nov 19, 2009 11:21 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
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