Week Three BlogPoll Ballot Draft

As I indicated earlier, Georgia night games and day-long Sunday church obligations are not conducive to my duties here at Dawg Sports, which include voting in the BlogPoll. This week’s top 25 is a modification of last week’s ballot, although, next week, I will begin working the resume ranking approach into the mix, so you should expect to see significant changes from this arrangement:

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	4
2	Texas	2
3	Florida	2
4	California	1
5	Southern Cal	3
6	Ohio State
7	Mississippi
8	Boise State
9	Oklahoma	2
10	UCLA	3
11	Miami (Florida)
12	Penn State	2
13	Virginia Tech	2
14	Florida State
15	Cincinnati	1
16	LSU	2
17	Brigham Young	8
18	Washington
19	TCU	7
20	Oklahoma State	1
21	North Carolina
22	Georgia
23	Georgia Tech	5
24	Oregon
25	Michigan	2
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Nebraska (#17), Pittsburgh (#19), Houston (#20), West Virginia (#24), Wisconsin (#25).

I felt badly about dropping the Penn St. Nittany Lions, the TCU Horned Frogs, the Pittsburgh Panthers, the Houston Cougars, the Michigan Wolverines, and the Wisconsin Badgers, but, for once, I felt like I had too many teams rather than too few.

On the whole, the Alabama Crimson Tide have looked like the more complete team than the Florida Gators, so the Red Elephants rose to the top spot while the Sunshine State Saurians dropped a couple of notches following their underwhelming performance against the Tennessee Volunteers. Where was 49-10 when we needed it, you bunch of orange-and-blue-wearing sissy-marys? Congratulations on earning Lane Kiffin a Charlie Weis-style contract extension, nancy-boys.

I really didn’t like moving the Texas Longhorns up after they played a back-and-forth game with the depleted Texas Tech Red Raiders, but what else was I going to do? The California Golden Bears let the Minnesota Golden Gophers hang around for far too long, I had to drop the USC Trojans after yet another road loss to an unranked Pac-10 opponent (yet I couldn’t drop them below the Ohio St. Buckeyes), and I wasn’t about to move the Mississippi Rebels up and have SEC teams ranked first, second, and third, since that would have earned me an accusation of ranking four SEC teams in my top three from a University of Michigan-educated engineer.

My sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-ranked squads stayed put because nothing in their respective wins seemed to justify moving them, but the Florida St. Seminoles’ 54-28 blasting of the BYU Cougars dropped the latter to No. 17 and earned the former a No. 14 placement. In a related item, the Miami Hurricanes leapt into the poll at No. 11 after throttling the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (now ranked 23rd) in a game that wasn’t remotely as close as the score indicated.

Vacancies in the top ten were filled by the Oklahoma Sooners after they manhandled the Tulsa Golden Hurricane and by the UCLA Bruins in the wake of their 23-9 win over the Kansas St. Wildcats. The lack of poll love for the club from Westwood baffles me. Rick Neuheisel’s crew beat San Diego State handily, defeated the Vols by four points in Knoxville to card a triumph that looks even better in retrospect, and dropped a two-touchdown setback on a Big 12 team. Why isn’t that counting for more in the eyes of the voters? I don’t get it.

I regret that the sudden crowding of the field prevented me from giving to the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Cincinnati Bearcats the boosts they rightfully deserved, and I am open to arguments for why other teams ought to be moved down to accommodate them. The LSU Tigers have done nothing to impress me other than have the letters "LSU" on their helmets, so the Bayou Bengals’ slow slide continues.

The Washington Huskies hung tough with my No. 16 team and beat my No. 5 team, so they enter the poll at No. 18. Once again, I am open to justifications for placing U-Dub higher. The Oklahoma St. Cowboys crept up, although I’d like to think they shouldn’t have, and the North Carolina Tar Heels benefited from being undefeated in what appears suddenly to be a much more stout ACC than I previously had believed.

The Georgia Bulldogs stayed put, but at least they’re clearly the best team in the state. The Oregon Ducks re-entered the rankings after beating the Utah Utes, although their latest affront to fashion very nearly kept them out of the top 25. The Auburn Tigers and the Iowa Hawkeyes received consideration for inclusion, and the former’s omission had nothing to do with the fact that I hate Auburn, although I do, in point of fact, hate Auburn. (I hate Auburn. See?)

I was able to enjoy every minute of Thursday night’s Georgia Tech-Miami tilt. On Friday night, I watched the Boise State-Fresno State game while wishing Reshad Jones had been able to have that WAC officiating crew in Stillwater. I saw almost all of the Boston College-Clemson game (lightning delays and all), all of the Georgia-Arkansas game, and parts of the Florida-Tennessee, Michigan State-Notre Dame, and Auburn-West Virginia games.

Your constructive criticisms are welcome, as always.

Go ‘Dawgs!