As longtime Dawg Sports readers are aware, I am a resume ranker. However, resume ranking after one weekend’s worth of action makes no sense; every 0-1 team lost only to squads that are undefeated, and every 1-0 club beat only opponents who are winless. Accordingly, I started from last week’s BlogPoll ballot and adjusted accordingly.
Here is how my top 25 shook out at the end of Labor Day weekend:
Dawg Sports Ballot - Week 1
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 2 | LSU Tigers | -- |
| 3 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 4 | Clemson Tigers | -- |
| 5 | West Virginia Mountaineers | -- |
| 6 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys | -- |
| 7 | USC Trojans | -- |
| 8 | South Carolina Gamecocks | -- |
| 9 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | -- |
| 10 | Michigan St. Spartans | -- |
| 11 | Florida St. Seminoles | -- |
| 12 | Texas Longhorns | -- |
| 13 | Arkansas Razorbacks | -- |
| 14 | Ohio St. Buckeyes | -- |
| 15 | Oklahoma Sooners | -- |
| 16 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -- |
| 17 | BYU Cougars | -- |
| 18 | Missouri Tigers | -- |
| 19 | Virginia Tech Hokies | -- |
| 20 | Boise St. Broncos | -- |
| 21 | Wisconsin Badgers | -- |
| 22 | TCU Horned Frogs | -- |
| 23 | Louisville Cardinals | -- |
| 24 | Auburn Tigers | -- |
| 25 | Ohio Bobcats | -- |
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »
A few words of explanation are in order. These are they:
- If you need me to explain why Alabama’s 41-14 demolition of the Michigan Wolverines vaulted the Crimson Tide from No. 2 to No. 1, you need to stop reading right now. Seriously.
- Oregon, Michigan State, and Auburn all held steady, because they all performed pretty much as was to be expected against the competition they faced. (The Ducks would have overtaken the Bayou Bengals for the second spot had Nike’s dress-up dolls not surrendered 34 points to Arkansas State.) Texas Christian likewise stayed put, inasmuch as the Horned Frogs did not play this weekend.
- Moving up were Clemson (after beating Auburn on a neutral field), West Virginia (after hanging 69 points on in-state rival Marshall), Oklahoma State (after taking a 49-0 halftime lead on Savannah State en route to an 84-0 final margin), Southern California (after smoking Hawaii by a 39-point margin), Arkansas (after performing more or less as expected against a Division I-AA tomato can and profiting from the attrition above the Hogs), Florida State (after thumping Murray State, 69-3), Texas (after handing Wyoming a 20-point setback), Nebraska (after outscoring Southern Mississippi by 29 points), Notre Dame (after an attention-getting shellacking of Navy by 40 points in Ireland), and Ohio State (after throttling the MAC’s Miami).
- Moving down were Oklahoma (after being tied with UTEP at halftime and leading the Miners by a field goal at the end of the third quarter), South Carolina (after surviving a 17-13 scare from Vanderbilt), Virginia Tech (after nearly wetting the bed against Georgia Tech), Wisconsin (after squeaking by Northern Iowa in a 26-21 victory), and Boise State (after appearing mortal in a season opener for the first time since the Broncos’ 2005 trip to Athens).
- Moving out were Michigan (after getting punked by ‘Bama), Georgia (after a slow start against Buffalo sent me spinning into full-blown Larry Munson mode), Florida (after getting a serious scare from Bowling Green, which trailed the Gators by a field goal with 15 minutes to play), and Southern Miss (after falling to the Cornhuskers in a game that was not competitive).
- Moving in were Brigham Young (after administering a 30-6 spanking to Washington State), Missouri (after claiming its opener by a 52-point margin), Louisville (after handily dispatching in-state rival Kentucky), and Ohio (after notching a double-digit victory over Penn State in Happy Valley).
- The only other team that received consideration for inclusion was Tennessee, which won impressively against N.C. State. If the Vols keep up the good work against their next two opponents, the Big Orange will be ranked in a couple of weeks.
- On Thursday night, I watched all of South Carolina-Vanderbilt and about half of BYU-Washington State. On Friday night, I watched most of N.C. State-Tennessee and some of Boise State-Michigan State. On Saturday, I attended Georgia-Buffalo and watched significant portions of Bowling-Green Florida, Auburn-Clemson, and Alabama-Michigan, as well as as much of Arkansas State-Oregon as I could stand due to the silver wings on the uniforms. On Sunday, I watched a good bit of Kentucky-Louisville. On Monday, I watched Georgia Tech-Virginia Tech.
As always, I am open to constructive criticisms, and I welcome your comments and questions below.
Go ‘Dawgs!