More details and commentary coming late today. My Week 6 Ballot can be found here.
Week 7:
1. Southern Cal - If they did lose to ND -- which they won't -- how far would they fall?
2. Texas - This is a good football team. Not because of what they did to a bad OU team. But because they are talented, and they can finally play without the 800 lb Stoops monkey on their back. I think they will make the Rose Bowl before USC even would.
3. Virginia Tech - They should whip Maryland before getting ahold of BC.
4. Alabama - I still have them ranked above UGA because I think beating Florida is more impressive than beating Tennessee.
5. Georgia - I knew the defense was good. I had no idea that the OL would beat the UT Dline that badly.
6. Penn State - I saw these guys vs. Minnesota in person and knew they were good. They pour the coals to Michigan this week.
7. Miami (Florida) - I get more grief for ranking these guys ahead of FSU than you can imagine. Honestly, FSU played like complete shit and beat Miami. If they play again on a neutral field this week, I think miami wins. The Colorado win just keeps looking better. If they both have the same record at the end of the regular season, I'll rank FSU higher. But not for now.
8. Louisiana State - We'll know a BUNCH more about this team after this week.
9. Notre Dame - I'm mostly curious to see if ND can make a game of it vs. USC.
10. Florida State - They will likely be #8 or so next week.
11. Florida - I'm hoping for a biblical beatdown by LSU upon Meyer's house.
12. Auburn - I am umcomfortable with this placement. I should probably have AU and MSU flipped.
13. Michigan State - How did these guys lose to UM? Oh yeah, they are MSU. That's just what they do.
14. Boston College - I think this is too high. Next week, I plan to revise this down.
15. Ohio State - I'm eagerly awaiting the MSU vs. OSU score. I'd love to see MSU beat them silly...even though I loathe John L Smith.
16. Texas Tech - The weakest schedule in the Top 25? In two weeks Mack Brown's boys are going to beat them silly.
17. UCLA - I was glad to see the no scheduling, weak ass Cal team get slapped. Take a look at the schedule for these guys and you see a 10-0 team rolling into USC in the final week. I'll move these guys much higher next week. They are too low here.
18. Louisville - Petrino is an ass.
19 Oregon - Duck is fatty.
20. Colorado - at Texas this coming week. Ouch. If they give 'em a game, I'll keep them here. Barnett is a scumbag.
21. Wisconsin - Feel good story no more.
22. Minnesota - There was a trap door to the Minnesota season last week that Mason managed to not stand on and fall into.
23. Tennessee - Hanging on by a thread.
24. West Virginia - I need to watch these guys again. That tickle pile vs. Syracuse in Week 1 or 2 was some of the worst football I've seen in years.
25. Cal - It sickens me to rank these chumps. Go Beavers.
Dropped Out:
Georgia Tech, Arizona State
New:
Minnesota and West Virginia
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6 comments:
Please include a new category for Michigan, Oklahoma, Pitt, Texas A&M, et. al.: Nowhere to be found
Why is FSU ranked 10th? They have beaten both Miami (whom you rank 7th) and at Boston College (whom you rank 14th). Both are impressive wins; more impressive than VaTech's two best wins (West Va. and Syracuse), Alabama's two best wins (Florida and at S. Carolina), Georgia's two best wins (at Tenn. and Boise State) and Penn State's two best wins (Minnesota and Ohio State).
I would put FSU ahead of those four teams based upon who and how the teams have beaten to date. The poll should be about where teams are right now, not where one thinks teams will finish at the end of the year. For now, I would put FSU #3, Bama #4, UGA#5, PSU #6 and VaTech (who hasn't beaten anyone of note yet) at #7.
"The poll should be about where teams are right now"
I completely disagree. If someone feels that Florida is going to lose two more games why should they have any problem going ahead and them #15 or about where a team with at least 3 losses would end up. The whole point of a poll, in my opinion, is to predict what the finish is going to be like.
Also, why should the order in which you play teams in your conference affect your ranking? Just because Virginia Tech hasn't played Miami yet doesn't mean that they aren't the #3 team in the nation.
Because FSU looked like a shitty team when they beat Miami. Miami had to give them that game. They've come a long way, but i think if Miami played them again they would beat them.
Although, the gap between the two is narrowing.
I dislike ranking teams based upon where the pollsters thinks they will finish for two reasons:
1. Its too speculative. Florida may lose 2-3 more games or they may go undefeated and win the SEC. Who knows? Its too arbitrary to rank a team based upon how they may perform in the future. There is enough arbitrariness built into ranking teams (Ex. Given that team x and team y do not play, which team plays in a better conf. and how should that affect my vote?) without trying to forecast the future.
Miami might beat FSU if they played again, but they already played this year and FSU won. They may have looked bad, but it was the first game of the year and it was against a top ten team. Shouldn't actually playing and winning the game count for something? Count for A LOT as a matter of fact?
True upsets do obviously occur. A clearly "inferior" teams will beat a clearly "better" team, but the way we know this is in fact an upset is from the two teams records over the course of the season, both before and after the game.
2. It can make the polls a self-fulfilling prophecy. A pollster can rank a team at a certain spot at the end of the season because that's where the pollster thought they should be ranked all year. "I ranked 'em where I had 'em ranked." I think USC is benefitting from this right now.
I think teams should be ranked based upon their performance to date over the course of the season. This method incorporates what we know to be true about teams now, not what we think may be true in the future.
It does penalize teams that have not played more difficult opponents, but assuming those teams do play and defeat tough opponents at some point, this penalty is only temporary. Winning against tough opponents moves a team up because they have earned it in actual competition.
yes, i've read this argument 100 times already. it's like a cut and paste everytime I do a poll. I get it, you think FSU should be higher.
I think FSU will likely finish 10-2 or 11-1, but that's got nothing to do with where they are ranked now.
The team that beat Miami was NOT a Top 10 team. Not even remotely close. No logical person could argue otherwise. It's a Top 3 defense though sure, but that offense was a joke. They are *definitely* playing better football now. No question.
However, I think every single team that I have ranked above FSU right now would beat them if they played this weekend on a neutral field. That's why they are where they are.
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