I agree that Hawaii and Boise really aren't worthy of a rank given their records.
HOWEVER, if you are going to rank Hawaii, having Boise ahead of them is probably correct. They have a bunch of common opponents, being in the same conference and all, and Boise has been more impressive than Hawaii against those teams.
Good job calling out Corn Nation's ridiculousness. Even though most everyone on this site is a UM fan, that kind of idiocy is obvious even to us.
My justification for ranking VT lower than anyone else in the rest of the polls:
1. The Sagarin Predictor has VT at #14, which is closer to my #17 than the poll's #8.
2. Unlike the rest of the poll, I have BC ahead of VT, which seems to make sense since they have the same record and BC, y'know, won in Blacksburg.
3. I went to UVA for grad school and therefore dislike the Hokies.
4. I'm a Falcons fan who is bitter about the franchise putting faith in Michael Vick and Deangelo Hall.
This is the second week in a row you've called Washington the worst team in the Pac-10, and as someone who watches a LOT of Pac-10 football, I have to disagree. UW nearly took out USC, and they did beat Stanford handily, whose win over USC was about as flukey as wins get. I also think they're better than Washington State (we'll find out on Saturday) and not far off from Arizona. Their record isn't good, but they've only been soundly beaten once (by Arizona State) against the toughest schedule in the nation.
More to the point, 'the worst team in the Pac-10', whoever that is, is still not an awful team. Stanford shut out a San Jose State team that took Hawai'i to overtime, and Wazzu gave Wisconsin a game on the road (at least for 3 quarters).
Then again, maybe I'm apologist Cal fan who's trying to fit Cal losing at Washington into my severely strained worldview.
Why are you so hard on people voting for Boise & Hawaii? It's not their fault the other WAC teams are bad. It's not their fault that no big teams want to play them (see all the teams that got out of contracts with Hawaii). You play to win the games and both teams have done that.
Is Boise's loss at Washington that much worse than Oklahoma losing at Colorado? Cincinnati is ranked and lost to both Pitt AND Louisville. Illinois lost to Iowa! Texas got crushed at home by a 5-6 Kansas State team! And OH MY GOD, USC lost at home to Stanford! Who has USC beaten that makes them an obivous #11 team while Boise doesn't deserve a ranking? Was it the wins over Nebraska and Notre Dame?
Stop picking on Boise. (I'm a UConn fan for the record, but it's hypocritical to point out one bad loss for Boise and not do the same for about half the teams in the poll.)
Does Oregon without Dennis Dixon still deserve a Top 10 ranking? Obviously, Oregon has a great record and impressive victories -- but, without their best player, are they still a Top 10 team, or are the voters rewarding past performance? A possible analogy is Michigan without Henne or Hart -- they're deservedly unranked, since that didn't work out so well; would it make any sense to rank them based on what could have been had they both been healthy? Then again, Oregon doesn't have Mike DeBord.
That's a little harsh on T. Kyle King isn't it?
Sean: All those other teams that have bad losses have some quality wins to offset them. Boise doesn't have something even approaching a quality win - unless you think Southern Miss is a good team.
I can see Boise being ranked, and even ahead of Hawaii (Hawaii has won squeaker after squeaker while Boise has blown out lesser foes), but not above #20. You have to beat *someone* before you get higher than that.
SpartanDan:
What's USC's quality win? 6-5 Cal? Where's the big win for Texas?
\UW nearly took out USC//
>
Except I watched that game and the only reason You-Dub was in the game was because SC's back-up quarterbak played like...a back-up quarterback...and turned the ball over in a copious fashion. Props to the Washington defense for taking advantage, but the Husky offesne wasn't getting anything done that night.
Having said that, I still want Ty Willingham to succeed there, if only to stick it up ND's ass. Go, Huskies!
\ Why are you so hard on people voting for Boise & Hawaii? It's not their fault the other WAC teams are bad. It's not their fault that no big teams want to play them (see all the teams that got out of contracts with Hawaii). You play to win the games and both teams have done that.//
Dude, I totally made those points yesterday and no one was having it then, either. Hawai'i isn't a Top 5 team (as far as we know), but this late in a season that has seen a Biblical plague of upsets it's probably not unreasonable to rank an undefeated Hawai'i in the Top 15 until someone beats them so they can get a shot in a BCS game...which I believe they'll have earned.
Boise State could fly out there this weekend and completely house 'em and make the whole point moot, anyway. Drop the hell out of 'em if that happens, obviously...just not before.
Sean:
USC has one over Oregon State (7-4) as well, but the Cal win is still infinitely better than any of Boise's (tossup between Fresno and Southern Miss as their best win, and neither of those is on the same level as Cal or OrSt). Texas ... last week's game against TT is better than anything Boise's done, as is the win against UCF (who's tops in CUSA right now) and the win over OkSt.
I haven't seen such a pat dismissal of a dissenting oppinion since low-carb diets. Which is good news for Kyle's poll, and bad news for KU.
I'm just curious why Braves & Birds is listed as a Georgia blog. It's pretty clear that Michael is a Michigan guy first and an Atlanta pro-sports guy second.
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