Well that's kinda strange seeing M Zone runner-up for the C/K award, considering they just published a piece (that you quoted in another post) about not being sold on Michigan yet.
interesting that USC bloggers won both the CK Award AND the Straight Bangin' Award...quite a difference of opinion over in Troy
I just looked at MOOS and I don't know why they should be included in a college football blogpoll at all. Pretty much no posts on college football other than the poll ballot itself, lots of stuff on the baseball playoffs, occasional NFL injury lists. Apparently an Oklahoma blog, but nothing much about Oklahoma. Even after their victory over UT, no mention of neutering Bevo (oh, so appropriate this year).
In short, part of the problem is a lack of diligence in checking out whether they should be allowed to vote. Maybe in the future, covering college football (or a particular schools' athletics) should be the main purpose of the blogs allowed in.
Wow lots of deviation everywhere! Ever been this much deviation on the blogpoll at this point in the season?
ND CHOOCHOO apparantly went off the deep end
apparently rather
I'm sorry, but what's the point of this poll if it behaves the same way as the traditional polls? OSU at No. 1? South Florida at No. 2? I'd have a hard time justifying South Florida anywhere in the top 25 regardless of the circumstances. A ranking should reflect both of two things: 1) What a team has earned through the course of the season and, 2) A reasonable assessment of relative strength. Neither OSU nor South Florida belongs anywhere near the top of the rankings by either of these standards, let alone both.
I was hoping the blogpoll would be more than a simple test of survival.
In defense of my ballot... I laid out the reasoning and solicited comments. The main reason for the main deviations I think is that I decided that the SEC and Pac Ten deserved their top four teams to be above the top teams from weaker conferences.
ASU has survived the easy part of their Pac Ten sked unscathed--unlike USC and Cal. Oregon's only loss is to Cal and see what they did to Michigan.
I also think Michigan is much better than their first two games indicated and would handle, say, Texas, no problem. If the Big Ten is worse than last year, and by the transitive property so is Ohio State, then I look back to last year's Bowl Games for guidance in comparing them to SEC and Pac ten, for example...
Now to B.C., for example, the reason I couldn't put them ahead of, say, USC is that both BC and Nebraska have the same signature win--Wake Forest, while B.C. has won but not pretty...
USC's starting to get healthy again and anyone who puts them below #10 at this point is already assuming 1 or 2 more losses further in the season... So if they lose, expect me to punish them more harshly in the future...
Les Miles is on the Mike Tirico Show ESPN Radio right now.
Michigan story at the bottom of this page...
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/no...ht&
lid=tab5pos1
Did Carr really mention the play-action passing game?
Gnrgoblue, I spend a lot of time on the Internets, so I've read some pretty dumb things in my time, but I think you might take the cake with:
"I'd have a hard time justifying South Florida anywhere in the top 25 regardless of the circumstances."
Wow. Looking at your criteria - "1) What a team has earned through the course of the season and, 2) A reasonable assessment of relative strength" - I don't know how South Florida isn't anywhere in the Top 25. They've beaten West Virginia, Auburn, Central Florida and North Carolina, the latter two in beatdown fashion. I can't even fathom your logic here.
Also, anyone with LSU behind Virginia Tech needs to be kicked out of the poll. There's no way of thinking - not resume, not power poll, not A over B - that leads to that result.
"then I look back to last year's Bowl Games for guidance in comparing them to SEC and Pac ten"
Didn't the B10 go 2-1 vs. the SEC in bowl games? Good logic.
Message from Bill Martin regarding the BTN on mgoblue
http://mgoblue.com/
document_disp...cument_id=25634
CW,
I like my hyperbole and I indulged myself in the portion you quoted. Fine. South Florida belongs somewhere near the bottom of the top 25, what with its wins over West Virginia, which, I hear, beat Georgia earlier this decade. Snuffing North Carolina? And bringing down Central Florida? Say no more. I'm sold.
Please don't ever enter into a debate about national title contenders until you understand that bringing a game with Central Florida into the conversation does nothing to strengthen the case for your candidate.
And because you brought up my criteria, please explain to me how South Florida meets the second portion of it: That an educated observer can make a strong case that the team should be able to defeat most or all of the teams ranked behind it. Anyone that's watched more than two weeks of college football in his life would pick South Florida to lose by double digits to, off the top of my head, Cal, USC, Oregon, LSU, Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas and probably about 15 or 20 other programs.
I'm sure you're all about Hawaii, too, and were on the Tulane bandwagon in '98 and the Marshall bandwagon in '99. I bet those teams would have just dominated Central Florida.
Hey guys, been reading here for a while, a Michigan fan my whole life and a first time commenter. Here's my take on the top 25.
A top 25 ballot should be different from some kind of Power Ranking where you rank teams based on which is the best and whether team A would beat team B. With no playoff system in CFB, the regular season has to act as that playoff to get down to your two best teams over the course of the year. Therefore, if Ohio State and South Florida make it through their seasons unbeaten, then they have earned their top rankings. When and if they lose, then you can drop them past LSU, but once you get to this halfway point in the season I feel that any undefeated team in a major conference should be at the top.
I guess I'm thinking more of an AP or Coaches ballot, not as much a blogpoll, but there you have it.
I'd have a hard time justifying South Florida anywhere in the top 25 regardless of the circumstances.
That's just ignorant. USF isn't the second-best team in the country but the fact that they had a letdown game doesn't mean they shouldn't be ranked. No one really disputes Florida's national title last year despite struggling with Vanderbilt and South Carolina. Even the other teams in the conversation had shitty games: Michigan vs. Northwestern & Ball State, OSU vs. Illinois and USC vs. UCLA and Oregon State. It happens over the course of a 12 week season.
And way to slam mid-majors of years past without mentioning 2004 Utah or 2006 Boise State.
Anyone that's watched more than two weeks of college football in his life would pick South Florida to lose by double digits to, off the top of my head, Cal, USC, Oregon, LSU, Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas and probably about 15 or 20 other programs
Again, ignorance, but nice attempt to squelch dissent with the "anyone who's watched more than two weeks" qualifier. I've watched plenty and I can't think of 20 teams that would be 2 TD favorites against USF.
We can't we have wins/losses on the poll?
>>> Anyone that's watched more than two weeks of college football in his life would pick South Florida to lose by double digits to, off the top of my head, Cal, USC, Oregon, LSU, Oklahoma, Michigan, Texas and probably about 15 or 20 other programs.
I've watched 10 years. And I wouldn't pick them to lose by double digits to more than three of those teams (LSU, Ohio State, and maybe Oregon).
Based on what they've done thus far, anything lower than 5th for USF is completely unjustifiable. They haven't lost, and nobody has two wins better than their two best (even if, like me, you don't think much of WVU).
I meant, of course, no one aside from LSU has two wins better than their two best. LSU does, but that's about it.
"USC's starting to get healthy again"? In no way is that an accurate statement.
Proctor,
As I wrote in my previous post, I don't have a beef with USF getting thrown in the scrap heap around 20-25. It's the no. 2 ranking in the major polls that reflects the idiocy inherent in those systems and, obviously, in the blogpoll, as well. I don't know how to respond to most of the rest of your post because I think you're replying to someone else, but, as for your comment that you can't think of 20 teams that could beat USF by two touchdowns, I suppose that's a credit to USF, but don't you agree that there should be, at the most, ONE team that could beat the no. 2 team in the country by two touchdowns? There are at least a half dozen teams ranked below USF (LSU, Oregon, Cal, Oklahoma, USC and Texas, at a glance) that I can't imagine getting beat down by anyone.
Michigan lost to a 1-AA team and was beaten to death at home in another game, and I think most would agree that U-M would be a 10-point favorite if it traveled to USF this Saturday.
Utah and Boise State? Please. Between the two of them, they had a single impressive win.
>>> Michigan lost to a 1-AA team and was beaten to death at home in another game, and I think most would agree that U-M would be a 10-point favorite if it traveled to USF this Saturday.
No one who is even slightly sane would agree. USF would be favored, maybe not by a large margin but there's no way Michigan would be favored in that game. You forget that USF has already won at Auburn and beaten West Virginia, two wins that are considerably more impressive than anything Michigan has done to date. That may change before too much longer, but as of right now USF would be favored. They might even be favored in the Big House.
I seriously doubt we'd be favored heading to USF. As for the #2 ranking, I said they're not the second-best team in the country. However, the only teams I think are clearly better are LSU, Oregon, Cal, USC and Oklahoma.
We absolutely would not favored going to USF. *Maybe* in Ann Arbor, but then only by a FG at most.
Well, I wholeheartedly disagree with each of you on the topic. This major/mid-major debate will never really be settled, and we're all obviously dug in. Maybe we'll learn something in a bowl game.
USF is not a mid-major. The Big East is a major conference. We get an automatic BCS bid and everything. We've got three ranked teams (USF, WVU, Cinci) - two in the top ten, three okay teams (Rutgers, Louisville, UConn), and two bad teams (my Orange - sigh, and Pitt).
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