Monday, October 26, 2009

CBSsports.com BlogPoll Week 8 Draft

A few minor updates to this week's poll. I still don't understand the love for Iowa, who nearly lost to a very average Michigan State team. In fact, I'm moving them below Oregon and Boise State because the Ducks continue to impress - unlike the Hawkeyes.
RankTeamDelta
1 Alabama
2 Florida
3 Texas
4 Southern Cal
5 LSU
6 TCU
7 Cincinnati
8 Virginia Tech
9 Oklahoma 1
10 Oklahoma State 1
11 Georgia Tech 2
12 Boise State 2
13 Oregon 2
14 Iowa 2
15 Miami (Florida) 6
16 Arkansas 2
17 South Carolina 1
18 Penn State 1
19 Ohio State 1
20 Arizona 1
21 California 1
22 Houston 1
23 Texas Tech 6
24 Pittsburgh 1
25 Notre Dame
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Nebraska (#24).

Out go the Huskers for good reason. Texas Tech falls five spots, but I'm giving Tech a pass with the injury to Stephen Sheffield.

Big XII PowerPoll
  1. Texas
  2. Oklahoma
  3. Oklahoma State
  4. Texas Tech
  5. Nebraska
  6. Missouri
  7. Iowa State
  8. Kansas State
  9. Kansas
  10. Colorado
  11. Texas A&M
  12. Baylor
Not sure how to rank some of these teams. The transitive property never applies in college football, and this year provides the ultimate proof. Texas Tech blew out Kansas State, then Kansas State blew out Texas A&M the next week. Now A&M blew out Tech. With that situation, it's nearly impossible to base this on purely head-to-head, so you've got to lok at how teams really stack up. Nebraska coulda-shoulda beaten Iowa State, and Iowa State coulda-shoulda beaten both Kansas State and Kansas. Missouri might be 0-3, but they've played a murders row to open the conference schedule.
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4 comments:

  1. StevenOctober 28, 2009 at 11:15 AM

    Not impressed with Iowa? How about the fact that they beat Iowa State 35-3 at Iowa State? The same Iowa State that beat your formerly 24th ranked Huskers?

    The win over Iowa State, by the way, is their 5th most impressive win of the season. Maybe their 6th.

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  2. Husker MikeOctober 28, 2009 at 11:48 AM

    Right now, I'd suggest that only a Big 11 myopic would consider Iowa's 35-3 victory over Iowa State to be the Squawks "fifth most impressive win". It's probably their 2nd or 3rd most impressive win, #1 being Penn State. Arizona is a better team, but UI throttled an ISU team that isn't that bad.

    But I watched Iowa struggle with Arkansas State, and watched the Squawks need to block TWO field goals to hold off 1-AA Northern Iowa. Those are bigger hiccups than anything Nebraska has done. (Yes, I'll say it. Losing to Iowa State is less embarrassing than nearly losing to Northern Iowa.)

    All Iowa does is win. Props to Iowa, but that's not enough to consider Iowa a Top 10 team. Check out the Sagarin ratings with their point predictors, which attempt to show the strength of the team based on how they've won games. That's why Iowa isn't a Top Ten team in my book.

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  3. ClarkOctober 29, 2009 at 11:58 AM

    How is OU #9? They have as many losses as the teams that you have at #10, #11, #12, #13 and #14 COMBINED.

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  4. Husker MikeOctober 29, 2009 at 1:22 PM

    It's not based on wins and losses as much as how you play. Here's what I wrote last week about the Sooners:

    "Oklahoma jumps up 1 spot despite losing their third game of the season. Three losses by a total of FIVE points. If I think Miami is a top ten team, then Oklahoma isn't far behind them. And frankly, I still think the Sooners are better than 110 other teams in college football. I can't put anybody else ahead of the Sooners than are already in front of them."

    Go back and click on the "BlogPoll" link to read my history of my ballot.

    ReplyDelete