Monday, December 07, 2009

CBSsports.com BlogPoll Final Ballot

I don't know if there will be a post-bowl BlogPoll, but assuming there won't be, here's my final ballot.  Cincinnati and Texas survive; Florida and Cal get blown out.  And several teams lose in competitive games against top-notch competition, which raises the question:  if you drop teams for losing conference championship games, do you reward teams who didn't qualify in the first play?

Any feedback?

Rank
Team
Delta
1
Alabama
2
TCU
2
3
Texas
1
4
Boise State
1
5
Cincinnati
1
6
Oregon
1
7
Florida
4
8
Ohio State
9
Virginia Tech
10
LSU
11
Georgia Tech
12
Miami (Florida)
13
Iowa
14
Oregon State
15
Stanford
1
16
Pittsburgh
1
17
Penn State
1
18
Brigham Young
1
19
Arizona
5
20
Nebraska
3
21
Utah
1
22
Clemson
3
23
Mississippi
24
West Virginia
25
Oklahoma
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: California (#15), Southern Cal (#20), Houston (#21).

Yes, I'm downgrading Texas for last night.  TCU has just as strong of a resume as Texas at this point; Texas' best win is a blowout of 9-3 Oklahoma State.  TCU did beat Clemson on the road.  And I'm dropping Florida behind Oregon, because Oregon's loss to Boise was at the start of the season, closer, and on the road.  Oregon has moved on and improved from that point.  I'm also not penalizing Nebraska or Clemson for losing yesterday either to Top Ten opponents, especially when I'm drumming out Cal for getting blown out or USC and Houston.

So who replaces them?  Well, Ole Miss did beat LSU.  West Virginia won 9 games.  And if I'm ranking so many 4 loss teams, what's wrong with ranking a 5-loss Oklahoma team who lost 4 of those games by 12 points. 

Big XII PowerPoll

  1. Texas
  2. Nebraska 
  3. Oklahoma
  4. Texas Tech
  5. Oklahoma State
  6. Missouri
  7. Kansas State
  8. Texas A&M
  9. Iowa State
  10. Kansas
  11. Colorado
  12. Baylor
Hard to argue against ranking the Huskers 2nd in the Big XII after last night.  The title of "Worst Team" goes to Baylor only because they lost Robert Griffin and were more inept at times than Colorado.  But long term, I'd rather be a fan of Baylor than Colorado because while Robert Griffin can become healthier, Dan Hawkins can't become smarter.

1 comment:

NDHusker said...

Mike,

I agree with your ranking of Texas #3. Don't be so quick to give them credit for a blow out win against OSU. Looking at the stats, OSU outplayed them, held Texas to their lowest number of plays (due to 5 OSU turnovers) and held them under 300 yards of total offense.

Had it not been for the turnovers, the game would have been a lot closer. Now, I didn't see the game to see if Texas in fact forced the turnovers or how they came about, but Texas IMO is not the second best team in the country. Good call on ranking them 3rd.