Thanks primarily to Clemson and Brigham Young, this week’s ballot was easier to compile than last week’s.
TOP FIVE
- Alabama
- Cincinnati
- Florida
- Iowa
- Texas
REST OF THE BEST
- Boise State
- Georgia Tech
- LSU
- Oregon
- Penn State
- Southern Cal
- TCU
COMMENTS
- Step One to a quicker ballot – none of my top five from last week lost, so none of ‘em drop out this week.
- Miami’s loss allowed me to jettison that three-legged ACC stool of Georgia Tech-Miami-Virginia Tech that I agonized over last week. Georgia Tech is the only one of that threesome which deserves a top twelve nod this week.
- That’s good, because I really haven’t been happy excluding TCU from my ballot. That win on the road against a team that beat Oklahoma earlier this year is an impressive one. Their schedule isn’t fantastic, but with two wins over ACC schools and a ranked team – all on the road – it’ll more than do. It’ll help if Utah is still ranked when they play in Fort Worth.
- The only tough call this week came with my last pick, where I went with Penn State. The Nittany Lions’ schedule isn’t the greatest, but my other choices either had more losses (Va. Tech and Arizona) or hadn’t played a much tougher set of opponents (Pittsburgh).
I’m still not sold on Boise State. They’re only impressive win was the opener against Oregon, and it’s looking more and more like a fluke on Oregon’s part. TCU, on the other hand, looks like they really could hang with just about anyone in the top-12.
I’m not at all surprised that they’ve already jumped Boise in the BCS standings … and now all Boise can do is hope that TCU loses, since there’s nothing left on the Broncos’ schedule that could put them back on top.
Can you leverage that goodwill towards TCU and get us Bumpas as Def. Coordinator?
I can’t put Iowa in the Top 5, I had trouble putting them in my Top 12. Three close calls to average/below average teams, and one quality win against PSU. You didn’t keep them in your Top 5 just because they were there before and didn’t lose did you? Isn’t that the same issue as voters in other polls sticking with their pre-season selections when games played on the field in September indicate otherwise?
TF, regarding your Oregon/Boise comment, that was a pretty convincing butt-whipping if you watched it. BSU had a chance to blow it open in the 2nd half butturned the ball over twice while driving to make it look closer. Oregon had zero 1st downs in the first half of that game. Ordinarily I favor of allowing a “do over”/mulligan to every team because there always seems to be one game that distorts the evaluation of a team’s true ability. I try to modify my assessment if it could have “just been one of those Saturdays”. But in Oregon’s case, that was the season opener, they had all summer to prepare, they were healthy, it was a revenge game, and they knew Boise was supposed to be very good. I have to give Boise their props on this one. Kudos to Oregon for getting off the deck after that fiasco, and I think they beat USC on Saturday.
No. Check out the records of their opponents – those wins might be close, but they’re all good. I think more of their schedule than you do, I guess.
I can’t even bring myself to put Iowa in my top 12. Undefeated or not, that is just a BAD TEAM playing other bad teams and getting insanely lucky.
C’mon, Muck, the only team on Iowa’s schedule with a losing record is Arkansas State.
They drove 60 yards in slightly over a minute to win on the road against a conference opponent. How is that insanely lucky?
Yeah yeah. I watch them and they just seem like such a bad team.
Northern Iowa, Iowa State, Arizona, Arkansas State, Michigan, and Michigan State are all garbage.
Wisconsin is meh at best.
PSU is their ONLY decent win.
They could easily be 5-3 right now. I know they aren’t. I’m not ignoring that. They just seem like a very mediocre team about to lose 2 of their next 4 and then get absolutely schelacked in a bowl game they aren’t qualified for.
It’s one of those eye of the beholder situations. Sagarin’s got Iowa at #15 in strength of schedule. I don’t think some of those teams you’ve got listed there are as bad as you claim.
Iowa is 6th nationally in turnover margin, at +11. To me, being at the extremes in that category is generally an indication of things like focus and fundamentals. All I know is give me Georgia at +11 right now and we’re talking about a team that would be undefeated and in the middle of all of the national title talk.