Wow, three straight weeks with an unchanged top five… who’da thunk it?
TOP FIVE
- Alabama
- Cincinnati
- Florida
- Texas
- TCU
BEST OF THE REST
- Boise State
- Georgia Tech
- Iowa
- LSU
- Ohio State
- Oregon
- Pittsburgh
COMMENTS
- Yeah, I know, Iowa.
- But if you’re not going to slot the Hawkeyes there, which school do you choose? Every one I contemplated had warts of one sort or another. If you put Penn State there, how can you leave Iowa out? Oklahoma State hasn’t beaten any team of consequence and lost badly to Texas. Wisconsin lost to the only two ranked teams on its weak schedule. The remaining choices are all three-loss teams like Virginia Tech (tempting, I admit) and Stanford (hot team, but with a loss to Wake Forest – ugh).
- LSU moved back into my top twelve by virtue of process of elimination as well. The Tigers offense leaves much to be desired and they don’t have a signature win, but they haven’t been embarrassed by anyone, either. And their schedule is tougher than the likes of Oklahoma State’s and Wisconsin’s. Sigh.
- As easy as it was to construct my top ten, it was a struggle finishing the ballot. Total time spent: 45 minutes.
Get The Picture 
I agree, after the Top 5-6 teams, the next 15-20 could play each other pretty equally……at least a case could be made for several with little way to distinguish them from each other.
I wonder if you just feel like you have to include a Big 11 team because old habits don’t die easily? I don’t feel Iowa, Ohio State, or Penn State could play Stanford in a bowl and win, I know I wouldn’t take any of them straight up against the Cardinal. One of the problems I have with the Big 11 historical powers over the years is they are only impressive against themselves. Few venture outside the conference regularly, and when they do the results aren’t impressive. (Records in bowls are often suspect because, except in the BCS finale, it is rare that both teams approach the game with the intensity of a regular season game. I cannot justify a Big 11 team in my poll this week. Like the WAC, Mountain West, and Big East, they need to begin scheduling better OOC games to give themselves credibility because they don’t national respect the way they once did (and playing Notre Dame doesn’t give them that any longer.)
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Eh, you could put Penn State ahead of Iowa because they didn’t lose to Northwestern.
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Just an observation: Toward the beginning of the Mumme Poll weeks there was talk about how people were spending less than 15 minutes on their top 12. My ballot has incidentally been nearly identical to yours, and I am spending about 15 minutes per week. Just sayin.
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BG, what can I say? I’m a conflicted soul by nature. 😉
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Two thoughts: Can we add “None of the rest” or “All of the rest” as a choice? I would have used that for my 12th pick.
And this brings-up the problem with a playoff system chosen by polls vs. conferences…if you are choosing the top 16 to advance to a playoff structure, aren’t the arguments for/against a certain pick even tougher in positions 9 – 16 than 1 – 4 each year?
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Mine is identical except I have Clemson and Stanford instead of Iowa and LSU.
I think that how you are playing at this point of the season is a huge factor… and the Hawkeyes and Tigers are limping right now.
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How can you hold a loss to Wake Forest against Stanford when you put a team that lost to NC State in your top five?
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Which team would that be?
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Pitt, but they’ve only lost once and it’s increasingly clear that was a bizarre fluke loss.
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Sorry, not top 5, but in the 12.
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CT, Pitt’s lost once and Stanford’s lost three times. Shouldn’t that make a difference?
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Sure, but that’s not the reason you gave, and I think it’s fair to say that Wake Forest is (or at least can be) a much better team that NC State. I don’t think Pitt’s beaten anyone as good as Oregon.
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Read my comment again – Stanford was grouped in the category of three-loss teams. Pitt wasn’t.
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