Nothing new in my top five, but a little shake up elsewhere:
TOP FIVE
- Alabama
- Cincinnati
- Florida
- Texas
- TCU
BEST OF THE REST
- Boise State
- Georgia Tech
- Iowa
- Miami (FL)
- Ohio State
- Oregon
- Virginia Tech
COMMENTS
- As emotionally satisfying as it would have been, I honestly couldn’t drop Georgia Tech out of the top twelve completely after Saturday night’s loss. The fact is that they did just enough to have a puncher’s chance at the end of the game. That being said, the Jackets clearly have the weakest defense of any team on the list above and it won’t surprise me at all to see them lose again this year.
- If I left Virginia Tech and Georgia Tech in the top twelve, I couldn’t justify excluding Miami at this point. All three ACC schools seem joined at the hip right now.
- The schedule is killing Penn State.
- Figuring out which school would take Pitt’s place wasn’t the hardest call for me this week. Deciding whether Cincinnati or Boise State should get a top five nod was.
- Total time spent on ballot: 35 minutes.
Get The Picture 
I’m having a hard time with this one. I don’t think I can justify having 3 ACC teams in there (or 3 Big Ten teams for that matter). I definitely can’t put a 3 loss ACC team in. As bad (stupid) as LSU has looked, I think they wouldn’t have dropped three in that conference.
Is Pitt’s loss in a rivalry game *that* much worse than GT’s? (especially considering that Pitt was on the road?)
Is BYU’s win over Utah enough to get them in?
Decisions…Decisions…
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Penn State will be in a BCS bowl. I’m sure they’ll survive not being ranked in the Mumme Poll.
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Could be, but only because of their drawing power. Iowa is more deserving of the nod.
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Yeah I don’t understand the hate for Penn State. They have a weak schedule, but they also handily beat every team on it except the two ranked ahead of them. Same can’t be said for the Trio of Mediocrity above.
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Va. Tech and Miami have respectable OOC wins on their resumes. What’s Penn State’s?
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Miami and Va Tech have losses to unranked teams on their resumes, where are Penn State’s?
You hear a lot about “quality wins,” but I think you have to play it both ways.
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Fair point, but doesn’t Penn State voluntarily put themselves in the position to be diminshed by anyone who doesn’t feel the Big 11 is that talented any more? Honestly, I don’t think Ohio State, Penn State, or Iowa would win a playoff game against any of the other top conference teams (Florida, Bama, Cincy, TCU, Oregon, or Boise……and maybe even GT.) I would honestly bet against each of those Big 11 teams straight-up in any of those matchups. Why should Penn State be respected based on anything they have done this year? Past reputation is the only reason, and a need for some to include a Big 11 team. There isn’t a Top 12 team among them, imo.
So without a decent OOC game, it is easy to see why someone could vote them on the negative side of your point, it seems to be more logical than the positive slant you prefer.
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Eh, I’ve heard all the BT bashing before, but you’re not really looking at the reality. Cuse was schedule when they went 20-3 in 2001. The 2009 team can’t do anything about a schedule that was built 8 years ago and is 66% fixed anyway. Very few schools play more than one real OOC game, and several (Texas and most of the SEC) don’t play any at all.
As for your playoff comment, we’re going to find out if you are right or wrong. Ohio State will play Pac-10 champ Oregon or Oregon State…I don’t see how you can look at that game and pick an “obvious” favorite. Iowa will likely play Boise or, if not, Penn State will end up in that game or perhaps against the ACC champ (GT) in the Orange Bowl.
It’s possible and even likely that the Big Ten is favored in both of their BCS games, plus the Cap One (BT #3 v SEC #3) and almost certainly the Outback (#4 v #4).
Maybe I’m wrong, I’m am all the time, but the fun thing here is we get to actually see this play out.
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Penn State fans always say they scheduled us after a 10-3 regular season. They neglect to mention that was the only year in the 2000s we were more than a game over .500. I mean, I’m glad PSU is playing us again (even if they’re kicking our butts), but it would have been nice in the 1990s and late 1980s when we were good.
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This is a dumb comment. The game was scheduled in 2001…how was PSU suppose to know how Cuse would perform after that date? Records for Cuse had been steadily increasing, if anything PSU would have expected Cuse to be better than they had been, not worse. They had been over .500 every year in the ’90s with several 9 and 10 win seasons.
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“As for your playoff comment, we’re going to find out if you are right or wrong. Ohio State will play Pac-10 champ Oregon or Oregon State…I don’t see how you can look at that game and pick an “obvious” favorite.”
Except that that scenario has been repeated ad nauseum the last few years and an obvious favorite has clearly developed, and it is never Ohio State or anyone from the Big Ten. Hence Macallanlover’s point.
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I don’t get this either. So because Illinois was a dog to USC two years ago, no Big Ten team will ever be favored in a BCS game again? Is that the logic here? What I’m saying is this: Ohio State will probably be favored vs. whatever Oregon school they face, and Iowa/PSU will almost certainly be favored against BSU and GT.
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Two points: 1)
the Big 11 isn’t sitting where the SEC, or even the Big 12, are when it comes to respect for the in-conference schedule. I don’t like true cupcake games for any team, but it is impossible to not see how challenging conference games are in the SEC. If the conference games were the ONLY games SEC teams played they would surpass ANY of the Big 11 team schedules even if they played 1-2 decent OOC teams each year. To a lesser degree, Big 12 teams face more difficult games in-conference games alone than Big 11 teams do in their full 12 game schedule, and then they have the conference championship game to deal with. yes, that is lack of respect for the Big 11, no denying it….but they have earned it. Playing Syracuse isn’t the same as Penn State stepping up to play Bama next year. I have heard Ohio State has scheduled a home and home with TN, maybe that will get some Big 11 interaction with better teams than the MAC.
2) I know a lot of people put major emphasis on bowl games as an indicator of relative conference strength but truth is they are glorifed exhibitions that many coaches, and teams, don’t take as seriously as regular season games. A playoff would change that, but for now only the BCS finale guarantees an all out effort. In some cases, one team really comes in and plays all out, but the coach of the other is mostly happy just to get the extra practices. I also suspect many players with NFL ambitions play very “carefully” to not get hurt in a meaningless game.
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“So without a decent OOC game, it is easy to see why someone could vote them on the negative side of your point, it seems to be more logical than the positive slant you prefer.”
Where’s Damon Evans when you need him, eh?
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