Illinois? Illinois? What were you thinking, Blutarsky? Forgive me, football gods, for I have sinned. I will strive to do better with this week’s ballot.
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Boise State
- Clemson
- LSU*
- Oklahoma
- Oklahoma State
- Oregon
- Stanford
- Wisconsin
COMMENTS
- This week it came down to choosing the team ranked 100th in total defense or the team ranked 94th in total offense for the tenth spot. I held my nose and went with Oklahoma State over Kansas State.
- Ironically, I think I saw a quote from Mike Gundy along the lines of there being three great teams in college football this season: Alabama, LSU and Oklahoma. He’s right about that. Almost every other team on my list has question marks, such as the ones I’ve already mentioned in making the last pick, or horrendous strength of schedule numbers, like Wisconsin’s (Sagarin’s #131) and Stanford’s (Sagarin’s #90).
- You know what school besides those top three doesn’t? Clemson, believe it or not.
- The school I’m starting to feel guilty about leaving off the list is Houston. The 6-0 Cougars have a stronger SOS ranking (Sagarin’s #120) than Wisconsin does.
- Ballot composition took about 25 minutes. I’d say at least twenty of those minutes came from staring at my navel about the tenth slot.
Get The Picture 
Here was mine:
Bama
LSU
Wisconsin
Boise
Oklahoma
Oklahoma St.
Stanford
WVU
Arkansas
Oregon
Mine is basically chalk but I have WVU in there instead of Clemson. I really like what I’ve seen from WVU this year. Granted, their SOS is not good and never will be, But oftentimes a well-oiled offensive machine can be identified independent of opponent strength. And perhaps I have a built in bias against the ACC. Which of course wouldn’t be unreasonable.
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You left Clemson off? They have some pretty quality wins, more than Stanford or Wisconsin.
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No offense but how can you have a bias against the ACC (I assume you mean b/c of it’s overall weakness) and not against the Big East?
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I’ve seen both teams play. WVU passes the eyeball test, and I think they would be — or should be — favored on a neutral field if they played right now.
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Clemson doesn’t have question marks? They nearly got taken out by Maryland. I know that Clemson won the game, but still… they allowed 45 points to the Maryland Terrapins. That raises a few questions in my mind, for sure.
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I wanted to add Kansas State, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave off Oregon. On a semi-related note, there was a good discussion about approval voting in presidential elections on the intertubes yesterday. It raised some interesting points.
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Where was that discussion? I’d like to read it.
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Here you go Senator:
http://www.unitedliberty.org/articles/8845-real-reform-begins-in-the-ballot-box
You might not agree with everything said, but it’s an interesting idea none-the-less.
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Thanks. I’ve seen most of those arguments before and think several have merit.
One thing I totally agree about with the author is what aggressive redistricting practices have done to our politics. We can thank Cynthia McKinney for that.
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Yes sir. I agree 100%. After the last few elections, anything that gives me more choice at the ballot box will be a welcome change.
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Don’t feel bad Senator, I was drinking the Illinois Kool-aid (or Champaign as it were) and then they give up 1 pass completion and still loose the game, rather convincingly.
I can only come up with 8 deserving teams, I just put Boise in out of guilt for thinking we’d beat them and I don’t want to pick Oregon or Stanford but I go with Oregon. Almost put in Mich St. If they beat Wiscy this weekend I think they’ll be in.
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Great minds work alike. I have the same 10 as you, Senator.
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Russ, for you and the Senator: How do you justify your pick of LSU over Bama? I justified Bama first on the basis of Richardson being more important in producing than Mathieus is with LSU. Both have good QBs and backups. LSU’s D is not overwhelming when compared to Bamas. This week’s “stat” with Bama as #1 in O and D should rank as a good reason to put Bama #1. I think LSU’s Gorilla D has been overhyped to the King Kong variety.
What say you both?
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Check the schedules.
Unless LSU gets upset before 11/5, the Tigers will be my top team going in to Tuscaloosa.
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Filling out the list, especially towards the end, has been the most difficult part of this so far this season. There is such a drop off between the teams at the “top” and the teams at the “bottom” even with only 10 choices to make.
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I think there’s a pretty clear top 11 – my ballot is the same as yours, with KSU in place of Oregon.
In most years I’d have Clemson #1 right now, but I can’t justify putting them ahead of LSU or Alabama at this time.
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If by “In most years” you mean 1981, then yeah, I agree with you about Clemson. I have them in my top 10 (I had to think about it briefly), but I’m not so sure they even wind up winning the ACC. Of course, the poll is about right now, so they deserve it now.
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Exactly.. right now. Who knows how the rest of the season will play out.
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I do…but I’m not telling anyone.
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Forgot all my picks. Damn. You can chuckle at “brain farts” all you want until they become “amfarts”. “Fanesia” sounds like an ancient civilization with sound effects.
Next year I’m going to create a Fing Dynasty team in the ratings because they sure as hell have affected teams’s success.
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Not sure why you have a lot of consternation of OK State or K-State but easily put Arkansas in despite their 38-10 loss to Alabama. Arkansas may eventually prove to be a top ten team but I can’t legitimately put a team that lost a game 38-10 and only beat a Sun Belt team by ten over any unbeaten non-Big Ten or Big East BCS conference team.
I’m guessing we’ll have our answer to this though after each of these schools finishes their conference schedule.
It’s too bad that we’re only halfway through the season and Wisconsin, Boise, and Clemson may not play anyone the rest of the year that tells us much more about them.
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