BlogPoll Ballot: And the top Big XII team is ...
by cocknfire
on Dec 1, 2008 2:38 AM EST
in Football
Oklahoma.
By the very, very thinnest of margins, Oklahoma has done slightly better than Texas this year. And, of course, I have charts.
First, the schedule chart. I've changed my mind about having FCS teams in there, because putting them as the worst win actually hurts a team more than leaving them out altogether.
Of course, if you wanted to be more concise, you could wrap it up like this:
Oklahoma has outscored opponents by about three points more per game against a schedule that's about equally strong. And now, Texas and Oklahoma against common opponents that were not each other.
Oklahoma State and Texas Tech were clearly better wins for Oklahoma, Kansas was better for Texas, and they both defeated Bayor and Texas A&M by too many to give one a clear advantage.
All that swung the vote ever so slightly to Oklahoma. Even at this point, I'm not sure that's who should be No. 3, so I'm open to any comments you have about this.
Despite all of that, I still think Texas and not Oklahoma should play in the Big XII Championship Game. A lot of what helps Oklahoma in those first two charts are nonconference games. While Oklahoma had the better year overall, Texas probably had the better year in the Big XII and might be the better team. (Remember, I'm a resume voter, not a power poll voter, when it comes to the BlogPoll.)
In any case, I'm not voting for Big XII Champion. I'm voting for which 25 teams had the best seasons. One would hope that's what the USA Today and Harris poll voters are doing. If so, it's ridiculous and wrong to use that to determine who should play in the league's championship game. And the conference should be ashamed of itself for letting that happen.
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| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | -- |
| 2 | Alabama | -- |
| 3 | Oklahoma |  1 |
| 4 | Texas |  1 |
| 5 | Penn State | -- |
| 6 | Southern Cal | -- |
| 7 | Utah | -- |
| 8 | Texas Tech | -- |
| 9 | Ohio State | -- |
| 10 | Boise State | -- |
| 11 | Oklahoma State | -- |
| 12 | TCU | 14 |
| 13 | Missouri | 1 |
| 14 | Cincinnati | 1 |
| 15 | Georgia Tech | 3 |
| 16 | Georgia | 3 |
| 17 | Mississippi | 6 |
| 18 | Ball State | 1 |
| 19 | Boston College | 1 |
| 20 | Florida State | 4 |
| 21 | Pittsburgh | 5 |
| 22 | Iowa | 1 |
| 23 | Oregon State | 9 |
| 24 | Oregon | 2 |
| 25 | Michigan State | 1 |
Dropped Out: West Virginia (#19), Miami (Florida) (#22), Northwestern (#25).
TCU moved that high because I have some reason to hate almost everyone else on the ballot. Missouri is a question mark: It wasn't a "bad" loss and it didn't come against a "bad" team, so maybe moving them down one isn't too little punishment, even though it seems to be that way. Oklahoma State lost by about what one would expect them to. If you want me to move them, suggest a replacement. Everything else is pretty much self-explanatory. Yes, I did keep Oregon State ahead of Oregon, and the reasons are: Southern Cal and Cal, which are two good wins that Oregon State has and Oregon doesn't. Northwestern moves off the ballot because TCU, Pittsburgh and Oregon had to go somewhere.
Same question as always: Where am I wrong?
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Having given up Death Valley for Autzen for the duration of grad school, I feel the need to defend my Ducks from having the Beavers ranked above them:
Yes, the Beavers have a win over Southern Cal than Oregon does not have. But the Beavers, like the Ducks, have a horrible loss to a top-10, one-loss BCS conference champion (assuming USC takes out UCLA). They too lost to an undefeated non-BCS champion (but both were within one score of winning). And where the Ducks may have slipped and lost to 7-4 Cal (all but certainly 8-4; they host Washington this weekend), the Beavers fell to 5-7 Stanford. And the Beavers also have the Civil War loss in which they gave up 700 yards (an Oregon record) and 65 points (an OSU record).
Suppose my boys back home, instead of losing to Ole Miss, had scored more points than the Rebels had ever given up, and run up more yardage than LSU ever had. LSU would have had a better record, and a dominant head-to-head win. The next week, would you have ranked Ole Miss over LSU based on “LSU doesn’t have a signature win like the Rebels do over the Gators?”
*bump* U *set* OF *spike* OOOOOOOOOO!
by AllSaintsDay on Dec 2, 2008 1:21 PM EST 0 recs
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