Other Half of the BlogPoll Draft Ballot

Here's the top 25; explanations after the jump.

1. Alabama
2. Florida
3. Iowa
4. Texas
   
5. Oregon
6. TCU
7. Cincinnati
8. LSU
9. Miami (FL)
10. Boise St.
11. Georgia Tech
12. Virginia Tech
13. USC
14. Oklahoma St.
15. Penn St.
    
16. Nebraska
17. Houston
18. Pittsburgh
19. Central Michigan
20. Texas Tech
21. BYU
22. South Carolina
23. Michigan
24. Auburn
25. Utah
    

The giant table below shows how my stat poll turned out. I tweaked the strength of schedule category so that it now is a composite of who a team played (double weighted) and then who that team's opponent played (single weighted). Most SOS rankings include two levels like that and I think mine was incomplete without it. Here's the ways the poll above differs:

• Alabama up from 2 to 1: the only reason left to rate Florida first is "they're the champs and no one has beat them yet," and that's always been a lame rationale.
• Texas up to 4: they're undefeated like the Hawkeyes, so they both should be above the one loss teams, but neither really has an impressive collection of wins.
• Miami up to 9: for having a good set of wins with only one loss
• VT down to 12: to get below GT, who beat them
• USC up to 13: this may be too low, but they don't really have any impressive wins.
• Two loss teams move down: for multiple losses
  
• Oklahoma State, Houston, South Carolina in: for obvious reasons
• Utah in: for being close to the top 25 in the stat poll.
  
• Ohio State, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, and Ole Miss out: for obvious reasons

This is a bit of a mess because I didn't get to see that many games having spent most of Saturday on campus for the UF game and most of Sunday in a car driving from Gainesville to Charlotte. If something obviously is out of whack, let me know, because I probably missed something somewhere. Don't get all up in arms, just point it out respectfully. This is just a draft and not final.