Half of the Blogpoll Draft Ballot, Week 3
by Year2 on Sep 21, 2009 12:30 PM EDT
in SEC Football
Email
PrintI really don't like this right now, so please, please give me some good feedback.
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Alabama
4. Penn State
5. Ole Miss
The Gators hold on despite the struggles. Same goes for Texas. I gave serious thought to moving Alabama up, but the Tide's big win came against a team that is famous for self immolation against top five teams. Penn State and Ole Miss have played no one, but who else am I going to put here?
6. Virginia Tech
7. Cal
8. Oklahoma
9. Boise State
10. Miami
Virginia Tech won a game it had little business winning, but I like Nebraska and at least on the scoreboard they were right there with Alabama most of the way. Cal was lackluster in its win over Minnesota; the offense went away from Jahvid Best too much and the pass defense was too porous. Boise State hangs in there as Oregon is looking better by the week.
Miami I'm torn on. I know now that FSU has defeated BYU that the opening win means more, but as long as we're reevaluating teams on a weekly basis, Georgia Tech looks extremely sketchy to me. The Jackets probably should have lost to Clemson and they've played worse in each consecutive week. Miami goes here for now, but I'm not convinced they have a pass defense.
11. Ohio State
12. LSU
13. TCU
14. USC
15. Nebraska
Let me just say that I was tired when I put this ballot together last night, and this stretch definitely needs some fixing. I'm fine with Ohio State ahead of USC because the Buckeyes have the better loss of the two. LSU is either too low or too high, but I don't know which. I thought before the season that TCU was the best of the MWC, and I'm back to thinking that now. I've said for weeks that USC is deeply flawed and it came out over the weekend. Nebraska should have won the game against VT and I still think pretty highly of them.
16. Houston
17. Cincinnati
18. FSU
19. Texas Tech
20. Georgia
Houston slides a bit because I'm becoming less and less impressed with Oklahoma State by the week. Cincinnati gets points for going on the road and beating Oregon State, even if the Beavers weren't on my polling radar. FSU gets ranked for the first time for demolishing BYU. Texas Tech gave Texas a good fight, outgaining the Longhorns by a good 70 yards and never being totally out of it. TTU is definitely the third best team in the Big 12 South at this point. Georgia still has no defense but ye gods, what a performance by Joe Cox.
- 21. Oklahoma State
- 22. Michigan
- 23. BYU
- 24. UNC
- 25. Washington
Oklahoma State still has the talent to be in the bottom of the polls, but they didn't dispatch Rice with the same authority that Mike Leach's band of pirates did. Michigan is probably too high, but I'm still weighing the relative merits of one solid win versus a great win and a bad loss in the case of the team below. UNC beat a game and pretty good East Carolina team. Washington joins in for beating USC and giving LSU a good fight, but the win over Idaho was uninspiring.
As for BYU, I'm also torn on what will probably be a team with a high standard deviation. Over the course of the past several years, BYU is the one team among the MWC heavyweights (along with TCU and Utah) that finds a way to have bad losses. The Frogs and Utes, when good, only lose to good teams. BYU is the one that loses to a 6-6 Arizona team or a 6-7 UCLA team. This weekend, they got their brains beat in by an FSU team that was defenseless against Miami and was a minute away from losing to Jacksonville State.
I have no idea what to make of them. Maybe this FSU losses was going to be the close loss to the mediocre Big Six team and FSU is simply better than mediocre. What I do know is that the true BYU team is somewhere between the team that beat Oklahoma, as that win was a true aberration giving the Cougars' performance against ranked teams the past decade, and the one that collapsed on Saturday.
For now, they get to sit in the bottom of my poll.
7 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
well, the bama VT issue is perplexing. you argue against placing alabama higher due to the weakness of their signature win. but then you argue virginia tech’s deserving because they have played better than expected. both arguments have merit but you can’t realistically expect to have it both ways.
as no brainer points out below...
…polls at this point abound with such contradictions. as long as you avoid the abject stupidity of the coaches poll, you are doin fine.
Still a bit early for good reads on teams, but...
Ole Miss and Penn St. have no quality wins yet. Undefeateds Cal, Boise St., Miami, and LSU are all more deserving based on resumes.
USC beat Ohio St. just last week in Columbus. USC should still be ahead of Ohio St. Maybe Ohio State’s “quality loss” isn’t better than USC’s. Results on the field seem to back up that point.
1 loss teams Va. Tech and Oklahoma are too high in the poll in my view. It just rubs me wrong seeing 1 loss teams in the top 10 after 3 weeks. They still have work to do to earn their way back in.
But, really, polls this early in the season are pretty meaningless so it’s not worth obsessing over.
A couple things
1. I haven’t switched to full-on resume voting, as I think it’s too early in the season for that, so resume alone isn’t enough for me to move teams around.
2. I look beyond just final scores. Head to head, Ohio State was better than USC for 55 minutes. Given that fact and that Ohio State’s loss was to a better team than USC’s was, I have no problem with having the Buckeyes ahead of the Trojans.
3. VT is definitely too high. I’m coming around on Oklahoma though because of the way its defense played against Tulsa. Its defense was really good against BYU too, and I think if Brandford hadn’t have gotten hurt then OU does win. You’re probably right that OU is too high, but that’s where I’m coming from with them.
Team Speed Kills
SBNation's SEC Blog
You asked for feedback.
Actually, you asked for good feedback, but you can’t have everything.
First, in response to this comment, another (more satisfying) way to look at USC-Ohio St is that OSU is so bad that USC only had to be a better team than the Buckeyes for 5 minutes – 1/12 of the game! – to beat them. Drop them lower, it’ll make you feel better.
Now, back to the top – no wonder you don’t feel good about this ballot. You admit to (some) resume’ voting, which is what got both Ole Miss and PSU their current rankings in the AP & Coaches’ polls. But that fact doesn’t mean their rankings are not deserved. It just means their ADs scheduled creampuffs early. So what? So did Florida’s & Alabama’s, too. But since you’ve given in to following the horde in putting OM & PSU in the Top 5, and you admit that neither of them have played anybody yet, you should reverse their order and vote Ole Miss No. 4. There is no discernible difference between the two, based on what they have done this season, so get with the program and support the SEC. What is this, a Big 11 blog? Good grief, it’s a wonder you can sleep at night!
Following basically the same principle – do you really think Texas is better than Alabama? They are at least even, so cast aside any remaining objectivity and reverse the order of Texas and Alabama [What’s this, you ask, an Ole Miss fan urging you to move Alabama up?].
Other reasons you might feel bad – Va Tech is too high, period. Miami should be higher, and certainly ahead of Oklahoma. I agree with “no brainer” when he says Week 3 is way too soon to be putting one-loss teams in the Top 10. Let’s make that the Top 11. With one caveat: you can keep Va Tech & Oklahoma ahead of LSU. I don’t think LSU has shown us a lot this year, but they have certainly shown us more than Ohio State has. Flip these two.
So, if you’ve been paying attention, this is how your revised ballot should now look:
2. Alabama
3. Texas
4. Ole Miss
5. Penn State
6. Cal
7. Miami
8. Boise State
9. Oklahoma
10. Va Tech
11. LSU
12. Ohio State
Now, don’t you feel much better?
Rebelkind will not only endure, it will prevail.
I’m not going to break virtual ties by going into conference homer mode. I think that, full strength against full strength, Texas is better than Alabama so Texas stays at 2. Same goes for Penn State and Ole Miss, mostly because I think Joe Paterno is a better coach than Houston Nutt is.
I also don’t have a problem with VT in the top 10. I think they’re a really good team, and the loss is to a team ahead of them in the poll. Alabama beating VT is what should have happened. I’m not going to penalize the Hokies for scheduling a real game this early. If anything, I should reward them for the gusto at the expense of the bakery raiders.
That said, VT is too high and will be below Miami in my final version. That’s why we do draft ballots in the BlogPoll, to weed out issues like that.
Team Speed Kills
SBNation's SEC Blog
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
