Half of the BlogPoll Draft Ballot, Week 4
by Year2 on Sep 27, 2009 6:16 PM EDT
in SEC Football
Email
PrintI've tried to incorporate more resume than subjective in this one, but with all of the nuttiness so far, I feel like I've probably missed something here. Let me know if something is all out of whack, and just know that I am not going solely on a resume basis. I just don't have the time to parse through all 120 teams' merits, so I'm not going to pretend like I can and produce a resume ballot that makes perfect sense.
1. Florida
2. Texas
3. Alabama
4. Virginia Tech
5. Boise State
The top three have distanced themselves from the rest, and they really could be in any order as far as I'm concerned. For now, I'm keeping them in the same order as I've had them in the past. Because Alabama is a part of that top group, it's really hard to complain about Virginia Tech's close loss, and the wins over Nebraska and Miami look very good. Boise State gets to be at five for now, thanks to Oregon coming back with a vengeance, but their schedule will probably keep me from voting them any higher on future ballots.
6. Houston
7. LSU
8. Cincinnati
9. TCU
10. Oklahoma
The teams in the 6-9 spots are all in the category of "earned their way here" thanks to nice victories over multiple Big Six conference opponents. They are arranged in order of who has the best set of such wins so far. I don't really think LSU has played like a top ten team, or Cincy or TCU for that matter, but this is a vote on pelts on the wall. Oklahoma is coming back up because I think the BYU loss is probably a fluke.
11. Auburn
12. Nebraska
13. Ohio State
14. Penn State
15. Georgia
Auburn has a nice set of wins, so why not? They haven't played anyone as good as BYU though, so they're behind OU for now. The next four teams are all one loss teams that are pretty good, and they are arranged in order of impressiveness of loss. Yeah, I know. Sue me.
16. USC
17. Iowa
18. Oklahoma State
19. Oregon
20. Michigan
Okay, so now we're at the section of, "I know these teams need to be in, but heck if I know in what order." Thoughts? Objections? It's mostly guessing from here on out.
21. South Carolina
22. Ole Miss
23. Miami
24. Cal
25. BYU
Should I even have Ole Miss ranked? Should South Carolina move up or down? What about BYU? This is the sort of week where being a pollster sucks.
14 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
The SEC West
has not been what was anticipated behind Alabama so far this year. I don’t believe that LSU has looked like a top 20 team much less a top 10 team. They simply don’t even look as strong as their 7-5 team did last year. Auburn has been impressive considering expectations but their defense has yet to show much stopping power (just under 25 points allowed per game against La. Tech, Mississippi St., WVU, and Ball St. and there isn’t an impressive offense in that group. Ole Miss does not deserve to be ranked in any way. Their win over SE La. was no better than Vandy’s shutout of Western Carolina and their performance in Columbia was downright abysmal, I don’t care how you look at it. So I would say that Auburn and LSU should be found in the 15-25 range of the rankings if at all. Ole Miss will have to beat one of them or Alabama to even be considered for the rankings again.
by houndstoothbear on Sep 27, 2009 7:11 PM EDT reply actions
oops
missed a close parentheses after group and before the period, sorry
by houndstoothbear on Sep 27, 2009 7:12 PM EDT up reply actions
Ole Miss resume
It’s interesting you should compare OM-SELA with VU-WCU. Actually I was thinking last night about how headed into the Vanderbilt-Ole Miss game both team’s resumes are similar with one glaring difference:
- Win over a bad C-USA opponent that was closer than it appeared, turned into a semi-blowout by 4th qtr. scoring. Check.
- “Respectable” loss at a good, possibly not great, SEC opponent where the offense was inept. Check.
- Blowout over a bad I-AA team. Check.
Obviously the difference is that they sat one week out, and VU lost to State. That’s certainly a big reason to downgrade Vanderbilt and I will be ranking my own team 12th in the PP. But frankly State has accomplished more so far this season than Ole Miss!
I’m not predicting that we’ll stay on the field vs. OM, much less beat them, but I really don’t see much to indicate that the Rebels are any good so far this year.
This is definitely a bad week to be a pollster
Although yours, barring the Penn State/Iowa mistake (I’m hoping it was a mistake o.0 ) is pretty solid. The Coaches Poll this week is probably the worst poll I’ve ever seen. Cal over Oregon. Ok State over Houston (WTF?!). South Carolina NR. It’s such an abysmal failure if leaves me seriously depressed about the coming BCS Title game discussion, whoever the teams are.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen such variance between the AP and Coaches’ – from #10 right down into ORV, no team is in the same spot in both. (Nebraska is the only team ranked in both which has only a one spot difference, though GaTech is #25 and “#26.”) This is 2007 with a dash of 2008 (a core of universally admitted elite teams) grafted on at the top.
The plus side is that if Texas, Bama and Florida all take care of business, we’ll have a fairly neat and clean title matchup (even a notional 12-0 little-5 team couldn’t complain too much about an undefeated Big-12 champ against an undefeated SEC champ.) But if the madness reaches into the top 3… oh dear.
Yeah
The Iowa/PSU thing is a mistake. It’s why we do draft ballots. It’ll be fixed for the final.
Team Speed Kills
SBNation's SEC Blog
Close loss?
I guess technically the Va Tech game was a close loss for them, they were leading after 3 quarters, but look at the stats of the game:
Stat Ala Va Tech
Yards 498 155
pass 230 91
Rush 268 64
TOP 37:02 22.58
That’s the kind of result that, had Va Tech won, would have had people asking “How?” There was a KO return for a TD, and an INT in Bama’s backdoor which made the score close. I know those things happened, but it’s not as if the score was 21-20 with a back and forth battle for control. The Tide controlled the game except they had trouble finishing drives and had a few lapses in bad spots.
I only point this out because if you have Va Tech at #4 (which I’m kind of ok with) I can’t see how you can have Alabama at #3. Texas has played nobody except Texas Tech, which is now 2-2. Florida has played nobody at all.
Either rank Va Tech lower or Bama higher.
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." - Bear Bryant
To quote myself
…know that I am not going solely on a resume basis.
Team Speed Kills
SBNation's SEC Blog
So, that's why I asked the question
if you are not going solely on a reume basis, what basis are you using? I’m not being a smart ass here, I really want to know what the reasoning would be here. If the basis is something like “Florida and Texas didn’t look bad, and they were ranked higher last week” then just say that.
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." - Bear Bryant
As far as I can tell, there are two polling theories: resume, and subjective. Where resume stops, the subjective comes in.
Team Speed Kills
SBNation's SEC Blog
Rather than generalities, do you have any specific reason?
Again, I’m not trying to bust chops here. Are you saying that you subjectively think Florida is a better team? For no reason than your feelings? Or do you have some particular reason for thinking so?
Obviously I’m a bama fan, but don’t take this as badgering. I saw that you ranked Florida and Texas ahead of Alabama, and I was wondering if you had any particular reason for doing so. I cannot tell from your ansers if you do. Please help me to understand your thinking. Thanks!
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog." - Bear Bryant
I think that, full strength against full strength, Florida would take at least six of ten against Texas and Alabama. Same goes for Texas and Alabama. Hence, the order.
These teams are really darn close, and by the end of the season, the order in which I had them on my week 4 ballot will play nothing into how I rank them at the end. If I could rank all three at No. 1, I would. Since I can’t, I have to resort to hypotheticals. All three have great defenses (UF and Bama are even, Texas is maybe a little behind them), and all three have great offenses (UF and Texas are even, Bama is maybe a little behind them). There isn’t much not to like about them all.
Team Speed Kills
SBNation's SEC Blog
by Year2 on Sep 29, 2009 9:16 AM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
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.
