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| 1. Alabama. So far, so good. |
| 2. Arkansas. They did what they needed to do, and keeping Tennessee Tech to just 3 points was a nice touch. |
| 3. South Carolina. I liked what I saw from the Gamecocks once the jitters got out. They were schematically sound and have some nice players all over. |
| 4. Georgia. It's important not to overreact to big wins over UL- teams, but I can't think of a way the opener could have reasonably gone better. |
| 5. LSU. The Tigers tried to give the game away, but the first three quarters do count for something. Plus, even shorthanded, UNC was a better opponent than most faced. |
| 6. Florida. The Gators didn't take as big a hit in the BlogPoll draft over there, but this is a power poll. If you are honestly thinking "they might lose this game" in the third quarter against Miami (OH), you suffer in a power poll. |
| 7. Auburn. Cameron Newton had a big game, but don't think we didn't notice the defensive stats. |
| 8. Mississippi State. I didn't think Memphis was that bad, but MSU made it look like a I-AA team. Beat Auburn, and this team soars here. |
| 9. Kentucky. A nice opening win for the 'Cats, but Louisville has a way to go still. |
| 10. Tennessee. Functionally still a 0-0 team, but it's at least a pretty 0-0. |
| 11. Vanderbilt. If not for Virginia Tech, Vandy would have the market of painful losses cornered. |
| 12. Ole Miss. In case you were wondering, Jacksonville State didn't at least have Ryan Perrilloux still running the show. |
Let's get this out of the way first: I'm not a strict resume voter this early in the season. If I was, Boise State would be No. 1 and South Carolina might be a top ten team. As it is now though, I'm still using some off season projection and intuition. I attended the Florida-Miami (OH) game. I watched most of South Carolina-Southern Miss, TCU-Oregon State, Boise State-VT, and LSU-UNC. I caught parts of Ohio State-Marshall, Arizona-Toledo, UCLA-Kansas State, and Pitt-Utah as well.
1. Ohio State
2. TCU
3. Alabama
4. Oregon
5. Boise State
I saw enough from Ohio State not to drop the Buckeyes. TCU looked a lot more solid in its win over Oregon State than a lot of teams did, and I'm not sure how much better VT is than Oregon State anymore (though it's not reflected as much here). Bama and Oregon looked great. I'm cautiously holding on Boise State, who at times looked great, ordinary, and bad last night. I need more data.
6. Virginia Tech
7. Texas
8. Nebraska
9. Iowa
10. Georgia Tech
These teams are largely in their preseason order because most didn't face anyone good. VT doesn't fall far because I thought the Hokies were even with the Broncos last night. In fact, I thought they looked like the better team for more of the game clock than BSU did, and they gave it away with mistakes and poor clock management more than Boise won it.
11. Miami
12. Arkansas
13. Utah
14. Wisconsin
15. Florida
Three of these hover for beating their fluff as expected. Utah gets a bit of a boost for beating Pitt, though the Utes tried to give it away. Florida falls down here not for the bad snaps (which likely won't return) but rather for the scheme that looked like last year's mid-season offense. If they keep running that garbage, their ceiling is right about here.
16. South Carolina
17. Georgia
18. Arizona
19. Pittsburgh
20. Oklahoma
I liked what I saw from South Carolina. Southern Miss might not turn out to be very good, but it's probably a bowl team and the Gamecocks beat the Eagles soundly. Georgia showed enough that I'm willing to edge the Bulldogs up some. I'm not ready to jump as far onto the Arizona bandwagon as my esteemed colleague is after the Wildcats blasted Toledo, but I'll give them a chance now. For now, I'm giving Pitt more credit for almost beating Utah than I am giving Oklahoma for almost losing to Utah State.
21. Oregon State
22. LSU
23. Auburn
24. Houston
25. West Virginia
I can't move Oregon State up too much after losing, but I liked what I saw from the Beavers. LSU hangs on for now, but it's hard to win uglier than that. Auburn is in a holding pattern for now, as is Houston. West Virginia is as good as anyone for 25, right?