Here’s my draft ballot. I have until Wednesday morning to make changes so start arguing. Thanks as always to Lee, who has his rankings below, with my comments where appropriate for the changes I made.
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio State | — |
| 2 | Michigan |  1 |
| 3 | West Virginia | 1 |
| 4 | Texas | 2 |
| 5 | Southern Cal | — |
| 6 | Louisville | 1 |
| 7 | Auburn | 5 |
| 8 | Florida |  6 |
| 9 | Tennessee | 1 |
| 10 | California | 1 |
| 11 | Clemson | 1 |
| 12 | Notre Dame | 1 |
| 13 | Georgia Tech | — |
| 14 | Arkansas | 2 |
| 15 | LSU | — |
| 16 | Oregon | 9 |
| 17 | Rutgers | 2 |
| 18 | Nebraska | 5 |
| 19 | Boston College | 2 |
| 20 | Wisconsin | 6 |
| 21 | Boise State | 1 |
| 22 | Texas A&M | 4 |
| 23 | Oklahoma | 5 |
| 24 | Wake Forest | 2 |
| 25 | Pittsburgh | 1 |
1. Ohio State: Dominated the skeletal remains of was once Michigan State and John L. Smith’s career, piling up 421 yards of total offense. Troy Smith continues to look Heisman-worthy, and Anthony Gonzalez, Teddy Ginn Jr., and that defense continue to shine. I still have Ohio State ahead of Michigan because of Troy Smith, and because the Buckeyes get the Wolverines at home (admittedly not a good reason). But it’s close.
2. Michigan: The offensive line, defensive line, linebackers, receiving corps (even without Mario Manningham), Michael Hart, and Chad Henne all physically dominated a tough Penn State team in front of a deafening 110,000 in State College. After that performance, some pundits – like PSU defensive end Tim Shaw – will say that Michigan should be #1. And I understand that line of reasoning. I just have to give OSU a tiny edge because on November 18th, the Buckeyes will be at home, and will have Troy Smith running out of the pocket like Anthony Morelli never did. But if Troy is somehow less than perfect, forget it.
3. West Virginia: If the Heisman Trophy was just handed out on the results of Saturday, Pat White would have it easily over Troy Smith. I know that it was only against Syracuse, but rushing for 247 yards and four touchdowns would be impressive even if it was against Robert freakin’ Morris. Yeah, the defense is still more than suspect, especially against the pass. And the offense is hardly balanced. But with such a disciplined, coordinated, talented, and fast rushing attack, who cares? You gotta think right now that the national championship game will be the winner of Ohio State/Michigan vs. the winner of WVU/Louisville, and I’m leaning only slightly towards the former of each pair… slightly…
4. Texas: Colt McCoy has been a different man since he played Ohio State. Once again, yes it was only Baylor. But six touchdown passes is impressive against anybody. The Longhorns look tougher each week.
5. Louisville: Yeah, they barely beat Cincinnati. But did anybody else see what Cincinnati did to Virginia Tech, Pitt, and Ohio State — for a half, anyways? Mark Dantonio has built one hell of a defense down in Skyline Chili land. It’s time for the world to admit that the Bearcats are no longer doormats.
6. USC: They continue not to impress in a mediocre-at-best conference (yeah, this is a Big East fan talking here, but where do you think Arizona State would finish in our conference?). Will Cal and/or Oregon and/or Notre Dame (most likely “and†in each case) put these poor bastards out of their misery already!?
[I’m not ready to drop USC out of the top-5 until they actually lose the game. It’s getting closer, but not there yet.]
7. Auburn: Great win. Yes, the offense sucked yet again, and this team clearly isn’t in the same league as my top five precisely because of that. But great defense. Incidentally, I continue to feel no pity for the SEC’s inability to produce an unbeaten team. The SEC invented the super-conference, and poached Arkansas away from the SWC in the process. So now they can live with the monster they created. However, all that being said, Tommy Tuberville was obviously right when he argued that anything short of a playoff system is unfair – to the SEC and everybody else.
8. Florida: Only in college football could a team go from national championship contender to complete outsider in one game. This is exactly where Tommy Tuberville was right. Now the Gators have to root for Rutgers, Cincinnati, or Pitt to upset the winner of WVU/Louisville in order to get back into it. Incidentally, I put Florida this high only because I couldn’t, in good conscience, put them behind the Tennessee team they beat in Knoxville.
9. Tennessee: On a bye week, that one point loss to Florida is haunting what should have been a legitimate national championship bid. Now admittedly, that thrashing of Georgia last week looks less impressive now, thanks to Vanderbilt…
[I was real hesitant here, to put 3 SEC teams in a line but had no other argument against it.]
10. California: Crushes the same Washington State team that nearly beat USC. Still the best team in the PAC-10. I have no good reason for raking USC ahead of the Bears, other than everybody else is. I know. Weak.
11. Clemson: Congratulations for humiliating Temple and impressing absolutely nobody in the process. But the Tigers are still, with Georgia Tech, the class of the ACC… for what that’s worth, in a conference that incudes Miami. Clemson’s season should culminate on October 21 when they host #13.
12. Notre Dame: Another team on a bye week. I continue to put Notre Dame after other one-loss teams because of their defense. But even I have to admit that they’re hanging around the national championship picture. A dominating beat-down of USC, in the unlikely event that the Trojans are still undefeated at that point in the season, would vault them back into the discussion.
13. Georgia Tech: Like Clemson, the Yellow Jackets had a bye week before the big showdown with the Tigers for the ACC title. OK… technically Clemson didn’t have a bye…
14. Arkansas: Humiliating Directional Missouri State impresses nobody. But tearing Auburn up and down the field last week still does.
15. LSU: Crushing Kentucky won’t make me forget about last week.
16. Oregon: To me, there’s another big drop from #15 to #16, just like there was between #5 and #6. Oregon beat UCLA like they were supposed to. But they didn’t dominate the Bruins. And that beatdown at the hands of Cal is still too fresh in my mind. But I that Chas wouldn’t let me put the Ducks behind…
[Actually, it’s very likely I’ll be dropping them further, but I don’t know if I could legitimately put Rutgers at #16.]
17. Rutgers: Unbeaten. Barely tested. Crushed Navy. Personally, I’m looking forward to witnessing the Knights first real road test at Pitt this Saturday firsthand. If they dominate Pitt, look out WVU and Louisville. Once again, everybody in Gainesville should be a Rutgers fan.
18. Wisconsin: Thanks to what went down in Bloomington and State College this past weekend, the Badgers are now probably the best second-tier Big Ten team. Punishing running attack and line play, as always. They seized Paul Bunyan’s axe easily.
[You and your goddamned Big 11 bias. Wisconsin isn’t bad, but I’m not launching them this high just for crunching a demoralized and undermanned Minnesota team.]
19. Nebraska: Overmatched Kansas State, and even Bob “Thuggins†couldn’t help on defense.
20. Boston College: Pardon me if I don’t really care about second-tier ACC teams…
[The scary thing, is thanks to their win over Clemson, they are in better control to get to the ACC Championship.]
21 Texas A&M: They upset Missouri, my darling of the week last week. That has to get you somewhere in my top 25.
22. Boise State: I readily admit to being biased against WAC teams. Who has Boise State really played? But even I can’t put the Broncos behind teams that lost to freakin’ Iowa and Vanderbilt.
[I’ll give the WAC a little more love, and I’m not that sold on A&M.]
23. Georgia: Vanderbilt did give Michigan some trouble for a half. So that’s what gets your sorry-assed team ranked ahead of…
24. Iowa: CHOKE! Yeah, Indiana is improving, but come on!
25. Pittsburgh: Here Chas and I go again. In order to leave Pitt out of the top 25 this time, Chas, you’ve essentially got to argue that Oklahoma is still a top 25 team without Adrian Peterson, and even then, that they’re better than the Panthers squad that lit up Orlando Friday night. I doubt even the Bob Smizik of blogging could do that.
[Not hard at all to include Oklahoma. In my view Georgia and Iowa both fall out of my top-25 with those performances. Georgia was even easier when you also include that near loss at hom to Colorado. Iowa staying in is inconceivable. Oklahoma can stay ahead of Pitt but ends up tumbling from last week despite the win because they are clearly losing too many bodies. Plus, I’m giving some love back to Wake Forest. They blew it against Clemson, but just won in Raleigh for the first time in over 20 years. That’s worth making the rankings.]
