Another crazy weekend of action. This is just the rough draft. Hard, hard ballot. Lots of teams that did and even a couple deserving to fall out. Problem, what team to put in there instead.
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | LSU | — |
| 2 | Ohio State |  2 |
| 3 | California | — |
| 4 | South Florida | 1 |
| 5 | Boston College | 1 |
| 6 | Oklahoma | 4 |
| 7 | South Carolina | 6 |
| 8 | Florida | — |
| 9 | Southern Cal |  7 |
| 10 | Cincinnati | 6 |
| 11 | Missouri | 7 |
| 12 | West Virginia | — |
| 13 | Wisconsin | 6 |
| 14 | Hawaii | — |
| 15 | Oregon | — |
| 16 | Florida State | 6 |
| 17 | Kentucky | 6 |
| 18 | Arizona State | 2 |
| 19 | Kansas | 6 |
| 20 | Illinois | 6 |
| 21 | Auburn | 5 |
| 22 | Maryland | 4 |
| 23 | Virginia Tech | 3 |
| 24 | Georgia | 15 |
| 25 | Texas | 8 |
Standing By/Wait-listed: Colorado, UConn, Boise St., Indiana, Tennessee
Dennis offered his thoughts on his initial rankings that I tweaked for the draft ballot. Comments from me are in italics.
1. LSU – The only obvious choice on the entire ballot.
2. Ohio State – John Boeckman has the offense finally caught up to the defense. Very good win on the road at (formerly) ranked Purdue. [Well, I’m not sure I’d call it a “very good” win. A good win, perhaps.]
3. Cal – They don’t play, they don’t move (for now).
4. Boston College – QB Matt Ryan is the most underrated player in college football. BC still hasn’t played a bad game and is yet to fall into a trap game. [I actually watched more of this game than I should have. Yes, Ryan is a good QB and — this is damning with faint praise — the best QB in the ACC. BC’s defense is very weak against the pass. BGSU threw quite well against them. That issue is masked by BC playing in a conference where the QBs really bite. I can’t put them this high right now.]
5. Oklahoma – We’ll find out more after they play Mizzou next week, but the win over Texas was big. Only loss to a Colorado team that I have ranked this week anyway.
6. South Florida – I don’t know how much I like them ahead of USC but the Trojans lost while the Bulls tried to lose. [The FAU was a complete trap game. That Howard Schnellenberger is a good coach that had his Owls ready to play.]
7. Southern Cal – The loss was bad (actually it was horrible, awful, and every other synonym you can think of for those words), but I’ll take them over every team below them. [Big problem for USC is they have big injuries on their O-line and their best tailback is also injured. No excuse for losing to Stanford, but it does make them a weaker team than before.]
8. South Carolina – First place in the SEC East is not an easy thing to do. The win over Kentucky is good enough to get them into the top 10. [Okay, okay. They are now ahead of Georgia.]
9. Florida – Partly because they played the #1 team extra tough, partly because there’s no one behind them that deserves to move up, Florida is here.
10, 11. Cincinnati, Missouri – Both are undefeated. Both beat teams that were ranked around 20th (Rutgers and Nebraska respectively). Essentially the same team that can be ranked interchangeably. [Brian Kelly may not be at Cinci for very long at this rate, but damn he’s a good coach.]
12. West Virginia – Stuck at 12. Smacked Syracuse in the chin, but so has (almost) everyone else. Pat White’s bruised thigh and shoulder injuries are a big question.
13. Wisconsin – No one has really been completely sold on them yet this year. Illinois is a good team that beat them so they move down 5-7 spots. [Almost want to move them further down the list, but um, not yet.]
14. Hawaii – Hawaii with another win putting up over 50 points. I can’t see them moving up any higher than 13 or 14 as long as they play the teams they do.
15. Oregon – Ducks don’t move, no one behind them can make an exceptional argument to be ahead of them.
16. Arizona State – 6-0 record but we’ll see how good they are when they play Cal on October 27. [The Sun Devils eked out a win against the Cougars because the Pac-10 replay officials suck as bad as regular ACC officials. Cougars had a touchdown taken away on review — even the FSN people calling the game were stunned when the decision came down. WSU settled for a FG. Those 4 points were the difference in ASU’s 23-20 win.]
17. Kentucky – Lost to South Carolina, move down a few spots, but still a good team.
18. Florida State – Since the week 1 loss to Clemson, they’ve played well (including wins over Colorado and Alabama).
19. Virginia Tech – I keep trying to hold off with VT but I’ll give them the credit deserved after the huge win over Clemson. [I won’t. Clemson is in its October swoon under Bowden. VT thrives against sloppy teams and Clemson is obviously one of those. More points from special teams and defense then from the offense. They ended up ranked, but not this high.]
20. Illinois – Started taking them seriously after beating Penn State. Saturday’s win over Wisky wasn’t even an upset, now they’re in the top 20.
21. Kansas – Todd Reesing at QB is scary. So is Mark Mangino.
22. Colorado – Both losses have come to ranked teams (ASU and FSU). Win over Oklahoma last week was great. [I’m not buying Colorado at this point. If we are going to go with random 4-2 teams, I’ll go with Maryland instead.]
23. Auburn – Who else to put here? [They have a good defense, at least.]
24. Georgia – The Dawgs got massacred on Rocky Top, no one to bring into the top 25 that is better than them though.
25. Texas – Lost the Red River Shootout, 2 straight losses. Remaining schedule isn’t too scary.
That said…Stuart, what are you talking about? USF aside, no one in the Big East has played anyone either!! Well, Syracuse has tried…but we’ve all seen how that worked out.
Apart from USF’s win over Auburn, what’s the next best? Cincy over Oregon State? WVU over Maryland? These are impressive? Given that, I might as well be touting OSU’s win over Washington and UW’s over Washington State!!
Conversely, there are teams like Louisville (does anything need to be said at this point?) and Rutgers (I remember someone here saying they were overrated) who haven’t exactly stepped up to the plate…really pretty funny when we’re still being force fed those Rice, Slaton, White and Brohm for Heisman commercials.
So really once again what it comes down to is there’s no reason to believe in ANYONE in the Big Easy, except MAYBE for USF because they beat a hot/cold Auburn team. Pretty much the same logic you’re using for the “Big Televen” (just about the biggest misnomer ever considering the BE’s Thursday night lovefest).
Well, how about Tennessee?
I also feel like Virginia Tech should be higher.
Yeah the only team I see out of place is Virginia Tech. It seems like they should be a bit higher, like Sean said. But at the same time you can’t be too high on an ACC team right now because besides BC there is no consistency. Cincinnati and Mizzu could really frak things up, they are BCS nightmares right now. These are the type of teams I root for because it puts those paranoid old men in the committee into paranoia turbo. I don’t know if there is an upcoming power shift in College Football but I for one would welcome it.
GO PITT! BEAT NAVY!
I know we’re all supposed to be Big East guys in here because of Pitt… but seriously, our conference has taken a blow this year. WVU wasn’t as good as advertised, and USF looks a lot like a paper tiger at this point. They’re ranked 5th by the sheer luck of having 1/2 the teams ranked ahead of them get upset in the week after their big upset.
I actually think that Florida State has gotten a shit deal this year. They lost their first game on the road to a decent Clemson team, then beat the crap out of everyone after that… yet they have a hard time making noise in the AP rankings.
Good job setting up some strawman arguments about LU and Rutgers – where do you have me advocating them being ranked at all right now? How does that refute OSU’s over-ranking and the entire big televen’s shit schedule? NOT ONE TEAM has played a real OOC game. At least Rutgers has tried to play a real OOC game against a 4-2 team – its a non-sequitor to say a loss to a real team is worse than not having lost a game you didn’t play. Think about it. We could all schedule cupcakes and win all our games too. That conference already exists though: the big televen. Using your own logic, UConn should be in the top 5, cause they’ve beaten the cupcakes they’ve played and haven’t lost any games. BE CONSISTENT NOW.
Instead of just tryign to blindly argue with everything i say, try to pick a position you can actually defend with reason and reality.
I still get “big ten channel” commercials on TV – again, what does that have to do with anything?
And now the hyprocrits are whining about us playing on Thursday nights, when before the season it was “big televen teams will never play on Thursdays cause we don’t want to, we want to play on Saturdays only.” Now: sour grapes.
Others: I think OSU is a 10-15 team, and VTech 15-20 team, and i think the future will play this out. I don’t think OSU should get rewarded for soft wins against soft teams – remember UConn pounded that same Akron team for 20 more points than OSU. So rank UConn or drop OSU down. And those that think OSU could run the table (again) and go to a BCS game (again) you are right: soft OOC, soft conference…where have i seen this before…oh, right, lasts years NC game. Let them get embarassed again on national TV. How many times are we going to make the same mistake?
The big east may be having a “down year,” but the big televen is having another even further down year…and everyone’s talking about, but still can’t seem to integrate that into the course of normal thinking. For example, OSU #2.
A few weeks ago I said PSU was terribly overrated…and they lost 2, as predicted…then I gave you Wisconsin is terribly overrated and would lose…right again. These are obvious. As obvious as OSU being overrated – unfortunately, when they only play each other, someone has to win. Its ridiculous. OSU could go undefeated without even being tested by an above average team. Anyone in the conference plays any real OOC games, they all have 1 loss minimum right now. Even PITT has played a real OOC game. Worthless overrated big televen…
Now, what else…what’s the Big 10’s record against the Big East? Oh, and you better believe I count Syracuse, seeing as how THEY BEAT LOUISVILLE!! Hmm…
So we have Rutgers and Louisville who are two of the most overrated teams in football. WVU, who may or may not be good, because they haven’t played anyone outside of the Big Easy. Ditto for UConn. So we’re left with USF and maybe Cincy. That’s not a down year?
Conversely, the Big 10 has OSU, who even your Pitt brethren above can admit have a championship caliber defense. Illinois’ only loss was by 6 points to an undefeated Missouri team ON THE ROAD WITH A BACKUP QB. Auburn aside, that loss is more impressive than any of the other Big Easy OOC wins. Purdue, PSU, Indiana and Michigan are easily as good as WVU, RU, UConn, and…oh wait, there is no one else in the Big Easy. Why do I make this statement? Because they have the same OOC credibility as all the Big Easy teams I just mentioned.
Face facts dude…the three teams expected to vie for the Big Least championship have bombed. How is the Big 10 having a worse season right now?
As for your silly misnomer of the “Big televen,” if you can’t see that ESPN is fawning over the Big Easy then I don’t know what to tell you. If you can’t see that they’re annoyed that they might have competition from the BTN, hence they’re being subversive towards the Big 10 then I don’t know what to tell you. Take the blinders off dude.
-USF is a good team, I’ve already said that. No qualms there.
-Cincy hasn’t played anyone outside of the Big Easy. And if Oregon State counts then you better believe Washington and Wash. St. count for the Big 10.
-Louisville is EXACTLY like Michigan, except without a winning record.
-Rutgers lost twice AT HOME to teams they supposedly should’ve beaten. They’re not very good, just face facts there.
-PSU and Indiana aren’t very good because…ummm…why exactly? Indiana only lost once to a ranked team. PSU lost to a ranked team and a poor team….kinda like Rutgers, who you seem to think is good. Myopia, much? Well there is one fundamental difference between the two…PSU actually fields a difference (the Big Easy has what, one team which has one of those?).
-Illinois smoked Syracuse (they beat Louisville, right?), and their only loss is to an undefeated team on the road with a backup QB. But no, they suck.
Keep drinking the kool-aid fellas. Hopefully the Big Leasters will actually play some legitimate teams in the postseason this year and get exposed for the frauds they are.
OSU has played no one. You can’t dispute this. No one in the big 10 has beaten any real team with a winning record. Also a fact.
Two teams from the Big East have – just not the ones you expected. Just because you don’t like the ACC either…its a BCS conference, and the team has a 4-2 record. No one in your conference can claim a win like that.
Defend OSU being ranked in the top 2 without strawman arguments, non-sequitors and red herrings. I’ve read everything you’ve written, and you’ve refuted nothing. Use some fucking logic. Let me quote what i originall wrote:
“On the ballot: WTF? OSU at 2? Have you seen their schedule compared to, say, USF? What, we rank mediocre big televen teams who beat other overrated big televen teams that played TERRIBLE schedules? You might as well put them at one so we can repeat the mistakes of last year. If OSU is 2, UConn is 3.
Quick, someone: What is the best win of ANY big televen team this year, not against another big televen teams? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Let me answer it for you: They’ve beaten NO ONE. Not a single big televen team has a win against ANY TEAM ranked in the top 25, much less against a program with a winning record. They’ve played the dog shit of the world (yes, even terrible us) and are only ranked because they’re beating the worst teams in the nation (brealy in same cases) and each other. Not one single team in the big televen should be in the top ten. Play 1 single real OOC game, then talk about getting ranked.
Seriously, go look at their schedules and see how they’re doing in those games. Its a joke.”
BTW: Insulting the Big East doesn’t get the big televen a pass. You’re just too slow to understand…
Moreover, if you’re not here, then you’re hijacking BSD comment sections as well. I just can’t beat that type of dedication, sorry.
I’ll take issue with a few things in your argument that you make here…
“So we have Rutgers and Louisville who are two of the most overrated teams in football. WVU, who may or may not be good, because they haven’t played anyone outside of the Big Easy. Ditto for UConn. So we’re left with USF and maybe Cincy. That’s not a down year?
Conversely, the Big 10 has OSU, who even your Pitt brethren above can admit have a championship caliber defense. Illinois’ only loss was by 6 points to an undefeated Missouri team ON THE ROAD WITH A BACKUP QB. Auburn aside, that loss is more impressive than any of the other Big Easy OOC wins. Purdue, PSU, Indiana and Michigan are easily as good as WVU, RU, UConn, and…oh wait, there is no one else in the Big Easy. Why do I make this statement? Because they have the same OOC credibility as all the Big Easy teams I just mentioned.
Face facts dude…the three teams expected to vie for the Big Least championship have bombed. How is the Big 10 having a worse season right now?”
So let me get this straight…
You’re slamming the Big East because tbe Big Three of WVU, Louisville and Rutgers weren’t as dominant as they were supposed to be. In addition, you also bring up the emergence of USF and Cincy as proof that the Big East is having just as down a year as the Big Ten, if not more.
How exactly does that work when the same exact argument could be made for the Big Ten? The Big Ten was thought to have four teams with legitimate claims to the Big Ten title heading into the season – OSU, Michigan, Wisky and Penn State. So if Louisville, Rutgers and maybe even WVU proved to be overrated to start the season, the same can certainly be said for Michigan, Wisconsin and Penn State.
Furthermore, aren’t Illinois and Indiana the Big Ten’s versions of USF and Cincy, respectively? Illinois showed just enough last year that they were thought to be a potential dark horse (just like USF) and Indiana has come out of nowhere to stake a legitimate shot at the Big Ten title, just as Cincy has done in the Big East.
If you’re going to slam the Big East because two dark horses have emerged as potential conf. champs while some other preseason favorites have fallen off a bit, you can’t trumpet the same sort of situation as positive for the Big Ten.
Or are we still unfairly penalizing USF and Cincinnati because they’re relative newcomers to the NCAA spotlight?
On the ballot: WTF? OSU at 2? Have you seen their schedule compared to, say, USF? What, we rank mediocre big televen teams who beat other overrated big televen teams that played TERRIBLE schedules? You might as well put them at one so we can repeat the mistakes of last year. If OSU is 2, UConn is 3.
Why do we even play the games?
Good to see you finally got SC ahead of Georgia. Not to insult you guys, but maybe you should put more weight on games and schedules instead of still allowing all this preseason crap to influence the rankings. Why was WI top 5? Why is OSU top 2?
Quick, someone: What is the best win of ANY big televen team this year, not against another big televen teams? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? Let me answer it for you: They’ve beaten NO ONE. Not a single big televen team has a win against ANY TEAM ranked in the top 25, much less against a program with a winning record. They’ve played the dog shit of the world (yes, even terrible us) and are only ranked because they’re beating the worst teams in the nation (brealy in same cases) and each other. Not one single team in the big televen should be in the top ten. Play 1 single real OOC game, then talk about getting ranked.
Seriously, go look at their schedules and see how they’re doing in those games. Its a joke.