Big thanks to Lee for stepping up and doing the ballot draft. I am putting this out here now for comments and arguments about the order. I know I’ll be changing some of the order before the Wednesday voting deadline — I’m backing the Oregon darkhorse BCS bid for the PAC-10 afterall. For now, here’s the draft ballot.
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio State |  25 |
| 2 | Auburn | 24 |
| 3 | Southern Cal | 23 |
| 4 | West Virginia | 22 |
| 5 | Florida | 21 |
| 6 | Texas | 20 |
| 7 | Louisville | 19 |
| 8 | Michigan | 18 |
| 9 | Georgia | 17 |
| 10 | Louisiana State | 16 |
| 11 | Virginia Tech | 15 |
| 12 | Notre Dame | 14 |
| 13 | Iowa | 13 |
| 14 | TCU | 12 |
| 15 | Tennessee | 11 |
| 16 | Oregon | 10 |
| 17 | Oklahoma | 9 |
| 18 | Clemson | 8 |
| 19 | Florida State | 7 |
| 20 | Boston College | 6 |
| 21 | Nebraska | 5 |
| 22 | Arizona State | 4 |
| 23 | Cal | 3 |
| 24 | Michigan State | 2 |
| 25 | Boise State | 1 |
Now, here are Lee’s explanations:
1. Ohio State: Unlike previous games with sloppy starts in the Jim Tresselera, the Bucks still managed to blow out the Bearcats in the end. And they still have the biggest win of the year (sorry Michigan… didn’t EVERYBODY know the Irish were overrated before Saturday?). But as for Mark Dantonio, jeez, what a coach. Thank God he’s stuck at Cincinnati rather than somewhere he could actually do some damage.
2. Auburn: Big win. Tough, tough defense.
3. USC: I go back and forth as to whether or not the Trojans or WVU should be here. But I’ll put the Trojans here only because Nebraska was a slightly more respectable opponent than Maryland… slightly… and USC was hardly crisp…
4. WVU: …but Jeezus did the Hoopies look good on Thursday night. Yeah, Maryland sucked (a nickel defense against West Virginia!?), and their ends couldn’t stay at home if they were stapled there. Still that was impressive speed. Slaton is the fastest player in college football period.
5. Florida: Good, tough win on the road. It’s nice to see Urban Meyer settling in.
6. Texas: Sure, it was only Rice. But they beat the holy hell out of them. Given the pathetic state of the Big XII (I’ll bet they wish they had the Big East’s out-of-conference win/loss record), the Longhorns should run the table easily (and don’t it feel good, as a Big East fan, to belittle somebody else’s conference for a change?).
7. Louisville: So much for the allegedly long-gone days of Miami doing crap like stomping on other team’s logos. Yeah, Miami is in a hole this year. But they’re still loaded with talent. So this was a big win and still an upset in my book.
8. Michigan: OK, hear me out here… We knew before Saturday that Notre Dame was overrated, and that they couldn’t keep up with speedy receivers (see Ted Ginn Jr. and Santonio Holmes in the Fiesta Bowl). We knew before Saturday that Michigan had talent out the wazoo, and that Llllloyd Carr was on the hot seat (and thus unlikely to undercoach again this year). So really, the only surprise of the ND/Michigan game was the extent to which the Irish self-destructed. I mean, the Irish gift-wrapped at least 21 points for the Wolverines… who would have won even without those 21 points, but at least it wouldn’t have been a blowout then. Still, don’t get me wrong. Michigan is for real this year, and somebody in Columbus had better take notice. It’s just that this win didn’t impress me as much as Louisville’s win.
9. Georgia: UAB? Yawn.
10. LSU: Like they said on Gameday Final, you could have played the LSU/Auburn game ten times — five in Auburn and five in Baton Rouge — and each time would wind up 5 and 5. Colossal battle. Really, the best game on Separation Saturday. LSU doesn’t deserve to fall far at all for this loss, especially since, they should have won (SEC refs suck).
11. VT: Quietly moving on up. It’s nice to see the class of the ACC still not able to crack the top ten.
12. Notre Dame: This is about where they should have been all along. Really, I’d like to put them a little further back, but even I couldn’t put them behind Oregon and Iowa. Thanks for gift-wrapping 21 points for the Wolverines. And Brady, pick up your Heisman on the way out the door.
13. Iowa: The Cyhawk game is always tough. Still, the Hawks haven’t done anything too awfully impressive yet (beating up Montana, then squeaking by Syracuse and ISU). Maybe they’re just saving everything up for Ohio State on September 30.
14. Tennessee: Nothing too embarrassing about losing to Florida.
15. TCU: Actually looked good in their win against, admittedly, only Texas Tech (does the Big XII really deserve an automatic BCS bid?).
16. Oregon: The Ducks so deserved to lose that game. PAC-10 refs sucks worse than SEC refs. Oklahoma was the better team…
17. Oklahoma: …so I’m not going to drop the Sooners too far…
18. Clemson: You always have to root for the Bowden Boys. They had to grow up with…
19. FSU: This hypocritical lunatic as a father… Noles suck.
20. Boston College: Nice win. Not.
21. Nebraska: Surprisingly game against USC, although that had more to do with USC than Nebraska.
22. ASU:
23. California: sucks.
24. Michigan State: If John L. Smith actually tries to coach this year, the Spartans could be for real. Look out, Wolverines and Buckeyes. A big offensive line and a great quarterback.
25. Boise State: Just keeps rolling along.
