Not a lot of changes from the draft ballot. Minor tweaks, really.

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	Illinois	7
20	Kansas	5
21	Auburn	5
22	Maryland	4
23	Virginia Tech	3
24	Texas	7
25	Georgia	16

You can see the full results here and individual ballots here.

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.

(more…)

Okay, a bit more tweaking from the initial draft. Thanks as always to Dennis for starting it and everyone who offered thoughts on it.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	1
2	Southern Cal	1
3	California	3
4	Ohio State	5
5	South Florida	8
6	Boston College	4
7	Wisconsin	4
8	Florida	4
9	Georgia	3
10	Oklahoma	7
11	Kentucky	6
12	West Virginia	7
13	South Carolina	6
14	Hawaii	2
15	Oregon	1
16	Cincinnati	5
17	Texas	10
18	Missouri	–
19	Rutgers	11
20	Arizona State	3
21	Nebraska	1
22	Florida State	4
23	Miami (Florida)	1
24	Purdue	2
25	Kansas	1

Most of the tweaking came in the second half of the ballot.

Virginia Tech was always shaky and the more I thought about what I saw in the UNC game, the less comfortable I was with keeping them in it. Kansas takes the spot instead. They may not have actually beaten anyone either, but at least they are doing it with a comfortable margin.

Texas and Rutgers ended up taking a bigger tumble the more I thought it through. Oregon less of one.

I gave South Carolina more of a boost, but no they are still behind Georgia.

The full Blogpoll is here and as always, you can look here for individual ballots.

Okay, after LSU and USC everybody sucks. Or is at least so severely flawed that you just can’t count on them.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	1
2	Southern Cal	1
3	California	3
4	Ohio State	5
5	South Florida	8
6	Boston College	4
7	Wisconsin	4
8	Florida	4
9	Georgia	3
10	Oklahoma	7
11	Kentucky	6
12	West Virginia	7
13	Hawaii	3
14	South Carolina	5
15	Texas	8
16	Rutgers	8
17	Missouri	1
18	Cincinnati	3
19	Oregon	5
20	Arizona State	3
21	Nebraska	1
22	Miami (Florida)	2
23	Virginia Tech	2
24	Purdue	2
25	Florida State	1

Standing by/Wait Listed: Hell if I know anymore.

LSU is just too impressive. I finally had to flip them with USC. USC has struggled with Washington, but LSU hasn’t slipped yet.

Purdue didn’t really deserve to move into the rankings after that performance against ND, but someone had to go in at #25.

Florida and Oklahoma had off games as much as anything else. Things just seemed freaky in those.

Wisconsin is winning but is continually shaky doing so. When they finally lose, expect everyone to plummet them with their votes. Right now, though, there’s no one else to really put in front of them.

South Carolina struggled until late against Miss. St. yet moved up way too much. I’ll have to adjust that. I don’t care that they beat Georgia head-to-head. I see no reason to move them ahead of the Bulldogs at this point.

If the upper-teams keep losing, then Hawaii might actually creep into the BCS poll.

He’s lying there, practically asking for it.

Sure, it seems like lousy timing to get the list of 10 worst football head coaches debate going when Pitt is (to be kind) floundering. Dave Wannstedt is going to make the list and be the nominee for the worst, by many. So what? Wanny is — to go all Gundy on this — a grown man. An adult. He can take it.

As fans of our school we can be bothered by it, but getting bent out of shape or indignant over it is silly. Right now, at this point he’s in the conversation, and even a punchline.
So, until Pitt shows a pulse and starts to even look like it is going in the right direction that has to be expected. And things like this:

Falling: Pitt. Getting beat down by Rutgers or West Virginia is one thing. But getting beat down by UConn — at home, no less — is quite another. Feel free to make your own joke.

There are plenty of teams and coaches doing more with less. Pitt and Coach Wannstedt are not among them. Like it or not, that is reality right now.

It can change. I still hold out hope that it will. Right now, Pitt is 2-7 in its last 9 games. 2-4 at home and the last time Pitt won a road game was Mid-October of last year. Coach Wannstedt has often fallen back on the cliche that “you are what your record says you are.”

Right now, he isn’t a very good head coach.

Not a huge amount of tweaking, but a couple little things from the draft.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	–
2	LSU	–
3	Oklahoma	–
4	Florida	–
5	West Virginia	–
6	California	–
7	Texas	–
8	Rutgers	1
9	Ohio State	1
10	Boston College	2
11	Wisconsin	3
12	Georgia	1
13	South Florida	1
14	Oregon	3
15	Clemson	1
16	Hawaii	4
17	Kentucky	9
18	Missouri	3
19	South Carolina	1
20	Penn State	9
21	Cincinnati	4
22	Nebraska	1
23	Arizona State	3
24	Miami (Florida)	2
25	Virginia Tech	1

Under Consideration/Wait Listed: Purdue, Michigan State, Kansas, Michigan and UConn.
The total voting results can be found here and here are individual ballots for all blogpollers.

I did swap Miami and VT after rethinking. Not sure the Hokies really are deserving but even that shellacking from LSU was more than could be said for anyone else to go in ahead of them.

I appreciated Sean pointing out that Nebraska somehow moved up. That, was just crazy talk. But, no way am I considering UCLA until they prove they can win a real game.

I don’t think Wisconsin is very good, but I just couldn’t put anyone else higher. They aren’t impressive, but they keep winning. Dropping them out of the top-ten seemed like enough for now.

Seriously, I’m beginning to wish that it was only a top-10 poll. It’s just a jumbled mess of teams that all seem ridiculously overrated but nothing else is in front of them.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	–
2	LSU	–
3	Oklahoma	–
4	Florida	–
5	West Virginia	–
6	California	–
7	Texas	–
8	Rutgers	1
9	Ohio State	1
10	Boston College	2
11	Wisconsin	3
12	Georgia	1
13	South Florida	1
14	Oregon	3
15	Clemson	1
16	Hawaii	4
17	Missouri	4
18	Kentucky	8
19	Nebraska	4
20	Penn State	9
21	Cincinnati	4
22	South Carolina	4
23	Arizona State	3
24	Virginia Tech	2
25	Miami (Florida)	1

Under Consideration/Wait Listed: Purdue, Michigan State, Kansas, Michigan and (god help me) UConn.

Here’s the draft ballot. Dennis did the heavy lifting. I tweaked initially. Feedback will be considered for the final ballot due Wednesday morning.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	–
2	LSU	–
3	Oklahoma	–
4	Florida	3
5	West Virginia	1
6	California	–
7	Texas	2
8	Wisconsin	1
9	Rutgers	1
10	Ohio State	1
11	Penn State	1
12	Boston College	6
13	Georgia	1
14	South Florida	2
15	Texas A&M	5
16	Clemson	3
17	Oregon	6
18	South Carolina	3
19	Louisville	11
20	Hawaii	2
21	Missouri	3
22	Georgia Tech	5
23	Nebraska	8
24	Alabama	2
25	Cincinnati	1

Considered/Waiting for an opening: Kentucky, Purdue, Texas Tech, Air Force
I can already tell you that Texas A&M will have to go down. Again, the problem isn’t finding teams that are too high. It’s finding teams that are better/should/deserve to be ranked ahead of them. Clemson is a team I can’t buy into, but don’t know what to do with them.
WVU ended up dropping a spot on the strength of a dominating Florida team that looks damn impressive. Yeah, I think it’s safe to say that more than a few ND fans are wondering “what if” with Urban Meyer.

Have to admit, that BC looks damn good this season with a more opened up offense.

Can’t help but think that Kentucky should be ranked.

Okay, here’s how the Pitt Blather ballot finally went.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	–
2	LSU	–
3	Oklahoma	2
4	West Virginia	1
5	Texas	5
6	California	1
7	Florida	1
8	Louisville	4
9	Wisconsin	3
10	Rutgers	3
11	Ohio State	1
12	Penn State	3
13	UCLA	1
14	Georgia	5
15	Nebraska	1
16	South Florida	9
17	Georgia Tech	6
18	Boston College	4
19	Clemson	5
20	Texas A&M	–
21	South Carolina	5
22	Hawaii	5
23	Oregon	3
24	Missouri	2
25	Auburn	7

On the Cusp/Watching: Washington, Cinci, Alabama, Tennessee, VT

Washington and Cinci just missed making my poll. I did move Missouri in, while dropping VT from the draft ballot.

You can see what the full ballot results look like, here. Every blogpoller’s ballot can be viewed here.
There are plenty of teams that I wanted to rank lower, but the problem was that there was a lack of teams that I could justify putting ahead of them without thinking how overrated that would make those teams. That was the one factor that mitigated against fully embracing some of the comments.
Keep in mind that several teams still moved up simply by virtue of other teams being knocked way down or out of the poll.
Did teams like Cal, Florida, Ohio State and UCLA really deserve to rise in the polls even one spot after this past week? Not really but Louisville, Wisconsin, VT and Georgia all deserved to fall further — which is how the others moved up.

Here’s what the draft of the ballot this week looks like. It’s a little different this season with Dennis putting a draft version and then I come in and tweak a little. After that, it’s open for comments and I have time to change it a little more before the due time.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	–
2	LSU	–
3	Oklahoma	2
4	West Virginia	1
5	Texas	5
6	California	1
7	Florida	1
8	Louisville	4
9	Wisconsin	3
10	Ohio State	2
11	Rutgers	2
12	UCLA	2
13	Penn State	2
14	Georgia	5
15	Nebraska	1
16	South Florida	9
17	Georgia Tech	6
18	Boston College	4
19	Texas A&M	1
20	Hawaii	3
21	Clemson	3
22	Oregon	4
23	South Carolina	3
24	Virginia Tech	13
25	Auburn	7

Considered/getting close: Cinci, Missouri, Tennessee, Washington, Alabama

Dennis dropped USC down to #3 on their bye week, but as good as LSU has looked, I’m not totally convinced on them yet. They have faced two teams that are offensively challenged, with horrible QBs. I am very impressed by their defense and this time they came out fired up on offense. I just want to see a little more — that and Les Miles doesn’t scare me as a coach.Oklahoma looked fantastic to move past WVU and the concerns about the ‘Eers defense appear legit.

Texas moved up more than maybe they should, but a couple other teams slipped to give them a bigger boost then I actually feel about them.

Like Louisville (again no defense) and Wisconsin (no offense). By all rights Cal shouldn’t have moved up a spot for their weak win, but really there feels like a huge gap in who to put in the second half of the top-ten and where.

That gap is what kept Georgia from slipping further, though I’m still considering putting them lower.

Right now Rutgers and USF look like legit BE contenders because they can play defense. Of course, USF is going to have to hold open tryouts for a kicker.
The last 8 or 9 spots on the poll are just a mess.

GT shouldn’t have moved that high, but no place else seemed quite right either. Texas A&M even moving up a spot is inexplicable even as I look at the blogpoll. Expect them to drop when I think about it a little more.

Dennis completely dropped the Hokies from the poll, but I had to leave them back in. If beating the Hokies that badly was such a statement by LSU that they deserve #1 consideration, then there has to be a belief that VT is at least a top-25 team.

Auburn hangs in by a thread because their defense is excellent, as are special teams and even their running game — yet another reason why Tuberville is so conservative. That will get them some quality wins in the SEC even when they shouldn’t. The QB, on the other hand…