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CBS Blogpoll Week 4

There is a bit of a refresh here, so some of the Deltas may be a bit misleading. With such an odd week, it was in order. This is my final version for the week after making revisions based on your comments.

 

RankTeamDelta
1 Florida
2 Alabama 1
3 Texas 1
4 Boise State 3
5 LSU 1
6 Cincinnati 16
7 Oklahoma 2
8 TCU 4
9 Virginia Tech 4
10 Southern Cal 6
11 Oklahoma State 3
12 Ohio State 5
13 Miami (Florida) 3
14 Iowa 10
15 Georgia
16 Brigham Young 3
17 Houston
18 Kansas 2
19 California 15
20 Nebraska 2
21 Penn State 13
22 Mississippi 17
23 Auburn
24 South Carolina
25 Oregon

 

Dropped Out: Florida State (#11), North Carolina (#21), Pittsburgh (#23), Clemson (#25).

 

On the next page are explanations on how I ranked each of the teams, along with some general takeaways from Week 4 of the College Football season. With so many "upsets" a refresh of the rankings are in order. In short, I think there are probably 2-3 elite teams, and about 30-40 teams that are all relatively equal with each other, which makes rankings somewhat difficult, but this is my best attempt

Star-divide

  1. Florida (4-0): Yes they didn't slap Tennessee, and Kentucky isn't that good, but talent-wise they are right up there. Next week is a good test as they will have to travel to LSU. 
  2. Alabama (4-0):  They have beat 2 nobodies and a lower conference foe, but they did beat a pretty solid looking VA Tech.
  3. Texas (4-0): They are whooping people up pretty good, and McCoy is starting to head up after his typical slow-starting Septembers
  4. Boise State (4-0): They will get some grief due to their schedule, but I've seen them play a couple of games, and I think this might be the most talented Boise State team we've seen.
  5. LSU (4-0): Haven't really played anyone yet. Almost lost to Miss. State today. Will have a good test at Georgia next week.
  6. Cincinnati (4-0): Wins at Rutgers and at Oregon State. They run a fun offense and have the ability to go on the road and win.
  7. Oklahoma (2-1): Finally getting rolling and if they get healthy, they could still do some big things. They laid an egg against BYU in week one, but came back with two blow outs and two shutouts, including against Tulsa, a team that puts up 40+ point routinely.
  8. TCU (3-0): Hard to get a gauge on this team, but winning at Clemson is not easy, especially in a low scoring affair.
  9. Virginia Tech (3-1): Lost to a very good 'Bama team in Week 1, but have bounced back nicely, with big wins over Nebraska and Miami. My concern for this team is that they've played all their games at home thus far. How will they fare when they finally go on the road?
  10. USC (3-1): They lost a tough game against Washington, but they were without their #1 QB. Now they got that annual winnable loss out of their system, I'm looking for this team to improve as the season goes on and compete for the Pac 10.
  11. Oklahoma State (3-1): They are good, but I just don't know how good yet. Looking forward to how the Big 12 schedule will fare.
  12. Ohio State (3-1): Talented, and almost beat USC. That counts for something
  13. Miami (3-1): Tough loss against VA Tech, but I think they can beat almost anyone in the Top 25 on a given day. Not exactly sure what happened last night, but playing the schedule they are, there were bound to lay an egg along the way. They need to get up for Oklahoma though.
  14. Iowa (4-0): They win ugly, but going to Happy Valley and winning by double digits is no easy task. They won't win pretty but are pretty solid (as much as I hate saying it).
  15. Georgia (3-1): Have won the games they are supposed to, but are talented and well coached.
  16. BYU (3-1): After laying an egg against Florida State, they beat a solid Colorado State squad. This team is talented, but isn't consistent.
  17. Houston (3-0): Just squeaked by Texas Tech, and of course got that big win over Oklahoma State. When you don't play defense, however, you're likely to get bit eventually.
  18. Kansas (4-0): Finally a quality win with defeating Southern Miss. This may be the team to beat in the Big 12 North
  19. Penn State (3-1): They just haven't done much. They have a good QB, RB, but not a good offensive line. The Big 10 is mediocre this year. 
  20. Nebraska (3-1): Should be a 4-0 team right now.
  21. Cal (3-1): Getting blown out against a team that should finish in the middle of the Pac 10 isn't good. I don't know if they were exposed or if they looked past Oregon and to USC. I was on their bandwagon, but you can't be respectible and get spanked like they did last night.
  22. Mississippi (3-1): You're supposed to have this amazing QB and a good team, but can't move the ball against South Carolina?
  23. Auburn (4-0): Off to a good start with a couple of quality wins. Have been able to put up a ton of points, coming off a season in which scoring was difficult.
  24. South Carolina (3-1): Two impressive wins over NC State and Ole Miss.  If NC State was 4-0, I'd have them ranked right now, and if Ole Miss was undefeated most of us would have them in the Top 5.
  25. Oregon (3-1): It looks like they have rallied after getting embarrassed at Boise State, with wins over Utah and blowing Cal out.  Or maybe they just play well at home?

Teams Considered (in no particular order):

  • Georgia Tech (3-1): Rebounded with a win over UNC. The problem with the triple option is that it's hard to play from behind. This is a talented team, but one-dimensional and that will limit them.
  • Arizona (3-1): Loss against a good Iowa team, but solid wins over Central Michigan and at Oregon State
  • Michigan (4-0): Doing better than I thought they would, off to a good start, but need to show me more
  • Missouri (4-0): Haven't done much yet, but 4 wins at this point is better than what I had expected.
  • Florida State (2-2): W... T.... F...Manic Depressive team. One week they roll at BYU; the following week they get beat by a depleted South Florida team.
  • North Carolina State (3-1): Talented, with a tough loss to South Carolina in Week 1. Beat a Pitt team that I had ranked previously.
  • Stanford (3-1): Just came off a nice win over Washington, and this team will be a threat at spots during the Pac 10.
  • Notre Dame (3-1): Clausen is a stud, but if you look at their wins, are any of them a shocker? Michigan State doesn't look to be as good as people thought, Purdue stinks, and Notre Dame barley got by them. They will have a chance to prove themselves in the next three weeks, against Washington, USC, and Boston College.
  • Wisconsin (4-0): Just beat a decent Michigan State team, and have a quality win over Fresno State. Have also played a couple of crap teams though too. I'm not one of those guys that likes to rank teams because I remember the glory days when they were dominant.
  • South Florida (4-0): I don't know how good they really are, but beating Florida State was impressive.

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Comments

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Oregon

Oregon has an 11 point loss on the road to a top 15 team and wins against a bad BCS team, a top 20 team, and blowout of a top 10 team. They did look pretty bad against BSU but just looking at that resume doesn’t that seem like a top 25 team?

by Pauli on Sep 27, 2009 1:29 PM CDT reply actions  

That's a good point

I am going to swap out Michigan for Oregon at #25… Fair?

by Mark Kieffer on Sep 27, 2009 1:44 PM CDT reply actions  

Cincinatti won at Oregon State (not Oregon), now 2-2 with losses to Cincinatti and Arizona and a win over UNLV and Portland State. That win’s not looking any better now than last week when Cincinatti beat them.

Oregon has only lost to Boise State, an 11 point road loss on the first game of the season. It was worse than than the score indicates. They beat Purdue (1-3 with a bad loss to Northern Illinois and a loss to Notre Dame), Utah (3-1, but not really any significant wins) and California (3-1, the win at Minnesota is the best win) at home.

by Egnowit on Sep 27, 2009 5:39 PM CDT reply actions  

# Notre Dame (3-1): Clauson is a stud, but if you look at their wins, are any of them a shocker? Michigan State doesn’t look to be very good this year
# Wisconsin (4-0): Just beat a decent Michigan State team

I just found this funny. :)

by Egnowit on Sep 27, 2009 5:46 PM CDT reply actions  

God

From your posts, I learned the lesson of doing the writeup at 1am…. I scheduled the post for 11:45 am, but wrote all of this up last night.

I fixed the comments regarding Cincy. I do remember it was Oregon State, but had it in my mind for whatever reason that it was Oregon. I still like that they’ve gone on the road and picked up some wins. I think they are pretty good, and people will discount them because they are in the Big East.

To elaborate on ND, Wisconsin, Mich State, etc… I thought that Michigan State was going to finish 2nd in the Big 10 this year. Now, I’m just not sure if they’re that good… For Notre Dame, people had them going to a BCS game, and all I was trying to say is that just getting by Michigan State and Purdue isn’t really that significant. I do think Clausen is good, but they just aren’t as good as people thought. For Wisconsin, I wasn’t sure if they’d win more than 6 games on the year… In short, Notre Dame beating Michigan State isn’t as significant for them, as it is for Wisconsin.

The only real reason why I put Wisconsin on my watch list is the fact that they are in a BCS conference and are undefeated thus far… I don’t expect them to crack into the rankings unless they do something against Ohio State and/or Iowa.

by Mark Kieffer on Sep 27, 2009 6:41 PM CDT up reply actions  

Ah, OK. Your descriptions of the teams are relative to the teams they played. That makes some sense.

by Egnowit on Sep 27, 2009 6:44 PM CDT up reply actions  

The way I wrote it

Didn’t make sense though. I appreciate you catching my mistakes.

by Mark Kieffer on Sep 27, 2009 6:48 PM CDT up reply actions  

I’ve got no problem with Cincinnati being that high. You can only play what your schedule gives you, and if you take care of business, then you deserve it. Even against a weak schedule, it’s really hard to go undefeated. As a Boise State fan, I’m legally obligated to say this. :)

I can check last year’s Sagarin ratings, and lots of teams with schedules weaker than Boise State’s didn’t go undefeated in the regular season. (Well, nobody but Boise State and Utah did, but that’s beside the point.) A weak schedule doesn’t guarantee a better record. (Of course, I’d probably say that a better record doesn’t guarantee a better team; I’m not too upset when one-loss teams whose one loss came to a top school are ranked above us.) The problem in evaluating teams comes when Boise State gets to show off against teams that are decidedly weaker than them—these teams make BSU look bigger, stronger and faster because they just outclass the other team. It’s a tough job, especially when there’s not a common opponent.

by Egnowit on Sep 27, 2009 11:02 PM CDT up reply actions  

So with Oregon

What do people think? Should they be a ranked team, and if so, who do they go in for?

by Mark Kieffer on Sep 27, 2009 6:48 PM CDT reply actions  

Ok changed

I put Oregon in at #25 and left Michigan out of the poll, as they do have a more impressive resume and have dusted off that embarrassing loss to Boise.

by Mark Kieffer on Sep 30, 2009 9:27 AM CDT reply actions  

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