Below is my ballot for this week. Feel free to leave feedback, as revisions can be made until Tuesday night.
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| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | |
| 2 | Alabama | |
| 3 | Texas | |
| 4 | Boise State |
 1 |
| 5 | Virginia Tech |
5 |
| 6 | Cincinnati | |
| 7 | Southern Cal | |
| 8 | Miami (Florida) | |
| 9 | Ohio State |
4 |
| 10 | TCU |
 1 |
| 11 | LSU |
7 |
| 12 | Oklahoma |
1 |
| 13 | Oklahoma State |
1 |
| 14 | Iowa | |
| 15 | Brigham Young | |
| 16 | Kansas | |
| 17 | Nebraska | |
| 18 | Penn State | |
| 19 | South Carolina |
3 |
| 20 | Oregon |
3 |
| 21 | South Florida |
3 |
| 22 | Notre Dame | |
| 23 | Georgia Tech | |
| 24 | Pittsburgh | |
| 25 | Utah | |
Dropped Out: Mississippi (#19), Georgia (#20), Auburn (#21), Boston College (#25).
Watch List: Texas Tech, Washington, Arkansas, Central Michigan, Tennessee
Explanation of Rankings After the Jump!
These days, doing a ballot like this is so challenging, because each week things can change so much. One week, a team like Florida State can look like a team competing to win an ACC title (Weeks 1 or 2), the next week it can look like a complete dud (like they have the past couple of weeks).
With that, here's my breakdown of the rankings:
- Teams 1-3: Hard to argue with these I think. I'm keeping Florida at #1 until they lose. Here's the main reason why: what they are doing is so hard. I know everyone is tired of Tebow and the excessive Florida love. At the same time, winning a national championship and repeating is tough, because you are going to get everyone's best shot at you. For a program, beating Florida is going to make their year. In my opinion, this is why I am ignoring style-points for Florida and just looking at their wins. If they go 12-0 and win the SEC Championship game, they deserve to play for the National Championship again. Alabama stays above Texas as they look like the slightly better team. Texas just lets teams stay in the game for too long, and it could bite them sometime this season.
- Teams 4-10: Boise State benefits from the LSU loss, as does Virginia Tech, but then I bumped Virginia Tech up more. They have improved so much and look like a tough team. I think Boston College is pretty good, and they made Boston College look like a JV squad out there. Cincy, USC, and Miami all stay the same, as two of three were on official bye weeks, while Miami was on a bye-like kind of week. Ohio State is a pretty good team, and could be undefeated right now. TCU picked up an expected win, but they kept their opponent in it for too long. Once they get into the thick of conference play, it will be interesting for them.
- Teams 11-15: I have LSU dropping to the 11 spot. Yes they got beat at home by Florida, but they didn't get rolled, and if they win out will play for the SEC Championship. Oklahoma and Oklahoma State move down, mainly because I jumped Ohio State over them. Despite what everyone else says, Oklahoma is a damn good team, and they can beat Texas. If they do so, then they will have the inside track at the Big 12 championship. People are punishing Oklahoma too much for actually having a schedule outside of their conference season. Oklahoma State avoided an upset against A&M, and I look for them to bounce back, once the Dez Bryant distraction gets resolved. Iowa won as expected, but at times didn't look that great in doing so, and BYU beat another nobody.
- Teams 16-21: No one has seperated themselves. KU, Nebraska, and South Carolina all very well could have lost. They are good teams, but beatable by almost anybody depending on the week. They either stay the same or move in lockstep relative to each other.
- Teams 22-25: All new to the poll this week. I ranked them based on how I think they would do head-to-head.
- Watch List: Tech's only losses were at Houston by 1 point, and at Texas by 5 points. They are a team that's always had struggles away from Lubbock and could win 8 games this year. Washington is a solid team. They are still building and there has been some bumps, but they are playing better than anyone could have expected. Arkansas has looked decent the past few weeks, and blowing out Auburn was eye-opening. Central Michigan's signature win this year has been against Michigan State. Thier sole loss was at Arizona by 13. If they continue to roll MAC teams, they could find themselves ranked before the year is over. Tennessee did lose to a so-so UCLA team, but played pretty tough against Florida and took care of Georgia. It will be interesting to see how it turns out for them in conference play.
Other Week 6 Thoughts:
- All of the teams that dropped out of my poll laid an egg this week. What's up with that?
- While Tebow came back and Florida got the win, anyone else think that he looked pretty tenative at times?
- With another tough ISU loss, I can't wait until next week. I want to get the bad taste out of my mouth.