. . . but not for Oregon.
I think the following quote pretty much sums up last weekend's action and the effect it had on the ballot appearing below:
"The undeserving maintain power by promoting hysteria."
- Frank Herbert
If anyone participating in this project feels confident about their submissions from the five hole back, then congratulations, you live in a reality void of inherent confusion. Not less than six highly-ranked squads underperfomed on Saturday, while others -- notably Clemson -- decided to finally put the whole package together.
A mess to be sure. A mess, however, that is exceedingly interesting.
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio State | -- |
| 2 | Michigan | -- |
| 3 | West Virginia | -- |
| 4 | Southern Cal | -- |
| 5 | Auburn | -- |
| 6 | Texas |  1 |
| 7 | Tennessee | 1 |
| 8 | Florida | 1 |
| 9 | Louisville |  3 |
| 10 | California | -- |
| 11 | Clemson | 2 |
| 12 | LSU | 2 |
| 13 | Notre Dame | 2 |
| 14 | Rutgers | 4 |
| 15 | Arkansas | 1 |
| 16 | Wisconsin | 3 |
| 17 | Boise State | -- |
| 18 | Oklahoma | 3 |
| 19 | Texas A&M | 3 |
| 20 | Georgia Tech | 8 |
| 21 | Boston College | 4 |
| 22 | Nebraska | 2 |
| 23 | Wake Forest | -- |
| 24 | Missouri | 2 |
| 25 | South Carolina | 1 |
Dropped Out: Oregon (#15), Pittsburgh (#24).
Rationale
- Boise State continues to stand flat until the Broncos beat someone of consequence and/or the apocalypse happens above them.
- I feel really, really good about that top five.
- Six through 11, however, are messing with my universe. On my initial ballot, I had: Tennessee, Texas, Florida, California, Louisville, and Clemson. Collin's ballot went: Auburn, Louisville, Tennessee Florida, California, and Clemson. To be honest, if any of these teams were to square off on the football field at 3 PM today, I would have no idea which teams would be favorites. A loss or notable victory by any of these teams would significantly assist in the ranking.
- Rutgers' smackaroo of Pittsburgh vaults the Scarlet Knights. I honestly thought Pitt would destroy Rutgers. As it turns out, I'm straight up mentally ill.
- Hello, South Carolina! Enjoy your seven-day stay in the poll.
- I still think Boston College is playing with an empty deck of cards. The wins are fairly unimpressive -- save a victory of a then-imploding Clemson team -- and the loss (N.C. State) is totally unforgiveable.
- I don't like Missouri, but Collin does.
- Team to Watch: Texas A&M
- Best game of last week: Harvard v. Princeton. If everyone isn't watching Ivy League action, you're missing out.
Agreed on Boston College, and yet somehow they may just make it to the ACC Championship due to that win over Clemson.
What's crazy is that after all the talk about WVU-L'ville deciding the Big East, its the Rutgers-Lville game and the Rutgers-WVU game that may end up being even more important.
MJfT:
Re: BC
I think that's definitive proof of how poor the ACC is this year. BC is a good football team, but the Eagles are not a championship-esque squad.
What's particularly disappointing is that this is probably the best BC team in 20 years and yet are still relatively unimpressive. If the Eagles were doing this against a solid ACC, then I would be wildly supportive. Hell, if BC was doing this against the Big East this year, I'd be driving their bandwagon.
Unfortunately, I just can't pull the trigger yet.
Re: Rutgers
I have a feeling that this year may turn out like 2004, with a tie atop the conference. Whether that tie is between two or three teams is yet to be determined, but it is seriously possible.
And remember, if RU is in that tie, they go to the BCS because RU has never been. Similarly, if L'ville ties atop the conference with WV (and not RU), L'Ville goes. As a consequence, the only way WV goes to the BCS is if the Mountaineers win the conference outright, which is far from a guarantee at this point.
I'll try and write a little bit more about this later today or this week.