BlogPoll Polling: OTS's Week Three Ballot

1. USC: I told you so. This is the best team in the country, end of story. There's simply no reason why this team should not win the national championship.

2. Florida: This team has to be salivating at the sight of all of that puke orange. I think I'm going to thoroughly enjoy that game again this year.

3. Oklahoma: Annihilated a not-so-good Washington team, but even so it was sheer domination of a BCS conference opponent. At this point, clearly the class of the Big XII. The odds of seeing a USC v. Oklahoma rematch in Miami is, I think, relatively high.

4. Missouri: Moves up by default after annihilating East Popcorn State.

5. Georgia: I'll keep them here for now, but that was no national championship caliber team on the field on Saturday. South Carolina should have at least forced overtime, and that was the same team that was spanked by Vanderbilt the week before.

6. LSU: Easy win, could have named the score. Real season starts next week. The biggest concern is that Darry Beckwith hurt his knee last night, and though it doesn't seem like it will be a season-ending injury, he may very well miss the Auburn game. And Kirston Pittman doesn't seem to be 100% either.

7. Texas: Moves up by default. I do not, however, expect them to beat Oklahoma, as per usual.

8. Texas Tech: I doubt they can stay this high, but for now they go here.

9. Penn State: Is this the best Big Ten team? I think you could make a very legitimate case as such.

10. Ohio State: I told you see. I'm just glad they didn't wait around 'til the national title game to show their true colors, and frankly I'm not sure they can beat out Penn State. Nevertheless, come Michigan time, go Buckeyes. To be sure, this team should fall much farther, but with the weakness of the Big Ten, they are guaranteed at least 10 wins, and will probably still be in a BCS game.

11. Alabama: A dominating performance against East Popcorn State, which doesn't mean much, but clearly the Tulane game featured a much tougher opponent than anyone ever thought. I'm not sure how good we are just yet, but the schedule sets up extremely well for a big run the next few weeks.

12. Auburn: I've long since said that the Auburn talk that the Franklin offense was some unstoppable scheme was absurd, but I also said that the Borges offense had gotten so unproductive that improvement was almost guaranteed. Apparently not. I'm not going to go too nuts over this just yet, because if they win at home next week they are the clear frontrunner to reach Atlanta, but Franklin better get things figured out ASAP. If the offense cannot do any better than that, Auburn might still get to Atlanta, but it'll be for the Peach Bowl, and Franklin will be back selling DVDs.

13. Wisconsin: Close win on the road against Fresno State, but the Bulldogs are a good team, so I'll keep the Badgers here.

14. East Carolina: I might should drop them more, but I won't just yet, considering it's clear that Tulane is much better than anyone ever expected.

15. Oregon: Perhaps I should drop them slightly for the close game against Purdue, but they did come back to win, and as terrible as the rest of the Pac-9 looked, this is still probably the second best team in the conference.

16. Wake Forest: Idle U gave them no trouble.

17. BYU: Holy friggin' Hell. And just to think, this was against the same team that beat Tennessee. That makes me feel warm inside.

18. South Florida: I think Kansas showed that this team isn't all of that good, but in the ridiculously weak Big East, they have to be considered the favorite. The truth is that the Bulls will likely be in a BCS game somewhere.

19. Clemson: The Tigers are still clearly in absolute shock that we took their manhood, but look ahead on the schedule, how many ranked opponents do you see from here on out? Probably one at most. You do the math.

20. Virginia Tech: The Hokies go back in this week because East Carolina is obviously a good team, and they did beat Georgia Tech in a good game. They've still got a good chance to win the ACC, and I figure the  bottom end for them, given the weakness of the conference, is the Peach Bowl.

21. Utah: A blowout win of an in-state rival, about like as expected.

22. North Carolina: Dominating performance against Rutgers, and I was highly impressed. I figure this team has as good of a chance as any ACC squad of winning the title, and though it may be a bit early for them now, this has to be the team to look out for next year.

23. West Virginia: Another upset alert possibly coming this weekend against Colorado.

24. Illinois: Almost lost to ULL, but I don't know who else to put here, and I'll keep them here from now. I figure Penn State will make this a non-issue for next week.

25. UNLV: Mr. Irrelevant this week goes to UNLV for their upset victory over Arizona State. So much for those Georgia fans bitching about how tough that game is; then again, after watching them play South Carolina...