Allright, kids, here are our inital stabs at a Top 25. As always, comments and suggestions are welcome as they will be taken into consideration when forming our final ballot.
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| Plus, since I'm sure you're all as upset as I am about having to go back to work after a three day weekend, some McPhee to get your week started off right. |
Todd's Ballot
1. USC: Looked a little shakey at times against Idaho, but not a lot to worry about.
2. West Virginia: Put up a ton of yards, as expected, so they stay right where they are.
3. Oklahoma: Up from number five after their inhumane rout of North Texas, and Michigan dropping out of my rankings completely.
4. Georgia: Looked more than impressive against the Cowboys, bumping them ahead of LSU from #7.
5. LSU: And speaking of LSU, they came out flat against a terrible Mississippi State team, and that gets them a drop of two spaces.
6. Penn State: They get a big bump thanks mostly to Michigan's departure from the rankings. The Big 10 is theirs to lose now.
7. Hawaii: Yeah, they haven't beaten anyone, and really won't have a chance until Boise at the end of the season, but I might as well bump them ahead of both Va Tech and Texas since they both looked terrible this weekend.
8. Texas: The Longhorns better get their act together and quick. They're on upset alert with TCU coming to Austin this week.
9. Cal: UT managed to put up 31 on them, but both Jackson and Forsett are weapons and Longshore was efficient.
10. Virginia Tech: Looked awful against ECU. Will likely fall much further this weekend.
11. Wisconsin: They get a pretty big swing thanks to Michigan as well, and they put things together to dominate Washington State after a sluggish start.
12. Alabama: We move ahead of UT and FSU thanks to each team's losses. Probably a homer move, but I was still impressed enough with the offense on Saturday to feel comfortable moving us up this high.
13. Ohio State: The Buckeyes get bumped ahead of UT and FSU as well, and pretty much everyone else is just getting moved up over teams that lost or came out a little too flat for my tastes (I'm looking at you, South Carolina).
14. Florida Ditto.
15. Nebraska
16. Louisville
17. UCLA
18. TCU: You know they are licking their chops, just itching to upset Texas this weekend.
19. Boise State
20. South Carolina
21. Florida State: I still think they can contend for the ACC in what looks like another terribly down year for the conference, but they're going to have to get things together over the next few weeks.
22. Miami: Same old 'Canes D, but they have a lot to prove on Saturday in Norman.
23. Tennessee: They looked good on offense, but that D is going to lose some games for them.
24. Georgia Tech: The win against the Irish was kind of a forgone conclusion, but it was a good start to the season and we'll have to see how long they remain here.
25. Auburn: I'm going to keep the Teagles ranked since they dug down and did what it took to win after playing atrociously on Saturday. Plus, it will be fun dropping them if USF hands them their first loss this week.
Also considering: Boston College, Rutgers, Texas Tech (yarrr!), BYU (I guess they weren't just Beck after all), Texas A&M.
Dropped out: Michigan, and they won't be getting back in unless they somehow manage to run the rest of their schedule, get to a BCS bowl, and manage to win that. Then, maybe I'll throw them a bone. But for now, they're the team on the wrong side of the biggest upset in college football history, and after that idiotically bad performance on Saturday they don't deserve to be ranked.
OTS's Ballot
1) USC
2) West Virginia
3) Texas
4) LSU
5) Oklahoma
6) Wisconsin
7) Florida
8) Penn State
9) Louisville
10) Ohio State
11) Cal
12) Virginia Tech
13) Rutgers
14) Georgia
15) Hawai'i
16) Nebraska
17) South Carolina
18) UCLA
19) TCU
20) Boise State
21) Tennessee
22) Texas A&M
23) Clemson
24) Alabama
25) Florida State
A few notes on the movers and the shakers...
Wisconsin moves up because they pulled off a pretty impressive three touchdown win over Washington State. A solid performance combined with Michigan's meltdown for the ages greatly increases the odds that the Badgers have a great season and make a run at a second straight top ten finish.
Penn State moves up considerably after a dominating performance over FIU. Sure, they were playing a terrible team, but so were many other teams, and the Nittany Lions played as well as anyone. Moreover, with Notre Dame coming up next week, a big-name win looms for Joe Pa. After the Michigan meltdown, this team has a great chance of winning the Big Ten.
Virginia Tech looked bad, no two ways about it. Their rushing game was atrocious, and their supposedly great defense gave up around 300 yards to East Carolina.
Georgia moves up considerably. I was very skeptical of the Dawgs, but the truth is that they played better than any SEC team in the opening week, and they did so against a pretty good opponent. If Georgia can get a win next week against South Carolina, in Athens, they have to become the favorite to win the SEC East.
South Carolina drops a couple of notches after a flat performance against ULL. Not too far though, considering that Mitchell was on the sidelines. We'll see about them in five days.
Tennessee drops considerably after a poor showing against Cal. Given the schedule, it's very real possibility that this team could start 1-2 or 0-3. This could get ugly.
Florida State drops big-time after a terrible showing against Clemson. Still, I'll keep them ranked. Good talent and good coaching gives them potential as the season moves on.
Auburn dropped out. They looked terrible against a mediocre-as-could-be Kansas State, and all in all I think they basically showcased all of the problems that I have been talking about in regard to them the past several months.
Nico's Ballot
1. Oklahoma
2. LSU
3. USC
4. Wisconsin
5. West Virginia
6. Florida
7. Louisville
8. Cal
9. Georgia
10. Texas
11. Ohio State
12. Nebraska
13. Penn State
14. Virginia Tech
15. UCLA
16. Rutgers
17. Arkansas
18. TCU
19. Alabama
20. Auburn
21. Boise State
22. Hawaii
23. Oregon
24. Texas A&M
25. Georgia Tech
It might be kind of BS, but what the heck, it's still early. I only saw two complete games all weekend, a bunch of highlights and read a bunch of game reports. Also, I probably will have more movement in the early weeks than these other guys. It's week one, if you lost, you aren't in my ballot, it's just that simple. I figure us having three people with input on one ballot will keep it balanced.