Blogpoll Ballot: Week 8

I forgot to post this yesterday, so here you go.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Florida
3	Texas
4	TCU	4
5	Iowa	1
6	Boise State	1
7	Southern Cal	3
8	Cincinnati	1
9	Oregon	2
10	Georgia Tech
11	Penn State	3
12	Houston	3
13	Pittsburgh	5
14	Oklahoma State	3
15	LSU	2
16	Virginia Tech
17	Miami (Florida)	8
18	Ohio State	1
19	Central Michigan	3
20	South Carolina	1
21	Utah	4
22	West Virginia
23	Mississippi
24	Brigham Young	12
25	Notre Dame
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Kansas (#20), Texas Tech (#23), South Florida (#24).

Reasoning and more after the jump.



In a bit of a new "feature" for my ballot, here are the five teams who just missed the cut.

1. Kansas
2. Oklahoma
3. Texas Tech
4. Navy
5. Cal

As for why I still have Alabama at the top even though they barely escaped Tennessee, I think it's pretty simple.  Why should I put Florida above Alabama when the Gators didn't exactly blow Tennessee away either?

Also, the Gators didn't exactly handle the Mississippi State Bulldogs all that well on Saturday night either.  I seem to remember one Tim Tebow throwing two pick-sixes in the game.  Alabama has blown people out all season, and playing in the SEC, there isn't any team that is going to go an entire season without a close call.

Tennessee was Bama's.

As for why TCU and Iowa climb in victory while Boise State, USC and Cincy all fall, that's simple too.  TCU took on BYU who was on my ballot last week -- and still is this week though they dropped twelve spots to 24 -- in Provo on Saturday night and whipped their ass.

Iowa needed a last second victory to beat Michigan State, but they have some decided advantages over USC, Boise and Cincy in my mind.  First of all, they're undefeated which automatically makes me give them more credit than I do USC.

Further, USC struggled to stop Oregon State on Saturday and their defense is not as solid as we're used to seeeing from the Trojans.  Finally, their loss to Washington looks worse with every passing week as the Huskies keep losing.

As for Boise and Cincy, they're undefeated just like Iowa but they don't have three wins to match the Hawkeyes victories on the road against Penn State, Wisconsin and Michigan State.  Though Boise's win over Oregon to start the season looks better every week, they have no other "signature" wins on their resume.

Outside the top 10, it's apparent that I don't like LSU nearly as much as the AP and coaches do, and I think my opinion of the team is a lot closer to reality than theirs.

Finally, Notre Dame has returned to my ballot.  It's not that I was ultra-impressed with their win over Boston College, it's just that they're 5-2 and when it came to filling out the last spot I didn't want to include Kansas (losers of two in a row), Oklahoma (a team that is 4-3 and without Sam Bradford for the rest of the year) or Texas Tech (a team that got beat up by a team that lost by like 100 points the week before).

So Notre Dame basically gets in by default.  Though, admittedly, I'm a lot harder critic when it comes to the Irish.  Realistically they haven't played worse than a few teams ahead of them on the ballot, but I  hold them to a higher standard.

Why, I have no idea.