CBS Sports BlogPoll Ballot Week 10 (Draft)
by Paragon SC on Nov 2, 2008 3:22 PM PST
in SBNation BlogPoll
Email
PrintI played with this a lot last night and decided to sleep on it. I had to work today so I took a leisurely drive into the city and flipped on ESPN just in time to hear Jon Kinkade pretty much bash SC about not being as good as advertised and once again how the Big 12 and SEC are better or something to that effect. Well of cours that pissed me off knowing that Kinkade is in Atlanta and he has bashed the Big 10 in the past and probably seldom watches any Pac-10 football so it was clear he was biased.
For the most part I usually dont' listen to these guys but for some reason listening to his flippant comments pissed me off and it made me rethink my ballot.
 |
||
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama |  3 |
| 2 | Penn State | -- |
| 3 | Texas Tech | 4 |
| 4 | Florida | 2 |
| 5 | Southern Cal | -- |
| 6 | Texas |  5 |
| 7 | Oklahoma | 4 |
| 8 | Oklahoma State | 3 |
| 9 | Utah | -- |
| 10 | Boise State | -- |
| 11 | TCU | 1 |
| 12 | Missouri | 1 |
| 13 | Brigham Young | 2 |
| 14 | Ohio State | -- |
| 15 | Ball State | 1 |
| 16 | Michigan State | 6 |
| 17 | Georgia | 9 |
| 18 | LSU | -- |
| 19 | North Carolina | 2 |
| 20 | Tulsa | 3 |
| 21 | Maryland | 4 |
| 22 | California | 4 |
| 23 | Georgia Tech | 3 |
| 24 | Kansas | 2 |
| 25 | Pittsburgh | 1 |
Being in a major conference and being undefeated and S.o.S. matter so ta is how I started this weeks ballot. I decided not to move up teams up simply becasue they won and having a bye week no longer means that you stay where you were last week.
Here is the reasoning for my teams in the top 10.
Alabama...Undefeated with some impressive wins against UGA and Tennessee, yes Tennessee because its a rivalry game and anything can happen, along with solid performances against Clemson (#9 at the time) and Arky at Arky. But it isn't that they won but how they won. Sure they had some stinkers aginst Tulane and the second half of UGA but overall they have made the most of their talent and they are aactually a year ahead of where most thought they would be since Nick Saban arrived. Next weeks game against LSU, at LSU, will tell us a lot about how they will finish the season out.
Penn. St....They have beaten everyone in front of them including Oregon St. and Ohio State. They are one of the most disciplined teams out there but their OOC schedule is a little weak but like I said they are undefeated and have beat all comers and some of those wins were very impressive.
Texas Tech...What a show they put on against Texas! Who didn't like that game! But lets not get carried away...as impressive as that game was a closer look at their schedule tells a different story as it shows their first 4 games were against absolute cupcakes. As much as I have heard so much about how tough the Big 12 is looking at TT's in-conference schedule shows that they were lucky to play most of the bottom feeders in the Big 12. Aside from Texas their only other big win was against Kansas (#23 at the time). The meat of their schedule is back-loaded with games against Ok. St and OU still to come so a loss is almost certain as, I have a hard time seeing them go undefeated.
Florida...With impressive wins against LSU and UGA make a lot of people think that this is one of the best teams out there and some of their performances have been impressive but it all depends on how you want to parse it. Of their 8 games played five have been at the Swamp with three on the road. Their only loss was at home against Ole Miss but those 2 wins against UGA and LSU stand out. The win at Arky was impressive as well. I put them ahead of SC because their in conference wins are better than SC's wins against ASU and UA. The only real difference between UF and USC that stands out is that UF has a weaker OOC schedule and their loss was at home not on the road but those wins were impressive so I think it all balances out.
USC...Regardless of what some pundits, writers and talking heads think about the Pac-10 it is hard to argue against 3 shutouts in four games. This is the best defense in the country...PERIOD! It isn't USC's fault if other teams in the Pac-10 are bad actors. Other teams have the bility to recruit just like SC. The can do all they can to sell the virtures of their respective programs. Because the Pac-10 has a round-robin there is no missing out on a team that may have your number or a team that has a hot hand. There are plenty of teams in the Big 12 and SEC that are sub par as well and as I pointed out in regards to TT some years you get to play them others you don't. So becasue of a decent OOC Schedule and because they have lost one game on the road, in conference they stay at #5.
Texas and Oklahoma...I will address these two because of where they are in all the polls. There is no question that Texas has some impressive wins against OU, Mizzou and Ok St. and as we all saw their only loss was an absolute 2nd half barn burner. But again their OOC Schedule is pretty weak. Oklahoma actually has a better OOC schedule than Texas but because Texas beat OU they are behind the 'horns in my poll. Texas has some "better wins" but with that OOC Schedule I can't put them ahead of SC and because they beat OU I can't in good conscience put them ahead of UT. I probably had OU too high so even though they smoked Nebraska this is a correction of where they should be.
Oklahoma St....Boy they are right there and they are going to give TT a run for their money next week. This is a real good defense and they had Texas almost beat. They beat a pretty good Mizzou team so Mike Gundy has come a long way since last year's tirade. They are fun to watch!
Utah and Boise St. round out the top ten.
So thats it. Feel free to make suggesstions or comments.
12 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
It's starting to become clearer and clearer
The Big 12 is still looking like the premier conference in Div. I cfb this year. It’s like the SEC on any other year. Big and fast teams pummeling each other!
Florida sure DOES look good. UGA. . . . .uh. . . . .they’re both OVER-RATED AND OVER-STATED! (boy did I love writing that)
SWEET HOME ALABAMA! (now that’s what I’m talking about)
USC looked good top to bottom, and that spells fear in any SEC or Big 12 team pondering the bowl-season. If we keep it up, and limit our injuries- our 1st and 2nd units can play with ANYBODY in the country.
Texas? Well, what can I say. Glad to see them lose. OK Oklahoma? I got nothing.
If we get the chance to play Penn St. or Alabama in the bowl season. . . .I’ll eat a bug! That’s how much I’d love to see either of those two match-ups!
Fight On!
Roll Tide!
"Surround yourself with people who can't live without football" - 1st tenet of 3 for Bear Bryant's 3 Rules of Coaching . . . . .
Maybe now we will stop playing ND and any ACC teams
ND has been at the end of the year, and if we didn’t play them we could play a SEC or BIG-12 team.
Paul D. Kelley
by so.cal.native1952 on Nov 3, 2008 11:14 AM PST reply actions
Won't happen
We’ll never give up the ND game, no matter how much it has hurt us the last decade. Sure it would’ve been nice to beat a ranked Big 12 or ACC team instead of a hapless ND squad but thanks to tradition we’ll never drop that game.
Is anyone else annoyed as I am at how over rated the SEC is this year? Aside from Florida I don’t think there is a single team in the SEC that could give USC a game. It pisses me off to no end that teams like Georgia and LSU get slaughtered when they play real competition but still hang on in the rankings, while Pac 10 teams drop as soon as they lose regardless of the score.
The system is broken and there is no fix in sight.
You know what? Fuck you Sports Gods, fuck you.
Out of Con. sch.
Alabama- Tech Penn st
W-Kent—2-7 E-Wash-1 AA C Carolina—1AA
Tulane—2-6 Nev—-4-4 OSU—5-3
Ark State—-4-4 Mass—-1 AA Syra—2-6 Temple—3-6
Florida Texas Okla
Haw-4-5 Flor Atl—3-5 Chatt—1AA
Miami—6-3 Utep—-3-5 Cinci—6-2
Cit—1 AA Ark—-4-5 Wash—0-8
FSU—6-2 Rice—6-3 TCU—9-1
USC——Virg—-5-4; ND——5-3; Ohio SU—7-2
I don’t know about you guys and gals, but USC; Okla: Florida toughest sch.
Paul D. Kelley
by so.cal.native1952 on Nov 3, 2008 9:18 PM PST reply actions
Okay...
1. I know it’s hard to pay attention to the Big East out here, but where’s West Virginia? I’m campaigning for ranking Cinci (6-2, only losses at Oklahoma and UConn, just beat USF), but ranking West Virginia ought to be a no-brainer.
2. You’re overly impressed by ’Bama beating Tennessee (remember they got killed by UCLA) and Georgia (which has now allowed 35+ points to LSU, Florida, and Alabama). Penn State deserves to be #1 until some undefeated major conference team gets two high-quality wins. If Texas Tech beats Oklahoma State, that will do it. But for now, Penn State should be #1.
I don't see how you can rate USC over any one-loss team right now
Their most impressive win is against Ohio State, who was simply not very good at that point in the season. They barely beat Ohio, for instance, nor did they have Beanie Wells against SC.
Furthermore, their loss just doesn’t compare at all to Texas’. Texas played at the end of a brutal stretch of games. They were in Lubbock, they were banged up, they didn’t have their best corner due to disciplinary issues, and they lost two of their key players during the game. And they played absolutely brain dead in the first half. Yet they still almost stole the game and it took a dropped interception, bad safety play, and a freak play by Crabtree to win the game with one second on the clock.
USC got down 21-0 and lost to an unranked Oregon State team who is still unranked and also got pummeled by Penn State.
So Texas big wins (OU, Okie State, Mizzou) > USC’s big wins (OSU, Oregon)
Texas’ loss < USC’s loss
I don’t think there can even be a debate here. USC has a ton of talent, but if you objectively examine their resume this season, it just isn’t up to par with other teams.
by TheElusiveShadow on Nov 5, 2008 5:50 AM PST reply actions
Hold on, hold on
Let me get this straight. USC lost to Oregon State? Thanks for educating us on who’s beaten who this year.
I agree
I certainly believe USC is one of the most talented teams in the country and they have an awesome defense, but I just believe that their resume just isn’t very impressive this year compared to others.
Unfortunately, socaljmj doesn’t seem to have the sense to engage in this debate. Indeed, if I had such a silly attitude, I could just blast Paragon’s post with: “Oh really? Oklahoma lost to Texas and Texas lost to Tech? Thanks for educating us…” I mean, how stupid of me to bring up past facts, even if they are known, to make arguments. Who does that, right?
In any case, USC isn’t out of it, but fair or not, they don’t have a lot of chances to prove a whole lot the next few weeks. Blame the Pac-10 and Notre Dame for sucking.
by TheElusiveShadow on Nov 5, 2008 11:42 AM PST up reply actions
Sorry – just finding a line between debating and beating a dead horse. We all know full well why we’re on the outside looking in. Texas has plenty of big wins, but has gobbled up on at least as many cupcakes as USC.
Frankly, my two biggest problems with both the BCS are 1.) no value is placed on improvement over the course of a season and 2.) once a competitors “value” is determined, a team’s performance in a win against that team is inconsequential.
Neither I nor anyone with any degree of objectivity think that USC should be in the Top Two right now using any criteria whatsoever. But it drives me a little crazy that we have a system where merely showing up and playing the game against our conference opponents hurts our standings.
I know that margin of victory was eliminated from BCS computer rankings. in order to curb running up a score, but a.) it’s still done often enough anyway to impress voters and b.)some weight should be played on a decisive victory. Thanks to the absence of strength of schedule in BCS computer rankings, our beating Washington 6-3 or 103-0 would have the same negative effect in the BCS. The BCS doesn’t see three shutouts in the last four games, they see four “bad” teams and shame on us for playing these weak games against our bad conference.
While the SEC and Big 12 are stronger conferences than the Pac 10 this year, the degree to which this is the case has been overblown to an appalling degree. As has been touched upon multiple times here, if you took the Big 12’s OOC schedule and switched it with the Pac-10, I’m convinced that the W-L record discrepancy would surprise a lot of people. It’s easy to have 5-6 Big 12/SEC teams in the Top 25 at the start of conference play when you schedule 3 guaranteed wins to start the season.
Please stop me if I’m not making any sense.
perfectly stated....
again I have SC ahead of of UT because of their ooc schedule…no 1-AA schools or Div. 2 schools not sure that UT can’t say that. Impressive wins… yes but its easy to be dominant against cupcakes most of the time.
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Conquest Chronicles
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Certain photos copyright © 2012 by Associated Press or Getty Images. Any commercial use or distribution without the express written consent of Associated Press and Getty Images is strictly prohibited.
