BlogPoll – Meritocracy Reigns

Every BlogPoll I have done until now I hated.

Hated because there was no earned merit to the rankings across the entire universe of 25.

So, do I love this one? No. I merely like it.

But I don’t hate it.

For our 3rd poll reflecting the results of actual games, we still don’t have any room for a loser. Even if you lost to a decent team (say Georgia Tech to Boston College), you are on the outside looking in.

At this point there are 31 undefeated teams per my counting. Which means 6 of the undefeated are not rankable. They are –

Tulsa (only 2-0 UL Monroe and BYU)
U Conn (wins over Duke, Maine and Temple)
Indiana (wins over Indy State, W. Michigan and Akron)
Purdue (wins over Toledo, E Illinois and Central Michigan)
Texas Tech (wins over SMU, UTEP and Rice)
Hawaii (wins over N. Colorado, La Tech and UNLV)

Of the undefeated I will rank, the following is their “best win” by conference –

ACC

Boston College – 24-10 at Georgia Tech
Clemson – 24-18 over FSU

Big 12

Missouri – 38-25 at Ole Miss
Kansas – 52-7 over Central Michigan
Oklahoma – 51-13 over Miami
Texas – 34-13 over TCU

Big East

Rutgers - 41-24 over Navy
West Virginia – 31-14 at Maryland
Cincinnati – 34-3 over Oregon St
South Florida – 26-23 at Auburn

Big 10

Michigan St – 17-13 over Pitt
Ohio State – 33-14 at Washington
Penn St – 31-10 over Notre Dame
Wisconsin – 41-21 over Wash St
Purdue – 52-6 over E Illinois

Mountain West

Air Force – 20-12 at Utah

Pac 10

Arizona State – 33-14 over Colorado
Cal – 45-31 over Tennessee
Oregon – 37-7 at Michigan
USC – 49-31 at Nebraska

SEC

Florida – 59-20 over Tennessee
South Carolina – 16-12 at Georgia
Kentucky – 40-34 over Louisville
Alabama – 41-38 over Arkansas
LSU – 48-7 over Virginia Tech

In looking at those games, in my opinion the “best” wins overall, in order are –

LSU over VT 48-7
USC at Nebraska 49-31
Oklahoma over Miami 51-13
Florida over UT 59-20
Ohio State at Washington 33-14

Those get my top 5 rankings. For the rest, I looked at each conference and “ordered” the wins, then compared them cross conference. For example, in the Big East the wins were ordered thus –

1. South Florida – 26-23 at Auburn
2. Cincinnati – 34-3 over Oregon St
3. West Virginia – 31-14 at Maryland
4. Rutgers - 41-24 over Navy

Now, I am well aware that there is some genuine criticism of the quality of wins like Cincy’s turnover heavy win over Oregon State. Yet, it is a win, and turnovers are sometimes the “fault” of the opposing team as well as the team committing them. As more high quality wins are scored by other teams – even teams with losses – the luster of the Bearcats over Oregon State will likely fade.

Thus, our BlogPoll stands as follows –

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	--
2	Southern Cal	24
3	Oklahoma	1
4	Florida	13
5	Ohio State	19
6	Oregon	3
7	Boston College	5
8	California	7
9	Kentucky	17
10	South Florida	4
11	Air Force	15
12	Cincinnati	2
13	Wisconsin	--
14	West Virginia	4
15	South Carolina	7
16	Clemson	12
17	Alabama	2
18	Penn State	11
19	Missouri	10
20	Rutgers	--
21	Michigan State	--
22	Kansas	4
23	Arizona State	3
24	Texas A&M	2
25	Texas	9

Dropped Out: Washington (#5), Georgia Tech (#6), UCLA (#11), Iowa (#22), Louisville (#23), Nebraska (#25).

Next week should see the addition of one loss teams, as surely there will be less than 25 undefeated teams. Likewise, it may see the exclusion of an undefeated team or two who is totally lacking in resume.

Also notably, as the year wears on, the “quality “of losses as opposed to quality of wins will start to take precedence. In other words, losing to a high quality team narrowly will count more as losses for all participants mount.