Week 3 BlogPoll

Here's what I have -

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Georgia	2
2	LSU	4
3	California	12
4	Oklahoma	4
5	Florida	3
6	Southern Cal	5
7	Ohio State	4
8	Penn State	5
9	Clemson	15
10	Wisconsin	16
11	Alabama	5
12	Georgia Tech	14
13	Auburn	1
14	Hawaii	12
15	West Virginia	4
16	Louisville	10
17	Miami (Florida)	7
18	UCLA	4
19	Boise State	7
20	Nebraska	--
21	Texas	17
22	Texas A&M	5
23	Oregon	2
24	Texas Tech	2
25	Tennessee	18

Dropped Out: Michigan (#5), Florida State (#9), Notre Dame (#14), South Carolina (#18), North Carolina (#21), Virginia Tech (#23).

Some notes on my thinking -

-First (and foremost) this is a dynamic process for at least the first month. I firmly do not believe in static polls, especially static polls based on pre-conceived, pre-season notions. My poll is going to change quite a bit in the next few weeks.

My rankings are based on achievements through week 1. I looked at the following –

- Quality of wins in “real” games. In this regard, Georgia looks the best after week 1.

- Quality of wins in “powder-puff” games. USC, for instance, looked sluggish in their win over lousy Idaho. The Trojans were a 42 point favorite, yet won by 28. Not impressed. Texas looked especially miserable.

- Normally a team losing in the first week would be out of my poll. However, Tennessee hangs on barely for losing at Cal while scoring 31 points.

When every team has had a chance to play a “real” game the “real” comparisons will start. For instance, after USC plays at Nebraska, we can compare the quality of that win (if it is one) versus the quality of Georgia’s win over Oklahoma State (if UGA is still undefeated).

Comments and suggestions kindly solicited from all.

Update: In a post below someone asked me “my thinking” on having LSU ranked 2nd when they beat a lousy Mississippi State team.

Well, first of all, any ranking after the first week is still pretty uncertain. For LSU, we will know a heck of a lot more after they play Virginia Tech.

Despite being a conference opponent, let’s assume that MSU is every bit as terrible as Idaho that USC played. Now, lets look at the stats –

LSU 45 – MSU 0

Total yards – LSU 347 – MSU 146

USC 38 – Idaho 10

Total Yards – USC 420 – Idaho 253

Simply put, I’m more impressed by LSU holding MSU to 146 at Starkville than I am of USC giving up 253 yards to the Vandals at USC. Plus, USC allowed Idaho to rush for 98 yards at home, while LSU held MSU to 10 yards on the road.

As for USC dropping, let’s take Idaho’s November loss to Nevada last year 45-7. In that game, Idaho at Idaho had 209 total yards, and gave up 417, with 93 yards rushing. In other words, stats that are very comparable to USC’s win over Idaho (with the Wolfpack defense being a bit better than the Trojans)

I expect USC to be better than that.