BlogPoll – Armageddon Week

First my unimpeachable rankings –

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	--
2	California	6
3	South Florida	8
4	Wisconsin	10
5	Ohio State	1
6	Boston College	3
7	Southern Cal	4
8	Kentucky	1
9	Cincinnati	1
10	Missouri	5
11	Arizona State	9
12	Hawaii	10
13	Purdue	8
14	Connecticut	12
15	Kansas	3
16	South Carolina	10
17	Oregon	11
18	West Virginia	6
19	Georgia	6
20	Michigan State	3
21	Florida	16
22	Oklahoma	20
23	Kansas State	3
24	Virginia Tech	--
25	Illinois	1

Dropped Out: Clemson (#13), Rutgers (#16), Texas (#19), Miami (Florida) (#23).

Ladies in Waiting (in no particular order) – FSU, Miami, Nebraska, UCLA, Rutgers, Clemson

To borrow from the SMQ, this is not a power poll! Do I think Kansas or U Conn can/will lose to virtually any team at any time? Yes! But I also think the national polls continue to show their thoughtless crappiness without abating, with the likes of my Gators ranked 7th (?), or Texas ranked at all (??)

So, resume ranking it will be. And if the Purdue’s of the world lose a game, pain will be inflicted.

My process at this point consists of taking the 15 unbeaten teams and ranking them 1 to 15 based on the quality of their wins. LSU is unquestionably 1st, especially in light of the fact their “worst” win so far was the 34-9 victory over Tulane that actually worsened their defensive ppg from 5.8 to 6.4.

I see Cal (with wins at Oregon and over Tennessee) and USF (with wins at Auburn and over West Virginia) as the two teams with the next best pelt collections. Then, the Big Ten duo of Wisconsin and Ohio State look to be next, followed by Boston College and USC.

USC’s resume as an unbeaten is not impressive, and it was a very close call to rank them ahead of Kentucky. Had Louisville not been entirely undressed by Syracuse, UK would be in front of USC.

USC’s “best” win isat Nebraska, a team that has since sullied itself considerably with an embarrassing performance against Ball State. The Trojan’s near death experience this weekend at Washington (27-24) compares very unfavorably with Ohio State’s same visit to Husky Stadium (33-14).

After Kentucky comes Cincinnati, with their marquee win over the error prone Oregon State, and 4 solid lambastings of second-tier teams. Missouri is next with its headline win at much improved Illinois, followed by Arizona State who beat 33-14 evidently dangerous Colorado, in addition to Oregon State.

From 12 to 15 reside the unbeaten teams of questionable credentials – Hawaii, Purdue, Connecticut and Kansas. All of them stand untarnished, yet having faced no foe credibility equipped to have provide tarnishment. So may think ranking these teams ahead of others that would, on paper, dispatch them easily may be wrong, but once again, this is not a power poll. Their flaws will become evident.

The final 10 spots go to one loss teams based on the “quality” of their loss vis-à-vis the teams ranked in front of them, and the points administered. The first such spot goes to South Carolina, whose only blemish came in Death Valley at the hands of the first ranked Tigers. Next is Oregon, who fell to 2nd ranked Cal. After that we have West Virginia, losing at the 3rd ranked Bulls.

Georgia is 19th having lost narrowly to South Carolina at home. Michigan State is 20th, having lost by merely 3 at Wisconsin. Florida follows at 21st for their close loss to rapidly improving Auburn at the Swamp, and then Oklahoma stands next with its close loss at similarly improving Colorado.

Kansas State follows at 23rd with their one loss by 10 at Auburn (coupled with their evisceration of Texas), Virginia Tech is next with their sole albeit very sound loss at LSU, and in 25th the fighting Zooks of Illinois with their lone loss at home to unbeaten Missouri.

And there you have it.