Final BlogPoll Week 8

The final BlogPoll, as submitted, with a minor change at the end.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas	1
2	Alabama	1
3	Oklahoma State	2
4	Penn State	1
5	Texas Tech	1
6	Utah	1
7	Oklahoma	1
8	Georgia	15
9	Ohio State	10
10	Boise State	6
11	Southern Cal	4
12	Florida	4
13	TCU	13
14	LSU	12
15	Minnesota	6
16	Georgia Tech	6
17	Boston College	9
18	Florida State	8
19	Northwestern	6
20	Pittsburgh	6
21	South Florida	8
22	Ball State	--
23	Cincinnati	3
24	Missouri	7
25	Brigham Young	13

Dropped Out: Michigan State (#9), North Carolina (#11), California (#14), Wake Forest (#18), Virginia Tech (#20), Connecticut (#24).

I’m sure it will be an outlier again, though that is not my intention at all. This is how I see it from a resume standpoint. And before I get a lot of criticism from “conventional” (read unimaginative) voters, know that the current computer polls that make up the BCS have the teams ranked thusly –

1 Texas
2 Alabama
3 Oklahoma State
4 Oklahoma
5 Ohio State
6 Georgia
7 Penn State
8 Utah
9 Boise State
10 USC
11 Texas Tech
12 Florida
13 TCU
14 Missouri
15 Pitt
16 Georgia Tech
17 Ball State
18 Tulsa
T-19 LSU
T-19 Northwestern
T-21 Minnesota
23 South Florida
T-25 BYU

The computers and my poll are the same for the top 3. I give Penn State a more favorable nod at 4, and Texas Tech a far more favorable nod at 5 (rather than 11th). Utah is 8 in the computers, 6th in mine, while I have Boise 9th against 10th for the machines. The computers like Georgia a little more than I do (6th vs 8th) and Oklahoma (4th v 7th).

Florida is 12 in both my polls and the computer polls.

In the matter of Ohio State who, as we all know, lost to USC, the computers see it much like I do, but even more favorably to Ohio State who they have 5th to my 9th. Southern Cal is 10th in the computer polls, where I have them 11th.

I wasn’t trying to make a poll that looks like what the computers do, however I think my results speak very favorably to my lack of inherent bias, the exact type of bias that is so blatant in human polling (to the favor of USC and Florida). If my poll is indefensible, so are the computer inputs to the BCS.