BlogPoll Draft
I had to get this in under the wire, but I’m reasonably pleased by the effort.
Once again I want your input, but remember we are resume rankers here. There is no “rising” or “falling” in this poll, just placing – as in a team gets placed where it belongs. I don’t give a flying shit what last week’s poll looked like.
That said, here is my draft –
 | ||
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama | |
| 2 | Auburn |  13 |
| 3 | South Florida | 6 |
| 4 | LSU | 6 |
| 5 | Iowa | 3 |
| 6 | Cincinnati |  3 |
| 7 | Florida | 3 |
| 8 | Wisconsin | 11 |
| 9 | Boise State | 2 |
| 10 | Texas | 5 |
| 11 | Virginia Tech | 2 |
| 12 | Miami (Florida) | 13 |
| 13 | Penn State | |
| 14 | Oregon | |
| 15 | Georgia Tech | 8 |
| 16 | West Virginia | |
| 17 | Missouri | 3 |
| 18 | Stanford | |
| 19 | Southern Cal | 2 |
| 20 | Ohio State | 2 |
| 21 | Michigan | 10 |
| 22 | Notre Dame | |
| 23 | Kansas | |
| 24 | South Carolina | |
| 25 | Mississippi | |
| Last week's ballot | ||
Dropped Out: Houston (#2), TCU (#6), UCLA (#12), Oklahoma (#16), Oklahoma State (#17), Georgia (#18), Brigham Young (#24).
Comments –
Alabama still has the best wins to my thinking.
The time to keep ignoring Auburn has passed. I don’t care what any of us thought preseason, they are winning. Moreover compare their win against Tennessee to Florida’s – Auburn’s was more impressive (they had 459 yards against UT’s defense at Knoxville while Florida had 323 in Gainesville).
South Florida –not only undefeated, but their win at FSU was impressive, far more so than the ‘Canes win at the same venue.
The Tigers of LSU are living on a prayer, but getting it done nonetheless. We shall see this weekend.
Iowa’s win at Penn State remains one of the best defensive shows to date.
Florida – If anyone makes a comment “Why did Florida fall when they didn’t play” I’ll simply erase it without a response.
As for the rest, I think I have them pretty much in correct order – no one who lost to another is ahead of them. As to Missouri and Kansas – play somebody, especially Kansas.
UPDATE: It seems a commenter is worried about my I might be squandering my credibility with my rankings here. As if THAT was currency I had to spend.
Seriously now, have I over ranked USF at 3rd on my Week 5 DRAFT ballot? I would say that, based on the arguments, I probably have. However, with the exception of Alabama, I don’t really see a team this year that has earned top 5 ranking. But rank them we must.
The aforementioned poster has a problem with USF’s record, and I can’t disagree entirely. Like Florida, USF has handled its patsy teams pretty handily. (Both played Charleston Southern, with UF winning 62-3 and USF winning 59-0). Don’t see any advantage there.
USF has won two road games – at FSU (17-7) and at Syracuse (34-20). Florida has won its sole road game at Kentucky 41-7, and beat Tennessee at the Swamp 23-13. FSU and Syracuse are 2-3, as is Tennessee, while Kentucky checks in at 2-2. In other words, the four teams pretty much stink.
I’d say UF and USF are pretty close by resume. Upon further consideration I’ll probably move USF down closer to UF. But I am far, far impressed from anything Florida has done yet.
Do I *think* Florida is “better” than USF. Yeah I do, for whatever that is worth (and we will certainly know more come late Saturday night.) But Florida hasn’t proved it yet, and that’s how I vote (I also *think* that had USF played UF’s schedule, they would be 4-0 at this point to – but I can’t prove it).
Finally, once again, and for the last time please – WEEK 5 RANKINGS ARE VIRTUALLY IRRELEVANT. This all sorts out. Eventually.
Mentioned in Austin Murphy's book 
9 comments:
Seems like TCU ought to be in there somewhere. They've got the best rushing defense in the country. It's true, they haven't played a good team yet. I don't have anything specific to point at here, but it still seems like they ought to be on your ballot somewhere.
What did you see in them last week that put them at #6?
Yikes! Bad omission on my part of TCU.
I think Wisconsin deserves to go down quite a few spots (even past some 1-loss teams).
-The NIU team they beat to start the season might be their best win so far.
-They needed overtime to beat Fresno State, who was easily beaten by Boise State and Cincinatti (the only win so far is against UC Davis).
-Wofford as well only has a single win.
-Michigan State has only beaten Montana State and Michigan they needed overtime for.
-Actually Minnesota, looks like their best win.
Boise State's win over Oregon I think is a good deal better (for now) than anything Wisconsin has, though soon the schedule for Boise, will fall far short of everyone else's schedule and the win over Oregon won't be able to hold up.
Each of Texas's opponents has 3 wins, except for UTEP, but the thorough dismantling of them (I think Doc Saturday said it was one of the worst beatdowns statistically he'd ever seen), in light of their beating Houston is worth a little.
So let me ask you this:
How does USF's win against a pitiful excuse for a football team, being the Florida State Seminoles, probably the worst team they have fielded in 30 years, count as impressive? You're simply giving them credit for beating a brand name team, which is exactly what you and other people who tout "resume ranking" denounce at any chance. Assuming a win is quality just because the team was good years ago doesn't work. Find me a statistic that proves FSU is a good team this year.
They beat a Syracuse team that turned it over 8 times, 8 times!
Besides that they beat Wofford, Western Kentucky, and Charleston Southern. Find me a team that played 3 weaker out of conference games in 5 games. Go ahead I dare you.
Number 3 in the country, how laughable. I stopped reading your poll after that because there's no way to take it seriously.
One can be helpful "bigmike" without being an ass. You might want to try an practice that.
I do not think FSU is an impressive team. USF's win, however, was impressive. They held FSU to 288 total yards - including 19 yards rushing! - at Tally. The Noles scored only 7 points. By way of contrast, FSU scored 54 on BYU, and 34 on Miami, and even 21 on BC. FSU even had 404 yards against Miami. Without a doubt the most impressive win over FSU this season was USF's.
As for USF's non-con schedule, it sounds like Florida's.
That said, have I ranked USF too high in my draft ballot - maybe. That's why it is a draft.
Other teams that are 2-3, just like FSU:
Duke, UTEP, Syracuse, San Diego State, UNLV for starters. Good teams don't lose 6 out of 10 games. The Noles are a poorly coached crappy team that will probably have a losing record this year. A win over them should not be deemed impressive by any means unless you win 100-0. They are just like any other bad team, except they have a brand name. Tis goes against the rest of your resume ranking theory. If USF beat UNLV like they did FSU, would that impress you? It wouldn't even register on your radar.
You can cherry pick stats from wins over these teams and make an argument for another team. Texas held UTEP to 53 total yards - including 9 yards rushing! Then they beat a seemingly good Houston team the next week who you had ranked #2. Therefore Texas should be higher than USF. Obviously. Case closed.
Ok Florida only has 2 out of conference games already so you missed that point, and Troy would beat an all star team comprised of players from Wofford, WKU, and Charleston Southern. 3 out of 5 games involving out of conference cupcakes like that should be punished, not rewarded with a top 5 ranking.
Do you think if Florida, Alabama, Texas, played Syracuse and wound up +6 in turnover margin for the game, they would win by more than 14 points? Yea me too.
Resume ranking is impossible, you're still being biased to who beat who. Face it, in college football a win ≠ a win. Being 5-0 with that schedule is not a testament to how good USF is, it's simply having the opportunity to play inferior competition 5 times in a row. You wrote at the end about how Kansas and Missouri haven't played anybody so you are holding that against them...bit of a double standard there.
USF hasn't played and therefore hasn't beat ANYBODY. So you can't resume rank them #3. If you watch them play, or even just look at the box score you can definitely tell they are not the 3rd best team in the country. So putting them there is not doing anything for your credibility.
Haha I don't care where you rank UF, that's not what I was questioning. It all stems from deeming the USF's win over FSU "impressive." FSU is in shambles, hence why their senile legendary coach is in the process of being forced out. Everybody in the ACC is going to beat them this year, and it won't count as an "impressive" win for anyone else.
OK so if you aren't going to try and post a poll that makes sense and is well reasoned then why bother with it at all? Who cares if it's a draft in Week 5 or Week 10? Having a crappy team at number 3 is a dumb thing to do whenever, so yea I called you out on it.
I still have no idea why you brought UF into this.
"However, with the exception of Alabama, I don’t really see a team this year that has earned top 5 ranking."
I completely agree with you here, and hence don't envy your position of finding someone to fit slots 2-5 while people watch and judge whoever you choose.
My only problem with your rankings is VA Tech moving up after squeaking by Duke....but you surely aren't the only one who did that.
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