Over The Pylon

In case you were wondering about this Preseason Top 25 and why it all matters, it is because it is ballot #1 in our CBSSports/MGoBlog Blogpoll. Consider it the jump off point of a year-o-awesome that proves that we are indeed informed and not simply living at home in our parents’ basement in between epic dungeons and dragons matches.

Rank	Team
1	Florida
2	Texas
3	Oklahoma
4	Southern Cal
5	Mississippi
6	Penn State
7	Alabama
8	Ohio State
9	Oklahoma State
10	Virginia Tech
11	California
12	Georgia
13	LSU
14	Boise State
15	Nebraska
16	Oregon
17	Georgia Tech
18	Cincinnati
19	Utah
20	TCU
21	Iowa
22	Florida State
23	Brigham Young
24	Clemson
25	Notre Dame

While there’s three of us that run this here site, only Alan’s vote will be the official CBS Sports entry. Of course, the other football “experts” around here have a voice in this, as do all of our readers, explained a bit below.

The poll for me basically comes down to three separate groups of teams. The teams with realistic title hopes, the teams that don’t control their own destiny for a title, and the teams that a decent record and a semi-major Bowl game would be considered a success.

As you move down through those rankings, it’s harder to sort of weed through the haves and the have nots. Teams 1-4 (Florida, Texas, OU, USC) all have realistic dreams of a BCS title. Any one of those 4 could win the whole thing and it wouldn’t be cause for concern, shock, or surprise. Ole Miss, Penn State, Alabama, Ohio State could all be BCS Bowl participants but would raise an eyebrow or two should they make it to the title game.

Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Cal, Georgia, and LSU are all good teams, but unfortunately either play in a conference with too many good teams or in Virginia Tech’s case, not enough good teams, to warrant consideration at the title table. VT may show up in a BCS Bowl game simply because the ACC gets an auto bid. Past that top 13, pull them out of a hat and you’re basically getting the same results we are. It’s totally random, difficult to do without any kind of resume, and the movement the first three to four weeks will come primarily in the spots past #13.

I tried to be as non-BCS friendly as possible, ranking Boise State, TCU, Utah, and BYU and this year there are enough marquee games on their schedules to warrant some significant consideration should they win them.

The reason why your commentary and critique is needed is this isn’t neccesarily the final version. There is the opportunity for us to move some folks around, drop some, raise some, etc. pending on what’s going on. Poll is due Monday. So… what say you, Cardinal Nation?

Filed under: Blogpoll |