Over The Pylon

Quite the shiftiness this weekend, as a ton of teams that we had ranked decided they’d rather lose than continue to be in the conversation of who is the best football team. To be truthful, it isn’t necessarily that they lost… it’s who they lost to. Ohio State to Purdue? Kansas to Colorado? Those sorts of losses are significantly damning to any team attempting to make a case their in the elite club. This is only a draft so it’s open to comment, critique, and suggestions. It’s probably very needed.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	1
2	Texas	2
3	Florida	2
4	Cincinnati	2
5	Iowa	11
6	Southern Cal	2
7	TCU	—
8	Boise State	3
9	Miami (Florida)	2
10	Georgia Tech	10
11	Oklahoma State	1
12	Brigham Young	1
13	Virginia Tech	10
14	LSU	3
15	Oregon	3
16	Penn State	3
17	Pittsburgh	6
18	Houston	8
19	Texas Tech	7
20	Nebraska	10
21	Oklahoma	7
22	Utah	4
23	Central Michigan	2
24	Arizona	2
25	Boston College	1
Last week’s ballot

Teams dropped out entirely this week were Ohio State (#9), Kansas (#15), South Florida (#21), South Carolina (#22), and Notre Dame (#24). South Florida and South Carolina were damn close to staying in because of their body of work and who they lost to this weekend, but both were just barely left out. Certainly in the waiting room for next week. The other poll particulars…

• Bama and Texas move up because of wins over other ranked teams, Florida down because of their lackluster performance against Arkansas. The body of work for Bama speaks for itself, and despite the sloppy awfulness of the Oklahoma game, Texas gets the nod… for now.
• Virginia Tech stays in the poll despite their loss because of who they lost to, where they lost to them, and the overall body of work for the Hokies.
• Boise was significantly unimpressive in their victory over Tulsa. Hence, they not only drop a bit, they are no longer the highest ranked non-automatic qualifier. If this poll was the BCS, Boise would be S.O.L. That’s the sort of problem with their conference and their schedule… a loss is devastating, a mediocre win is just as bad, and an impressive win isn’t all that impressive. Certainly out of Boise’s control, but they pay regardless.
• Iowa is a tremendous mover this week, as being undefeated in a major conference certainly makes you deserving of a Top 10 ranking. Iowa may certainly
• From about position 17 on down, it’s a total guessing game. There’s probably two dozen teams that are deserving of being ranked, have an argument to be made to be there, but just didn’t make the cut.
• Games watched this week: Boise/Tulsa, Cincy/South Florida, Pitt/Rutgers, Texas/Oklahoma, Notre Dame/USC, Iowa/Wisconsin, Arkansas/Florida

This poll overall I’m not entirely thrilled with, simply because the shifts and swings are numerous and sizable which makes me nervous that either this poll or last week’s was significantly off the mark.

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