Blogpoll Ballot - Week 11

I'm pinch hitting for Steve this week and I debated for quite a while about the best way to tackle taking over our BlogPoll ballot. Should I adjust my ballot for this week relative to his last week? That was probably the best for continuity's sake but I'm not ready to slot Ball State in the Top 10 like Steve was. So then, should I just start from scratch? That didn't quite sit right either so I did a little of both, starting with last week's ballot as a guideline but not fearing a large delta up or down if that's the way I saw it.

That's a long-winded way of saying, if our Week 11 ballot differs wildly, or stupidly, from our Week 10 ballot it is solely my fault, but here's how I see 'em:

First, the ballot...

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

Next, some explanation...

1) Texas Tech at #1: Yes, Alabama won ugly on the road and Tech won pretty at home. Should be about equal, right? Not for me. Tech looked nearly unstoppable on offense while Alabama got pushed pretty good by a team without a QB. The Tide's resume, while bad by no means, isn't getting much stronger in the shockingly pedestrian SEC. And finally we can rank Penn State where they belong, as the best team in the Big 10 i.e. 7th.

2) Texas over Florida: There's a whole bushel of good one-loss teams and trying to pick one over the other is becoming increasingly difficult but I'll take Texas' close loss on the road to Tech over Florida's close loss at home to Ole Miss. That said, outside of Leach's Raiders, who is playing better football right now than the Sooners, Gators or Trojans?

3) Mid-majors, this ain't March Madness: You have to go all the way down to 11 to find one of the undefeated BCS busters on my ballot and that's no sign of disrespect. I'm fairly certain that Utah or Boise State could be second or third best in the Big 10, Pac-10, Big East or ACC and that's exactly where I have them ranked. I like the Broncos a bit more than the Utes for two reasons: 1. BSU's best win, at Oregon, is better than Utah's, at home against Oregon State, and 2. Utah had no business beating TCU. The Frogs dominated the stat sheet and if not for two missed FGs would've been the team knocking on the door of the top 10.

4) The ACC has to fit in somewhere, right?: The Tarheels impressed me, both with their dark blue uniforms and their win over Georgia Tech. Florida State still feels like a Top 15 team by default but what are you going to do?

5) Golden Bears still hanging on: I refuse to drop Cal for losing to USC, and covering, on the road. Same goes, more or less, for TCU. No shame in either of their losses this week.

6) Congratulations Broncos: I took a long, hard look at Western Michigan for the Top 25--Nebraska bias acknowledged--but I just couldn't do it with a loss to Central Michigan on their resume. That said, you could make a pretty strong argument for the Mountain West and the MAC being the third and fourth best conferences in the country this year. Penn State and Ohio State are probably a head above any school from either conference, but beyond that who would you take? Air Force, Ball State, BYU, TCU and Utah or UNC, FSU, Michigan State, Pitt, Cal, Cincinnati, Georgia Tech and South Carolina? I wouldn't have a problem picking any team in the first group over any team in the second in a one game playoff.

So that's it, my crack at the Blogpoll Top 25. Have your way with it.