CBSSports.com BlogPoll Ballot: Week 3
3 comments so far
September 13, 2009 by
Not a lot of major moving and shaking going on this week other than Oklahoma State's fall from grace.
Let's get to the poll:
 | ||
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | |
| 2 | Texas | |
| 3 | Alabama | |
| 4 | Southern Cal |  1 |
| 5 | Penn State | 1 |
| 6 | California | 1 |
| 7 | Boise State | 1 |
| 8 | Brigham Young | 1 |
| 9 | Mississippi | 1 |
| 10 | Oklahoma | 1 |
| 11 | Oklahoma State |  7 |
| 12 | Virginia Tech | |
| 13 | TCU | |
| 14 | Ohio State | 2 |
| 15 | Georgia Tech | 1 |
| 16 | LSU | 1 |
| 17 | Georgia | |
| 18 | Kansas | |
| 19 | Nebraska | |
| 20 | Pittsburgh | 3 |
| 21 | Cincinnati | |
| 22 | Miami (Florida) | 2 |
| 23 | Missouri | 1 |
| 24 | North Carolina | 1 |
| 25 | Michigan | |
| Last week's ballot | ||
OUT
Maybe Clemson doesn't truly deserve to drop out after showing some moxy after Georgia Tech tricked their way to an early lead, but truth be told neither team looked quite as good as I thought they were. If it's any solace to Tiger fans, I dropped the Jackets a spot. Also, it's back on the outside looking in for Notre Dame.
IN
Any good feelings about being able to drop the Irish out of the polls--where they started for me--were negated by having to replace them with Michigan. Realistically, I'd put the Wolverines in the 25-30 range but their two week resume makes as good a case for inclusion as anybody elses, so congratulations Rich Rodriguez.
The other team making their debut is Cincinnati. I'm still a bit concerned about them defensively on paper, but oh that offense.
METHODOLOGY
--Their is really not a lot to discuss this week. Oklahoma State drops back to where most of us thought they were to start the season: the third best team in the Big 12 South, and maybe I'm being generous keeping them at #11. There's no doubt the Cowboys are dangerous, but the Houston loss proves--at least for now--that they're still susceptible on any given Saturday. Or, as Darren noted, they're still Oklahoma State.
--Ohio State. I probably punished them too much for their close win against Navy, but the lesson for me Saturday night was not that the Buckeyes were better than I thought. Rather, USC is mortal, which is to say even the mighty Trojans' freshmen quarterbacks still look like freshmen quarterbacks. As long as Terrelle Pryor insists upon throwing fadeaway passes off his back foot, I'm pretty skeptical of OSU's chances in big games but I did bump the Buckeyes two spots for being more impressive in a loss than either GT or LSU were in their wins over Clemson and Vanderbilt respectively.
--I thought Pitt might struggle a little bit going on the road to Buffalo, and Gill's boys did outgain the Panthers but it didn't look like Pitt had much reason to air it out on Saturday. I'll stick with them for now as the best Big East team out there, but I have a lot more faith in Brian Kelly than I do in Dave Wannstedt so consider me cautiously optimistic regarding the Bearcats chances in that conference.
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darren Sep 14 09
OSU is still too high at 11, imo. Mostly because I don't think Geogia is that good this year, either.
You like the Wannstache more than most, BLV. Hey, I guess SOMEBODY has to win the Big Least, right? Pitt is the favorite there b/c Pederson is all about excellence. All that guy does is win.
A couple of ACC teams lurking near the bottom that could be good - Miami and NC. Keep and eye on both, especially when the 'Canes meet OU.
caveman99 Sep 14 09
If anything else, I am actually currently intrigued by the year-end MU-OSU match up. I am really happy ND fell on their faces. Issue is that they could still go 9-3 and be a BCS pretender, I mean participant.
TIM Sep 14 09
Hope to see VA Tech in the dropped out category next monday morning.