CBSSports.com BlogPoll #14
1 comment so far
November 24, 2009 by
You know how up to this year Steve Spurrier always cast a vote for Duke in some sort of acknowledgment to the absurdity of preseason polls? I'm doing my version of that this week, not in protest but as an admission to the lack of truly good teams outside the top eight.
The benefactor? Your winners of nine straight games the Temple Owls.
 | ||
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | |
| 2 | Alabama | |
| 3 | Texas | |
| 4 | TCU | |
| 5 | Cincinnati | |
| 6 | Boise State | |
| 7 | Georgia Tech | |
| 8 | Pittsburgh | |
| 9 | Oregon |  1 |
| 10 | Ohio State | 2 |
| 11 | Oklahoma State | 2 |
| 12 | Iowa | 2 |
| 13 | Houston | 2 |
| 14 | Penn State | 2 |
| 15 | Stanford |  6 |
| 16 | Southern Cal | 1 |
| 17 | Brigham Young | 1 |
| 18 | Virginia Tech | 1 |
| 19 | Oregon State | 1 |
| 20 | Miami (Florida) | 1 |
| 21 | Utah | 1 |
| 22 | Clemson | 2 |
| 23 | Nebraska | 2 |
| 24 | LSU | 13 |
| 25 | Temple | |
| Last week's ballot | ||
IN
Ranking Temple is honestly something I never thought I would do in my lifetime but getting to 9-2 at that school might be the most impressive accomplishment of the season. That's as many wins as the Owls had in '07 and '08 combined and just three years removed from winning four games over the previous four seasons. They beat Navy who, for whatever it's worth at this point, beat Notre Dame at home.
OUT
Wisconsin is the perfect example of the sort of team Temple can replace. Are the Badgers better than the Owls? Undoubtedly, but Wisconsin seems just like every other team between about 16-25. Two or three losses, no great wins, just quietly being (pretty) good. Sigh.
METHODOLOGY, ETC.
--My biggest loser this week is LSU. Maybe their drop is a little harsh, but I haven't really been impressed by the Tigers all season long. They only have two losses and normally in the SEC that's deserving enough of a Top 15 ranking but not this year. I probably should've just dropped them entirely for Ole Miss.
--I didn't punish Stanford nearly as badly for losing a rivalry game to unranked Cal missing their marquee player specifically because it was a rivalry game and, traditionalist that I am, I like to buy in to that whole "throw out the records" rigmarole.
--Seems like a lock that the Big 10 is going to get two BCS teams and this frustrates me to no end. I just don't watch the Big 10 and think "great football." I'd much rather see any of the three non-BCS schools currently in the running fill those spots. I don't know about TCU or Cincy, but Boise State will travel. Keep it in mind bowl committees.
--Given that this season has lacked any truly titanic regular season match-ups, I'm becoming concerned that there's no way the game we're all waiting for--Florida-Alabama--can possibly live up to the hype. We've been waiting for it for about 10 weeks now. That's a lot of build-up.
--Texas-Nebraska should get a pretty good push from the folks at ESPN/ABC too, but the ACC rematch between GT and Clemson is intriguing in it's own right. The Yellow Jackets jumped out early thanks to an illegal trick play on their way to a 21-0 first quarter lead, but the Tigers clawed their way back into it over the next two quarters. Both teams are better now, and the location of the schools is better, so maybe we can get more than 10,000 people to show up.
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Mr. Bump Nov 25 09
Have to say the same thing here that I did over at Mizzourah...ranking Temple above nine Big 12 teams is nothing short of ridicurous. Nine wins or not, on a neutral field they would lose to every Big 12 team.