The Blogpoll and Big 12 Ralphie Report Rankings - Week 6

by Jon Woods on Oct 6, 2008 8:12 PM MDT in Blog Poll Comment 4 comments

Something looks a little bit different about this week's BlogPoll ballot huh? That's right, the BlogPoll is now an official college football poll on CBS Sports. What does that mean? Mainly that a lot more fans will have access to each individual sites weekly voting and I have to have my ballots in by Monday morning.

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Oklahoma	--
2	Missouri	1
3	Alabama	1
4	Texas	1
5	LSU	1
6	Penn State	--
7	Southern Cal	--
8	Texas Tech	1
9	Georgia	2
10	Florida	2
11	Brigham Young	3
12	Ohio State	5
13	Wake Forest	5
14	Oklahoma State	8
15	Virginia Tech	4
16	Georgia Tech	4
17	Vanderbilt	4
18	Utah	5
19	Auburn	9
20	South Florida	7
21	Northwestern	3
22	Tulsa	3
23	Kansas	9
24	Illinois	2
25	Wisconsin	9

Dropped Out: Connecticut (#15).

Explanations on the movement and my Big 12 Rankings after the jump...

Other teams that I considered for my rankings (in order):
26) Boise State
27) North Carolina
28) TCU
29) Ball State
30) Cincinnati

Breakdown:

- Having to do a ballot in a top 25 poll is a lot tougher than I thought that it would be and it certainly gives me a lot more respect for the others that do it each week. Due to the new affiliation with CBS Sports we have to get our final ballots in much sooner which eaves a lot less time for feedback. Irish questioned two things in this weeks ballot. The #13 ranking of Wake Forest and the exclusion of Boise State, both of which I agree with him on. It's very hard not to get in the habit of moving teams up just because a team ahead of them lost.

So starting next Sunday morning (actually afternoon since I will still be sleeping off the OU/TX game) I am going to cut out pieces of paper for each team that could logically be considered for the top 25 and rank them from scratch. Some time in the near future I would like to be able to have a chat or live thread where we meet once a week to debate The Ralphie Report ballot together and truly have your feedback on our rankings, but at least for now will just have to debate the selections after I put together the initial list.

As always you can view the chart showing the picks for the entire year and below you can see how I rank the Big 12.

Week 5 Big 12 Rankings

Great looking win for the Sooners, but injuries to Jon Cooper and Gerald McCoy on the lines are a little scary. With Granger already hobbled can Oklahoma afford to lose another all-conference defensive tackle?

Chase likes boogers, but he doesn't like being spit on. Who knew? Missouri ended their drought in Lincoln with an exclamation point, shredding the Husker D. Now the Ok State comes into town. Guesses on the over/under?

Texas and Oklahoma both avoided the upsets that plauged them both last season to set up the first undefeated OU/TX game since 2004. The Longhorns will need the same pass rush they had against the Buffs to have a chance in Dallas.

Texas Tech has made their first statement of the 2008 season. A a notoriously poor road team, Tech came out and pummeled the Wildcats in Manhattan. Man, the top of the conference is crazy strong this year.

The Big 12 is going to get a lot of press this week and much of that is due to the Pokes. OU/TX is always good, but who knew that Saturday night's OSU-Mizzou game was going to be the must watch primetime affair that it has turned out to be?

Phew. Kansas barely Ames with a win, but was able to get their running game going in the process. Their one loss doesn't look quite as good after the Bulls fell to Pitt and now have a desperate Buffalo squad headed to town.

The defense gave it all they had against the Longhorns this weekend but they couldn't overcome the lack of offense of special teams. The Buffs need to put together a very strong game in Lawrence this weekend.

Is Nebraksa that bad or is Missouri just that much better? The Husker defense has looked awful the past two weeks and has Tech on the road this weekend. It's safe to say the honeymoon is over for Bo Pelini.

There are big games at the top of the Big 12 this week and there are big games at the bottom. Baylor put up a decent fight against the Sooners (well, Robert Griffin did) and now get to prove they are the best of the worst by beating the Cyclones.

Iowa State had their chance for a huge win over a ranked opponent in Ames this weekend but couldn’t overcome as the Jayhawks capped a mad comeback to win. Still showed a ton of improvement though.

Another week and another blowout for the Aggies. They better get their offense going at home this week agianst Kansas State or I will have to finally relegate them to the Big 12 cellar.

For some reason there was a lot of people taking K-State plus the points even though the spread was a low 7. This Kansas State defense isn't going to get close to stopping these prolific Big 12 attacks.

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Comments

I do like the theory of ranking...

from scratch but I also think you have to consider the body of work in the words of the selection committee =D

Some people are like Slinkies...not really good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.

by Denverjhawk on Oct 6, 2008 3:31 PM MDT reply actions 0 recs

Haha

I will for sure, I just feel like that way I can take out the bias of “team A was ranked ahead of team B last week and won so they have to still be ranked ahead of them this week”.

The Ralphie Report - University of Colorado Athletics

by Jon Woods on Oct 6, 2008 3:40 PM MDT up reply actions 0 recs