2011 BlogPoll Preseason Ballot - Attempting To Assess College Football's Elite
by Jon Woods on Aug 25, 2011 1:53 PM MDT
in College Football BlogPoll
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PrintThe BlogPoll is back in action for another season and this year it will live exclusively on the SB Nation platform. For those of you that don't know, the BlogPoll is a poll made up of the people who watch and talk about college football all day long, bloggers.
Every week, I will post my ballot on Monday for discussion and the poll will be posted on Wednesday when it is released. I'll also include my Pac-12 rankings and a link to the spreadsheet I use to come up with these rankings. For this first ballot, I went through the arduous task of ranking every single team by conference (MAC and Sunbelt, you're excluded for now) and then selected what I thought were the top 40. From 40 I narrowed it down to the 30 teams that you see below.
Feel free to dissect my selections in the comments.
The Ralphie Report Ballot - Week 1
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oklahoma Sooners | -- |
| 2 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 3 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 4 | Boise St. Broncos | -- |
| 5 | Virginia Tech Hokies | -- |
| 6 | LSU Tigers | -- |
| 7 | Stanford Cardinal | -- |
| 8 | Wisconsin Badgers | -- |
| 9 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -- |
| 10 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys | -- |
| 11 | Arkansas Razorbacks | -- |
| 12 | Florida St. Seminoles | -- |
| 13 | South Carolina Gamecocks | -- |
| 14 | Missouri Tigers | -- |
| 15 | Texas A&M Aggies | -- |
| 16 | Michigan St. Spartans | -- |
| 17 | USC Trojans | -- |
| 18 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | -- |
| 19 | Ohio St. Buckeyes | -- |
| 20 | Mississippi St. Bulldogs | -- |
| 21 | Air Force Falcons | -- |
| 22 | BYU Cougars | -- |
| 23 | Georgia Bulldogs | -- |
| 24 | West Virginia Mountaineers | -- |
| 25 | TCU Horned Frogs | -- |
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "
Next Five:
26) Penn State
27) Texas
28) Clemson
29) Pittsburgh
30) San Diego State
See my Pac-12 Rankings as well as some notes about my ballot after the jump...
Pac-12 Rankings:
1) Oregon
2) Stanford
3) USC
4) Arizona State
5) Arizona
6) Oregon State
7) Utah
8) Washington
9) Colorado
10) California
11) Washington State
12) UCLA
Check out my complete, conference by conference rankings here.
Notes On The Rankings:
- As I mentioned above, I first start by ranking all of the teams in their individual conferences and then I move them up into a top 30. I'll re-rank the conferences this way every single week in an effort to make sure I am aware of what all the teams are doing, not just the top 25.
- To be honest, I haven't really paid that much attention to the AP and Coaches polls outside of the top 7 or 8 so I'm not entirely sure where my poll differs. I imagine at the very top, the variances lie with Virginia Tech being a bit higher and LSU being a bit lower.
- I'm obviously not buying all of this Texas A&M hype. I've heard this song and dance too many times in the preseason to fall for that again. Remember how excited the Aggies were about Jerrod Johnson's senior season last year? How did that turn out? Ryan Tannehill looked downright awful in the bowl game last season and I expect he will regress from what we saw in most of his regular season starts in 2010. Their running game has a chance to be the best in the Big 12, but the loss of Von Miller on D will hurt more than most realize.
- Florida State is somewhat similar to the Aggies in the preseason hype department. I think the Seminoles are rapidly improving, and could be a favorite to challenge for the title in 2012, but this year the conference belongs to the Hokies.
- From the Pac-12, I have Oregon, Stanford and USC (who I am obviously going to be including in my rankings all season). After that it got a little tougher. At first I had the Beavers up next as I have a lot of faith in Mike Reilly and I expect a big year from Ryan Katz, but after sitting on it for a while I dropped them down a bit and moved both Arizona schools up. Let it be known that I have no faith whatsoever in the Sun Devils, but I just couldn't get past how even this conference is going to be after those top two schools. It's going to make for a fun year.
Who would you move up or down?
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Utah
Utah is too low. They have a shot at the conference crown and you have three south teams ahead of them.
by AlaBuff on Aug 25, 2011 2:56 PM MDT via mobile reply actions
I think every team except for UCLA has a shot of the division crown. I don’t think Utah is going to be better than the AZ schools this year.
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Really happy tto see what you did with FSU and A&M
and Michigan State
Others:
Too High:
Notre Dame
Stanford
Nebraska
Missouri
Too Low:
BYU
Arky
South Carolina
USC
Arkansas was a team that I debated putting even higher. But I couldn’t do it with Knile out.
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Conference standings
i think ASU is ranked too high. I’ve heard they have been getting injury prone. push them down to 7. Utah should be slightly higher at 6. I like where everyone else is and i really think that UCLA is gonna be at the bottom of the south. We have to win that game against UCLA. I also hate that we get no respect on the other blogs cuz i think we have a solid team right now but to get respect we need to earn it.
As for the top 25… no UF? Why is Boise ranked so high? Furd and the corn are also too high. I like where tOSU is but also where is Iowa? It is definitely hard to determine where everyone is at but by the first Sunday in Sept. we should know who needs to be moved.
I think everyone is ranked too high, and everyone else is ranked too low
Honestly, I think it’s kind of silly to do preseason polls. The nature of college football means just about every team in the country lost some big contributors, and no one’s played a game yet. Besides, some people rank teams where they think they stand right now, and other rank based on how they predict.
I mean honestly- Texas has a brand new offense, no proven quarterback, no proven receivers, and no proven running backs. They finished 49th in the nation in points allowed last year. HOW ON EARTH is there a justification for ranking them anywhere near the top 25? This isn’t a knock on you, Woods. It’s the nature of the game. I think UT ended up in the top 25 in both major polls. But there are simply no reasons other than, “they’re Texas,” and, “they have highly ranked recruiting classes” to even consider them until they play some games. And unfortunately, I think the skewed starting rankings skew later polls, especially for SEC teams. “They had a schedule with 6 top 25 preseason teams on it!” Yes, but 3 of them ended up shitting the bed and winning 6 games.
I forget where I read it, but someone said that Mississippi State had an amazing year because they beat Michigan, Georgia, and Florida all in the same year, and would probably never be able to say that again. Well, so what? Those are just names. Georgia and Florida were crap, and Michigan had an abysmal defense and had already fired their coach. You’re SUPPOSED to beat those kinds of teams, regardless of the logo on the helmet. But yet they get the benefit of the doubt year in and year out in the preseason.
Look, I've already told Utah to suck it. There's no going back now.
The Fun Sucker was my nickname in college
wait… nevermind. That joke is probably not going where I wanted it to.
Look, I've already told Utah to suck it. There's no going back now.
by Phil Fraser on Aug 26, 2011 10:45 AM MDT up reply actions
I should have mentioned how I rank.
I do it based on who I think is the better team right now.
Texas is a bad example because you know how irrational my hatred makes me towards them. I just feel that’s where they should be. The defense is going to be good. I agree with you about preseason rankings but I still have to do them. That being said, I’m not afraid to change them up drastically after week one. That’s why I rank each of the conferences, to make sure I can keep track of all of em and how the compare.
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"I do it based on who I think is the better team right now..... The defense is going to be good."
and right there is my problem. That’s all projection. They weren’t good last year, and they lost an Acho. Maybe they’ll be good. But RIGHT NOW, they’re not.
Like I said- this isn’t about you, Woods. You gotta do what you gotta do. But the BlogPoll is gaining in significance, and you all (MGoBlog?) would go a long way toward actually driving the narrative if y’all came out and said you wouldn’t poll until after, say, week 3. After week 3, CU could be a top 25 team, or we could be absolute dreck. We all know this. The same standard should be applied to national brands.
Look, I've already told Utah to suck it. There's no going back now.
by Phil Fraser on Aug 26, 2011 10:40 AM MDT up reply actions
See that's where I disagree
I think their defense WAS good last year. They were on the field for the entire damn game
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OK- answer me this
Why will they be on the field LESS this year?
Look, I've already told Utah to suck it. There's no going back now.
by Phil Fraser on Aug 26, 2011 12:44 PM MDT up reply actions
Because they finished 116 out of 119 in turnover ratio
There’s no way in hell that happens again.
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SB Nation Denver
really? that's the play?
Like I said- my diatribe isn’t about you. But my point stands. No QB, no RB, no WR, and a questionable defense. They’re a logo right now.
Look, I've already told Utah to suck it. There's no going back now.
I know, I understand the point and I know you're aren't
I like Mike Davis a lot, Gilbert (if he even starts) can’t possibly be any worse, and I think Harsin could do some interesting things. Just an opinion.
A) all of my opinions can be wrong
B) I would love nothing more than to see Texas lose 8 games
C) A is invalid because I am freaking amazing
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haha. Point taken
Like I said- Texas, or OU, or Boise may be fantastic. I just want to see some damn games. It’s not your fault that you have to make a preseason list.
Look, I've already told Utah to suck it. There's no going back now.
Not related to the poll
but I saw there was an update to the TV schedule. The Cal game is going to be on FCS-Atlantic and the Ohio State game is gonna be on ABC/ESPN (I guess ABC for Pac-12 and Big 10 areas and ESPN for the rest of the country). Still no time set for the OSU game but hopefully we put on a good showing in front of the national audience.
can't possibly be worse than the last time we went to Ohio...
Look, I've already told Utah to suck it. There's no going back now.
by Phil Fraser on Aug 27, 2011 11:30 PM MDT up reply actions
Kirk Herbstreit just picked UCLA...
to win Pac 12 South on College Game Day!
by HBbuff on Aug 27, 2011 10:03 AM MDT via mobile reply actions
Does he has an irrational hatred of USC?
‘Cuz that’s the best team to pick to throw it in their faces…
…who did he go up against at ohio st?
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