Double-barreled blogpollery

No "SECond Look" this week as I didn't watch anything televised and the only halfway interesting development outside of Auburn-LSU was Vandy's continued Annus mirabilis that I covered in increasingly stupid-looking fashion last week.

So, without further ado, here's the JCCW's Week 4 ballot in the ...




1.Georgia. The Dawgs went from posting a minus-37 total yardage deficit at Carolina to a plus-249 surplus at Arizona St. Given that the Sun Devils look like an upper-echelon Pac-10 team and that the 'Cocks are expected to now finish behind Vandy, I think it's fair to say Georgia's doing its part in making the SEC look good.

2. Florida. Man, remember when Sports Illustrated was putting the Florida-Tennessee preview on the cover? This year it was kinda the third-most anticipated SEC match-up of the day ... and somehow still lived down to that billing.

3. LSU. If Jarrett Lee's second half on the Plains isn't a fluke, the rest of the West can start heading for the exits. Everything is, infuriatingly, in place.

4. Alabama. Utter domination of Hogs along both lines way more encouraging (or discouraging, as the Auburn fan's case may be) than the final score, fueled in part by Casey Dick contracting the Christmas spirit three months too early.

5. Auburn. As with the LSU game last year, Tubby had his guys more than ready to play. As with the LSU game last year, it just wasn't enough against a team that was just a little-bit-better across the board, plain and simple.

6. Vanderbilt. This is a public call for the Elias Sports Bureau to figure out if there's ever been an SEC team that had been outgained by 8.15 yards a game, on average, and still wound up at 4-0. It's like the 'Dores saved up all their luck over the last 20 years just for this season.

7. South Carolina. Hard to say the letdown against a decent (for I-AA) Wofford team was all that unsurprising after the kidney punch of the Georgia game.

8. Ole Miss. This is what the Vanderbilt secondary does to people: 12-25, 184 yards, four picks. Somehow I don't think Jevan Snead was expecting his "Welcome to the SEC" moment to come at home against the 'Dores.

9. Tennessee. The one thing Vol fans have always been able to count on with Fulmer is his team bouncing back after they'd been embarrassed, the Vols fighting ther way out of a tough spot. You would think those conditions would have applied after the UCLA loss and Fat Phil's alleged fury in its wake, but, you know, 30-6. Oh well.

10. Kentucky. Louisville looking as good as they did against Kansas St. might have been the biggest development in Kentucky's yawner of a season-to-date since the 'Cats beat the Cards in the first place.

11. Arkansas. If the SEC was a sandlot baseball game and I'm picking teams, at this point I'm probably turning to the other kid and saying "You know what? You can have both those guys."

12. Mississippi St. Please pay no attention to how badly Georgia Tech beat the Bulldogs as opposed to how badly Auburn defeated this same team. It's none of your concern. Please, for the safety of others, keep moving. Nothing to see here.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE, as in the JCCW's Week 4 Blogpoll ballot, which I'm going to go ahead and get out of the way now. Behold:

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

Dropped Out: TCU (#18), North Carolina (#20), Georgia Tech (#24).

The breakdown:

1-7: The cream o' the crop, now featuring LSU after as tough a road win as any team has posted yet this year. Georgia goes back on top after sorta matching USC's home obliteration of Ohio St. with the road domination of the Sun Devils. Mizzou is held back by the defense, Oklahoma and Penn St. by having still played no one of true consequence.

8-11: BCS teams dealing with the weight of not disposing of their schedule's cupcakery in the fashion of the teams above. 'Bama's Clemson win and USF's over Kansas keep them a step ahead of Texas and Wisky--the Badgers are hurt by Fresno's reputation suffering under the weight of both their escape from Toledo and Rutgers' collapse.

12-16: Non-traditional powers still rocking the undefeated record against a worthy slate of foes or, in Boise's case, a single exquisite scalp. BYU's domination puts them out in front, though there's almost no separation in this group behind them.

17-18: The Red Raiders and Cowboys are the last teams I'm willing to put into the poll based on reputation alone; with the best victory between them either road wins over pitiful Washington St. or Nevada, they've accomplished next-to-nothing as of yet.

19-25: One-loss teams fill out the poll, with Virginia Tech leading the way by virtue of two decent wins (Ga. Tech, North Carolina) the other contenders here can't match. OSU, Auburn, and Kansas squeeze in based on their future potential and the quality of their losses--something ECU, Oregon, and Cal can't quite match, though each of those three still have better wins on the toteboard than the remaining competitors for these slots, which include ...

Waitlist: ... one-loss teams Clemson (not that good?), Michigan St. (ND = ???), and Georgia Tech, who I had in last week before deciding the win over Boston College wasn't enough. Undefeated teams in the mix are Ball St., Tulsa, Kentucky, Northwestern, UConn, and TCU, the last of which I let drop out when their New Mexico win started looking less impressive.

WAIT! IF YOU READ THE JCCW WITHIN THE NEXT 30 MINUTES, YOU'LL ALSO RECEIVE THIS PROGRAMMING NOTE: Posting will be light tomorrow as I work on the LSU travel post and perhaps the site redesign. Just FYI.