BlogPoll Roundtablin'

I missed the first few of these, but eh, it's Friday afternoon and I want to get something up while I've got a sec. So here we go. Nebraska blog Corn Nation is hosting. And without further ado ...

1. We’re about half way through the season. Has your team met your expectations, wildly exceeded them, or are you about to light the torches and storm your athletic department demanding blood?

The last one, I guess. The blood thing.

2. In an election year, all sorts of promises will be made, few will be kept. What is one promise or item you thought you could count on that hasn’t come to pass yet this season? Is there still a chance?

As an Auburn fan, I've got approximately 1,762 different options with which to answer this question. So rather than force the JCCW's readers to read through another bout of WOE IS US, I'll disclose that I'm fairly disappointed in Oregon, who I had pegged preseason as the eighth-best team in the country. Sure, I had Clemson a notch higher, but when Tommy Bowden is involved in a team-wide collapse, how surprised can you really be? The Ducks, on the other hand, have lost to Boise St., gotten their doors blown off by USC, and had to slog their way past mediocrities like Purdue and UCLA. I know they're working on their 37th-string QB by now and deserve some leniency for it, but still, seven-point home wins over the ragtag Bruins were not what I signed up for. To the extent that I signed up. Which is not very much.

3. Georgia #1... No, USC #1.… No, Oklahoma #1.… No, Texas #1! Who’s the real #1 team, and who do you think will make it to the big BCS National Title game?

Wow, this must be what it's like to be Bruce Feldman or somebody. If by "real No. 1" I'm being asked who deserves to be ranked No. 1, well, we're all pretty well in agreement that's Texas, right? If by "real No. 1" I'm being asked which team is currently the best team in the country, my sneaky suspicion is that it's Florida, who's both looked competent on defense and has started to show the kind of DUCK AND COVER explosiveness their collection of offensive talent is capable of. But if the "real No. 1" is the team that will win the national title, my wager would actually be on Penn St. at this point. Of the current Big Three national title contenders, Alabama is the one who looks most likely to lose and I like Penn St.'s defense better than I do Texas's. Plus, come on: the Big 10 has to get it done one of these years, right?

4. In only a few weeks, college football fans get to be treated with the obligatory and annual “We Need a Playoff” screaming. Well, you don’t get a playoff, but I’ll let you make one change to the BCS (and no, you can’t cop out and have the BCS commit suicide) to make the world a better place. What is your change?

Replace the coaches' poll with the BlogPoll. We have more time to devote to getting ballots right (not that it always helps) and we have enough voters that unlike with the coaches, out biases are largely held in check. The BlogPoll is still far, far from perfect, but it's better than what the coaches are putting out. (Could I have a second change? 'Cause I'd like to go back to just four BCS games and just give the mid-majors one automatic slot. Having a "BCS title game" instead of a Rose Bowl or Sugar Bowl in which the national champion is decided was a bad, bad idea.)

5. Using this year ONLY - no historical references - respond to the statement “The Big 12 is a better conference than the SEC." There’s nothing sillier than conference wars, but then again, there’s nothing sillier than how SEC fans respond to any challenge to their supremacy. Aim, Fire!

Actually, the implication SEC fans aren't rational enough to realize we're in an off-year and that the Big 12 is probably neck-and-neck with us bothers me a heck of a lot more than any implication about the SEC itself. Yes, congratulations, Big 12 fans: your conference has Southeast Missouri Stated and Eastern Washgintoned and Sam Houston Stated its way all the way to the top of the polls, and yes, it's quite possible your teams deserve to be there. But since both our conferences could stand to do more to measure themselves in the nonconference portion of their slates, there isn't any definite statement to be made outside of "The Big 12 has much better quarterbacking" or "the SEC does probably have better defenses." We'll have to wait until bowl season for anything more. Until then, howzabout we assume it's a draw and call a ceasefire on the blanket proclamations, either about the conferences themselves or the fans affiliated, hmm?