Blogpollery, Week 11

Figure I can get this out of the way now and focus on Auburn-related things tomorrow. The Week 11 JCCW ballot goes like so:

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas Tech	1
2	Alabama	1
3	Texas	1
4	Florida	1
5	Oklahoma	1
6	Southern Cal	1
7	Penn State	4
8	Utah	3
9	Oklahoma State	1
10	Ohio State	1
11	Georgia	1
12	Missouri	3
13	Boise State	--
14	Ball State	--
15	North Carolina	4
16	Michigan State	2
17	TCU	5
18	Pittsburgh	2
19	Oregon State	2
20	Florida State	6
21	Cincinnati	5
22	Virginia Tech	4
23	California	6
24	LSU	2
25	South Carolina	1

Dropped Out: Maryland (#16), Georgia Tech (#23), West Virginia (#24), Northwestern (#25).

1-2: There's an argument to be made for Alabama: namely, that top-to-bottom their schedule has been much deeper than Tech's; those close victories over Ole Miss and Kentucky didn't look like a lot at the time but both those teams are going bowling and even the Clemson win is way, way better than anything Tech's got in their pure-frosting nonconference slate. But in the end, 'Bama's beatdown of Georgia and Tech's thumping of Oklahoma St. are worth about the same; Tech can follow that up with a win over the deserving No. 3 team in the country while 'Bama's next-est win is, oh, let's go ahead and call it yesterday's overtime squeaker over a team that's lucky to be in the poll at all. Tech belongs at No. 1.

3-8: As was the case last week, Texas remains well out in front of the rest of the one-loss pack. There's something of a mini-gap between the Sooners at 5 and USC at 6; with that Cincy win looking better all the time and Oklahoma still straight wrecking the various Big 12 fools on their schedule, it's a clear-cut top 5 this week.

Choosing between Penn St. and USC isn't easy; the common opponent comparison works out even, since the Nittany Lions win the "Oregon St." one decisively and USC the "Ohio St." one (albeit less decisively). From there, though, the Trojans still have the Oregon and Cal wins while Penn St. has ... at Wisconsin? So USC goes first. Both are still way out in front of Utah, though; after back-to-back 13-10 wins (the latter of which was utterly undeserved), it's safe to say the Utes are lucky to be this high up the ladder.

9-11: The "down 1" arrow alongside a team--Oklahoma St.--that just lost 59-20 looks like it needs some explaining, doesn't it? So look at it this way: the Cowboys, Buckyeyes, and Dawgs all have their only two losses to teams ranked higher up the poll. The Dawgs weren't competitive in either of those losses and their best win (@LSU) is less impressive than either OSU's, so they go third of these three. Despite their pratfall in Lubbock, Okie St.'s win at Missouri is still more impressive to me than the Bucks' at Michigan St., and besides, I just think the Cowboys are better--compare what both teams did while hosting Troy.

As an aside, the coaches now have both Oklahoma ranked ahead of Texas and Missouri ranked ahead of Oklahoma St. Actual, you know, on-field results would suggest otherwise, but who in the coaches' poll has ever cared about those?

12-14: Missouri doesn't have any particularly good wins, but they don't have any bad losses, either--thus separating them from the rest of the two-loss teams below--and at this point winning 52-17 in Lincoln is every bit as good as edging Oregon or beating Navy by 13 at home. I can't believe they're 12th, but I think it's where they belong.

15-21: On with the two-loss (and USC-beating three-loss) parade! Honestly, these teams could all just about be tossed in a bag and drawn out of a hat. Well, except for Florida St. and Cincinnati; they haven't really done enough to rank ahead of the other teams in this group just yet (unless you think a lot more highly of Virginia Tech or West Virginia than I do). TCU's probably the most interesting case here: their only two losses are on the road to top-10 teams, but their only win of interest came at home to a horrifically overrated BYU team. (By the way, you get one guess as to who the coaches ranked higher, BYU or TCU.) I tried to split the difference as best I could, leaving them in-between two teams with a whole host of "decent" wins, the first (Michigan St.) with understandable losses and the second (Pitt) with non-understandable losses.

22-25: The first glut of three-loss teams finally arrives on the ballot, because there's just not anything better out there. Va. Tech comes first by virtue of a whole bunch of respectable wins: at UNC, at Nebraska, vs. Georgia Tech, vs. Maryland. Cal's got the Michigan St. win to hang their hat on, which is a darn sight better than what any other contender for this slot has. And then comes the SEC two-fer; Carolina's worthwhile road wins over Ole Miss and Kentucky are enough to nudge them into the poll at this point, but they can't go in ahead of LSU, who beat the 'Cocks in Columbia, can they? No, they cannot. And so without any other compelling candidates, they both neak in.

Waitlist: Sorry, until/unless they beat Utah, BYU is this year's Hawaii and nothing more. Alarmingly close call against pathetic Washington team? Check. Alarmingly close call against subpar conference foes, such as UNLV, who they beat 42-35 at home? Check. A win next week against Air Force--who after a 38-17 blitzing of the same fair-to-middling Colorado St. team BYU wheezed by 45-42 now has as much claim to a ballot spot as the Cougars--would probably get BYU into the poll, but there's no reason in the world they should be sniffing the top 15.

And while we're on the topic of overrated mid-majors, how on earth did Tulsa worm their way back into the bottom of the mainstream polls this week? Their best win is home against Rice and in their one opportunity against a BCS foe, they lost to a team currently sitting at 1-5 in the SEC. I'd much, much rather have Ole Miss or Iowa.