BlogPoll Week 6: The Jump Around Edition.....

Barrel of Rum Ballot - Week 6

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama Crimson Tide	--
2	Oregon Ducks	3
3	Oklahoma Sooners	3
4	Nebraska Cornhuskers	-1
5	Boise St. Broncos	-1
6	Ohio St. Buckeyes	-4
7	TCU Horned Frogs	--
8	Stanford Cardinal	--
9	LSU Tigers	2
10	Miami Hurricanes	4
11	Auburn Tigers	-1
12	Florida Gators	-3
13	Iowa Hawkeyes	8
14	Arizona Wildcats	-2
15	Florida St. Seminoles	7
16	Arkansas Razorbacks	3
17	South Carolina Gamecocks	1
18	Virginia Tech Hokies	--
19	Utah Utes	-6
20	Nevada Wolf Pack	3
21	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	-1
22	Michigan St. Spartans	--
23	California Golden Bears	--
24	Air Force Falcons	--
25	Michigan Wolverines	-1
Dropouts: Wisconsin Badgers, N.C. State Wolfpack, USC Trojans, Texas Longhorns

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

Hash and I had a bit of a tiff last night about this. He was making a souffle, I was making a chip-board model of a Corinthian column, you know, the kind of manly things we'll need when the apocalypse comes, and we were just talking, you know catching up.

His point - I've seen it with my eyes, I know how good these teams are

My point - Qualitative judgments are inaccurate, especially over a limited sample size. After all, that's why man invented science. <---bigger words demonstrates bias of author.

Both are valid approaches, and both have their pluses and minuses.

You may be asking "Is that why this is late?" No, this is late because I suck. Technology no is my friend.

So, a lot of the jumping around this week is due to my point of view, and Hash's patience. Sure, we're five games into the season, but if we throw out all the games against teams worse than Vanderbilt, and there are a lot of them, we find that many teams have played only one or two meaningful games. With only one or two meaningful data points it stands to reason that the rankings are still highly volatile. The good news is this should settle down quickly over the next two weeks, as the conference schedules really get going.

On to each team

1-Alabama - double duh

2-Oregon - gotta respect the offense in a conference that is looking super strong.

3-Oklahoma - bit of a disagreement here. We jumped Nebraska up to three after watching them beat the heck out of Washington, a win Hash wants to credit even more now after the Huskies went on to beat USC. I'm leaning towards down grading Washington because BYU has turned out to be worse than we thought, and USC may also be worse than previously suspected. Also Nebraska struggled against South Dakota State the next week while Oklahoma has victories over top 25 Air Force and Florida State, and Texas.

4-Nebraska - Really haven't done anything to deserve to slide. There schedules been a little week in the early going, but it will get tougher.

5-Boise State - If we want less Clemson vs. Presbyterian College, and more Clemson vs. Auburn, we need to start rewarding teams for playing tough schedules, and punishing teams for playing weak schedules. Boise, this has nothing to do with you <---yes it does.

6-Ohio State - Nice win over Miami, but other teams are putting together tougher resumes while you've played Ohio U and struggled with Illinois. We think you'll bounce back when you get into the meat of your schedule, but for now we have to credit what you've done, not what we think you'll do.

7-TCU - yep

8-Stanford - Loss to Oregon counts as good loss

9-LSU - we hate you. As soon as you lose we are dropping you so hard, but you keep winning games over decent teams. Screw you.

10-Miami - bouncing back....

11-Auburn - Huge disagreement here. Hash really believes in this team. I'm not so sure. Their reputation rests a lot on two games against Clemson and Mississippi State. Auburn was good but not dominant in either game. Clemson and Mississippi State have a lot to prove, and that will affect my opinion of Auburn greatly. I'm also not sold on South Carolina, but thats just because they are South Carolina.

12-Florida - Nice, not outstanding, but nice.

13-Iowa - Really bounced Iowa back up. That's mostly my doing as I think we punished Iowa too harshly for a loss to what is appearing to be a pretty good Arizona team.

14-Arizona-Why is Arizona below Iowa. No idea.

15-Florida State - Up and coming. The BYU win doesn't look nearly as impressive. Loss to Oklahoma may not have been as damning as we thought. It looks like Oklahoma may be really good.

16-Arkansas-Maybe last minute win over Georgia wasn't such a great thing. Played 'Bama tough though.

17-South Carolina-just kind of hanging out

18-Virginia Poly - Another big disagreement. A tough loss to Boise is actually a good thing at this point in the season. It means more to play a good team well and lose, than to beat the dong out of a bad team. I also think James Madison is a better team than people think. Throw on a good wind against NC State.

19-Utah - I was ready to dump Utah completely from the top 25. Hash wanted to keep them because they hadn't done anything to deserve being dumped. I just think they've been floating around in the top 25 despite playing a week schedule because we all remember the last second victory over Pitt, who at the time we thought would be pretty good. Turns-out Pitt is very bad and maybe we should re-evaluate Utah's win over the Panthers.

20-Nevada-Ride that Cal win boys! Ride it!

21-Oklahoma State- best win was against Texas A&M, who has played nobody

22-Michigan State-Yeah, bout time to respect them. Hash had them much higher, and they did beat Notre Dame and Wisconsin. I held them back because they played Western Michigan, Florida Atlantic, and Northern Arizona also. Very Boise only you beat Notre Dame and Wisconsin, not Virginia Poly and Oregon State. Still, wouldn't be surprised if Hash ends up being right.

23-California-Kind of the reverse of the Michigan State scenario. I ranked them much higher, giving them credit for playing well against tough competition. Hash dropped them for not winning those games. As the French would say "This is life"

24-Air Force - love it.

25-Michigan - caution, contents may be hot.