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By Ace Anbender
Dropped Out: Oregon State (#16), West Virginia (#18), Oklahoma State (#20), Stanford (#21), Arizona (#22).
Well, there it is: the final Blogpoll of the 2009 season. My BCS-hating self really, really wanted to vote Boise St. #2, but I just couldn’t do it after watching the ugliness that was the Boise/TCU game — I just don’t think either of those teams could have beaten any of my top three. Texas holds on to second by virtue of playing Alabama closer than Florida despite losing their starting QB five plays into the championship game. The rest of the picks will be explained further when I post my final poll — for now, please leave any thoughts/disagreements in the comments.
By Ace Anbender
Dropped Out: Southern Cal (#17), California (#19), Houston (#20).
Well, there it is — my final ballot for the regular season. I honestly had a tough time with my #2, since somehow Texas, Cincinnati, and TCU played similarly difficult schedules (especially when it came to ranked wins), and I really wasn’t impressed with the Longhorns on Saturday night. Unfortunately for those (like myself) hoping for some BCS-busting action, Cinci barely eked out victories over its two toughest opponents (WVU and Pitt) and TCU’s signature wins came against BYU and Utah — neither was enough to merit a jump over Texas.
As always, leave your thoughts in the comments — if there’s something that needs to be changed, I’ll have a final ballot in on Tuesday night.
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By Ace Anbender
Dropped Out: Clemson (#15), Mississippi (#18), North Carolina (#25).
Yeah, it’s a total mess. I might as well have picked the bottom of the ballot out of a hat. So, please leave your thoughts in the comments, and hopefully my final poll will be a little less messy.
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By Ace Anbender
Dropped Out: Wisconsin (#17), Nebraska (#25).
The top ten has settled out pretty well, but making sense of the bottom half of this ballot is like trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube while downhill skiing. Yes, Cal beat Stanford, and Stanford beat USC, but USC also beat Cal earlier this season. Ole Miss beat LSU, but do they really deserve to vault from unranked to #18 because Les Miles lost his mind in the final minute of their game? As always, leave your thoughts in the comments, and I’ll have a final ballot in on Tuesday night.
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By Ace Anbender
Dropped Out: Houston (#16), Arizona (#19), South Florida (#22).
Here’s my first crack at this week’s ballot. Stanford is your big mover after their blowout win over USC. Have I ranked them too high? Too low? Any other glaring mistakes? Leave your thoughts in the comments.
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By Ace Anbender
Dropped Out: California (#20), Notre Dame (#21), Oklahoma (#24), Auburn (#25).
Just did this draft in the Ft. Lauderdale airport, and to be honest I wasn’t able to catch much football this weekend — weddings take first priority, especially when they’re in Miami and you’re from Michigan. Not sure if I like this ballot or not, so leave your thoughts in the comments and I’ll have a final one in on Tuesday.
EDIT: It was pretty inevitable that I would do something stupid, and this certainly qualifies: USC by no means should be ahead of Oregon, by virtue of the Ducks completely annihilating the Trojans in their head-to-head matchup. How quickly we (well, I) forget. This will be fixed for the final poll.
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By Ace Anbender
Dropped Out: West Virginia (#20), South Carolina (#21), Mississippi (#23), Central Michigan (#24).
Didn’t get to a draft on Sunday, so this will serve as both my draft and final ballot; changes can be made until tomorrow morning, so if I made an egregious error, make your case in the comments and I’ll make changes this evening.
Moving Up (and In): Yup, there’s a change up top, even though Alabama was sitting at home on a bye week. I think Florida and Texas have both been more impressive over the recent stretch of play, so UF and UT move up a spot as the Crimson Tide drop to three. Oregon obviously jumps after a (very) impressive victory over USC — I was considering moving them above Iowa, but undefeated is still undefeated (at least when you’re in a major conference).
With several teams exiting the poll, Arizona and Notre Dame move up at the bottom, and Cal, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Auburn reappear on the ballot. There’s little rhyme or reason to my rankings down there — we’ve reached a point where pretty much every team at the bottom is very uninspiring, but I sure as hell wasn’t ranking BYU again.
Moving Down (and Out): USC’s drop mirrors Oregon’s rise, which seems about right. Virginia Tech plummets to the bottom of the poll, but as noted above, there’s a huge dropoff between the teams barely hanging on to a spot and the guys on the outside looking in, so they stick around at 23. West Virginia, South Carolina, Ole Miss, and Central Michigan (I knew I shouldn’t have ranked them) exit after losses.
Games Watched: Honestly, between Halloween festivities and post-Michigan game depression, I didn’t watch a whole lot of football this weekend. Michigan-Illinois, UNC-Virginia Tech, and bits of Oregon-USC pretty much covers my weekend viewing. If anything I did above seems idiotic, blame that, and leave your thoughts in the comments.
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By Ace Anbender
Dropped Out: Brigham Young (#16), South Florida (#20), Kansas (#22), Texas Tech (#25).
Moving Up (and In): Not a whole lot of upward movement this week. I think I was underrating Pitt earlier, so they rise five spots (and will inevitably drop a game and make me look like a fool). Penn State also impressed me last week (obviously), so they rise a few spots — that one loss to Iowa looks better by the week.
Moving Down (and Out): Miami takes a big hit after losing to Clemson, a game they really should’ve have dropped after the insane schedule they had early in the season. I thought they were better than that. BYU, USF, Kansas, and Texas Tech all exit the poll after losses. I’m now angry I included TT in the first place, as they got blown out by a pathetically bad Texas A&M squad.
Games Watched: Michigan-Penn State, Alabama-Tennessee, Texas-Mizzou, USC-Oregon State
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By Ace Anbender
Dropped Out: Brigham Young (#16), South Florida (#20), Kansas (#22), Texas Tech (#25).
There it is. Arguments can be made for several teams moving up or down in the bottom half of the ballot (this seemingly happens every week). As always, leave your thoughts in the comments, and I’ll have a final ballot up on Tuesday evening.
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By Ace Anbender
Dropped Out: Nebraska (#15), Oklahoma (#22), Notre Dame (#23), Wisconsin (#24).
Moving Up (and In): Your big winners this week are Iowa and Georgia Tech. Iowa moved up six spots after knocking off Wisconsin and I stopped unfairly (maybe?) penalizing them for their close shaves against Northern Iowa and Arkansas State. GT gets a huge boost after upsetting Virginia Tech, a team I thought was going to stick around the top ten for a while.
Houston gets a big boost simply because a large portion of the bottom half of the ballot lost — I can’t say I’m really happy that they’re ranked there, but they have as strong a case as anybody. Utah, Pitt, West Virginia, and Texas Tech all move in to the poll. Most of the teams near the bottom are entirely interchangeable, and I can’t say I’m particularly pleased with the weakness at the bottom (I really think TT stinks, but oh well), but resumes are resumes.
Moving Down (and Out): VT plunges, and I have no idea where exactly they should have landed — two losses are two losses, but they made it a game against the No. 1 squad and lost to a team now ranked ahead of them. For now, they sit at No. 15 until I figure out what the hell to do with them. Ohio State is in the same boat as VT, except Purdue is way, way worse than Georgia Tech. They could probably be lower, but they get the benefit of the doubt until they lay another egg, at which point I will gleefully drop them from the poll entirely.
Kansas and South Carolina drop after losses, and four teams (Nebraska, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, and Wisconsin) exit the poll this week.
Games Watched: Cincinnati-USF, Michigan-Delaware State, Ohio State-Purdue (the very end, at least), Oklahoma-Texas, Alabama-South Carolina
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"When your team is winning, be ready to be tough, because winning can make you soft. On the other hand, when your team is losing, stick by them. Keep believing."
- Bo Schembechler
“I ask no man to make a sacrifice. On the contrary! We ask
him to do the opposite. To live clean, come clean, think clean.
That he stop doing all the things that destroy him physically,
mentally and morally, and begin doing all the things that make him keener, finer and more competent" - Fielding Yost
“People come up to me and say, ‘I’m sorry.’ I’m not sorry because I received the greatest thing from the University of Michigan anyone can receive: a degree.” - Zia Combs
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