My Top Five:
Alabama, Texas, Penn State, Georgia, Florida
The Next Seven:
Oklahoma State, Southern Cal, Oklahoma, Utah, Florida State, Boise State, Texas Tech
Dropped Out:
LSU, Ohio State, Georgia Tech
Moved In:
Boise State, Florida State, Texas Tech
Watching:
Oregon, Cal, Michigan State, North Carolina, Minnesota, Tulsa, Ball State
Notes:
- All unbeaten teams remained that way this week
- The one-loss BCS teams has dwindled down to five; I had to consider two-loss teams for the first time
- Texas Tech finally made it in, as did Boise State; it was very hard for me to do this
- Once again the last couple of spots in the Next Seven could have gone to several teams but I tried to reward record this week.
- The Top Five was probably the easiest to pick this week more-so than as any before it; Georgia and Florida have both responded well from adversity (LSU might prove to be less and less of a quality win as the season goes on) and USC stood its ground against questionable competition
- The Pac-10, ACC, and Big East are horrid, of course every other conference isn’t looking all that great top-to-bottom, including the Big 12, who had such weak early schedules and are now beating each other in what appear to be quality wins. The Big Ten is still a question and it makes me wonder if there truly is not that much difference between these teams, maybe the unbeaten records of Utah, Tulsa, Boise, and Ball really do deserve a little more credit.
- I’m glad Alabama has a week to catch its breath (I hope) before traveling to Baton Rouge, but it also seems that teams gain ground more ground with big wins than they do taking care of business over lesser teams.
- All this talk of Penn State being a lock is premature, just as talk of Alabama or Texas in the BCS is, but if Texas and Alabama remain undefeated, which would mean winning a championship game over a two-loss Mizzou team, and a one-loss Georgia or Florida team respectively, I don’t see how that looks less impressive than Penn State’s sole quality win over a “mediocre” Ohio State team, Herbstreit be damned. Plus the fact that Penn State will be two-weeks from its last game when the final poll comes out.
- If you think that a three no-loss teamscenario is a nightmare, imagine five or more one-loss teams.
Picture Me Rollin 
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October 29, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Dougo
Fellow Mumme Poll voter here: congrats to Bama for playing the role of Gravedigger in yet another demolition derby (or perhaps Tennessee just felt like playing the Gravedigger in “Hamlet”).
I considered ranking Florida State myself, struggled mightily with them. In the end, though, I couldn’t look past their suddenly meh loss to Wake Forest; I ended up feeling more comfortable putting TCU in my ballot, what with them fresh off blowouts over BYU and much vaunted Wyoming.
Those last few spots in the ballot are going to grow increasingly difficult with each week. I had a tough time figuring it out this week, two weeks from now my head may explode from the two and three loss-ness of it all.
October 29, 2008 at 3:53 pm
picturemerollin
Part of the reason I put a “watch list” up is so that I know who to keep an eye on the next week, or at least I have a little basis for including a team that wasn’t there before.
TCU is a decent team but I made a rule early on that I would only consider undefeated teams that were not in BCS conferences; the body of work just won’t be there. So that excluded TCU after their first loss, just as it will BYU if they beat Utah. I’m just tired of these guys crashing the party of the big bowl games and getting killed, like Hawaii last year. Boise State over Oklahoma is the obvious exception to that but I think it’s hard for a team like OU to get motivated to play a Boise State, who has nothing to lose and can run a Statue of Liberty. Some bowl projections had Alabama in the Sugar playing Boise or Utah. I can’t imagine a worse bowl game. Maybe I’m an elitist but that’s how I see it.
You’re right about the last few spots, I keep making these rules for choosing teams and then breaking them. Ultimately I pick the ones I feel good about first and then pick one or two from the remaining five or six that I considered – but the point being that they could be interchanged with other teams very easily.
Thanks for stopping by – and commenting.