Blogpoll: Week Four

by Kevin Meacham on Sep 21, 2009 4:37 PM EDT Comment 0 comments

UConn-related stuff coming up later, but first this:

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Florida
2	Texas	1
3	Alabama	1
4	Penn State	1
5	California	1
6	Boise State	2
7	LSU	4
8	Mississippi	2
9	Southern Cal	7
10	Cincinnati	3
11	TCU	5
12	Virginia Tech
13	Ohio State	4
14	Miami (Florida)	3
15	North Carolina	7
16	Oklahoma	2
17	Michigan	2
18	Florida State
19	Kansas	5
20	Pittsburgh
21	Brigham Young	14
22	Washington
23	Houston
24	Oklahoma State	3
25	Notre Dame
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Nebraska (#15), Georgia Tech (#18), Utah (#23).

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Most impressive: Miami, as everyone else moves up due to inertia and shockingly unshocking USC upsets. Jacory Harris is my new favorite NCAA football player, and not just because he's got a sharp, quick wit (watch starting at the 1:30 mark; h/t to EDSBS.) I don't even have any particular love for Da U (and I have them a shade lower than the quick-to-overreact AP and coaches' polls), and they've just beaten a couple of inconsistent ACC teams, so no one's quite sure how good the 'Canes are. That having been said, for someone who grew up with Miami a fixture in the top 5 or 10 every week, I'm enjoying the slow rebirth of Miami football.
Honorable Mention: North Carolina (as my opinion of UConn is raised ever-so-slightly, my opinion of the 3-0 Heels increases likewise) and Washington (obviously ... captivating game up there in Seattle, as you could tell if you were following Twitter Saturday afternoon). California picked up a nice win over a mediocre Minnesota team, which I suppose is noteworthy. Mark it down: the Golden Bears will get thumped by USC. Everybody else of substance - read, the victorious teams in the top four - beat a nobody this week.
Least impressive: One of the best parts of being a pollster is the "vindictive dropping of a team based on a terrible loss." You believe in a team, justify their existence among the poll's elite, and then they stab you in the back by losing by 30 to the 5th-best ACC team. Yes, Mountain West teams, you will feel the blowback this week. Utah: done. BYU: hanging in only by virtue of a win over Bradford-less Oklahoma (also, BYU's pathetic performance caused me to move OU down two spots). TCU: Well, they haven't done anything wrong yet. But they will, just you watch!
Honorable mention: Oklahoma State drops out for similar vindictive reasons; struggle to beat Rice, following a home loss to Houston, and you get no love.

Other notes:

Notre Dame stays in the back end of the poll because, while their defense probably could not stop a team made up of me and 10 English schoolboys, I loves me some 30-something to 30-something games. And the Irish will play - and win - a lot of them.
If this were a perfect world, Florida and Alabama would meet in the SEC Championship game to decide one BCS Championship Game team, while Penn State's awful OOC schedule dooms it to finishing 3rd behind Texas. Those are the top four teams, I think, by a long shot right now. So we would get McCoy-Tebow for the BCS title, and Mel Kiper would get into a fistfight with Todd McShay over which one will be the better QB. But it's not a perfect world, so it'll probably somehow end up being 12-0 Boise State against 10-2 Ole Miss for the national title.

Final ballots are due Wednesday at noon; as always, your feedback is encouraged.

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