Week 10 CBS Sports BlogPoll Ballot DRAFT

This is not a power poll.  I don't attempt to rank teams based on how good I think they are.  I only rank teams based on their resume.  The poll is designed to be dynamic.  I try to start from scratch every week.  I do attempt to reward teams for "quality losses", while punishing them for bad performances.  I do not give excessive credit for stomping horrible teams.  As always, I want your help.  Keep in mind though that I don't want "team X is way better than team Y."  I do want "team A has a better resume than team B, you should make the change."  Power poll rankings are dumb. 

The teams ranked 1, 6, 15, 17, 24, and 25 all lost to lesser ranked or unranked foes this past weekend.  How are those power polls working for them?  I do not consult major polls when doing this.  Their record of futility is clear.  Let the teams earn their rankings on the field.  I try to remove as much subjectivity as possible.  This system is not perfect.  I like to reward playing well against good teams, win or lose, and punish losing to poor teams more harshly than I reward defeating poor teams. 

3 unranked teams were favored over ranked teams on Saturday.  All three won.  West Virginia destroyed UConn.  Cal convincingly beat Oregon.  Georgia Tech really outplayed FSU until their QB went down with an Injury.

The AP Poll and it's counterparts are silly.  Ranking teams based on who you think is good is not going to work.  We don't know how great teams truly are until they play the games on the field.  I rank what happens on the field.

Rank	Team	Schedule Strength (to date)
1	Alabama	56
2	Texas Tech	64
3	Texas	7
4	Penn State	66
5	Florida	10
6	Southern Cal	29
7	Oklahoma	39
8	Oklahoma State	85
9	Georgia	5
10	Boise State	114
11	TCU	99
12	Utah	88
13	North Carolina	24
14	Missouri	38
15	Ohio State	28
16	California	53
17	Michigan State	36
18	Georgia Tech	73
19	Oregon State	15
20	Maryland	80
21	Mississippi	9
22	South Carolina	31
23	Pittsburgh	32
24	Wake Forest	6
25	Miami (Florida)	20

Close: Ball State (Maybe), LSU (1 decent win, 2 blowout losses, the rest is total filler), Northwestern (had a tough time leaving them off.  2 losses and 52nd ranked schedule), Minnesota (2 losses 65th ranked schedule).

Themes:

Reward Grinders.  I like to reward those who play difficult schedules.  Those mid-majors do not have to prepare for difficult games on a weekly basis, and I take that into account.

I am really punishing these mid majors for their schedule strength.  While big boy teams battle through their conference schedules, teams like Ball State play schedule padding fodder.  There is no way these teams could hang with the big conference guys on a week to week basis.  The attrition would eat them alive.  I did not forget to rank Tulsa and Ball State.  If any team in a major conference played their schedule, wouldn’t they be crucified in the media? NO team currently in this poll would have any trouble running through their two schedules unbeaten, and I think that says something about the evolution of our poll, as the resume system starts to produce a de facto power poll.  That said, TCU, Boise, and Utah schedule much better than Ball State or Tulsa.

FSU:  4-2 (I do not count the 1-AA Games).  93rd ranked schedule.  No way.  The AP has us at #24, but that's just because they don't want to admit that we were ranked too high last week.

Tulsa: I never ranked Tulsa, throughout the entire year, and they were finally bounced by lowly Arkansas. 

Tulsa just showed how bit a talent gap there is between the SEC and Conference USA. Although Tulsa is the best team in Conference USA and Arkansas is a bottom feeder in the SEC, Arkansas was able to march down the field with cool efficiency. Razorbacks quarterback Casey Dick completed 25 of 38 passes for 385 yards.

Ceilings: Those MWest and WAC teams are basically hitting a ceiling as they aren't playing anyone.  Ditto the Big 10 teams.  They're probably at their peak.

Rankings by Conference

B 12: 5, all in the top4

SEC: 5, and 2 in the top 5.

ACC: 5, only 2 in the top 18.

Pac 10: 3

Big 10: 3

MWest: 2

WAC: 1

Big East: 1

Teams that the AP and Coaches ranked that I did not.

15.  LSU (See above).

16.  Ball State (pathetic)

17.  Brigham Young (NO quality wins, and a horrible loss to a mid-major).  Silliness.

20.  West Virginia-- the ECU and Colorado losses look horrible.

24.  Florida State-- we are definitely overranked.

25. Northwestern-- no, but close.

Instead, I had these squads:

Miami

Wake

South Carolina

Ole Miss

Pittsburgh (I might regret this).

Oregon State

What do these have in common?  Tough scheduling, and playing well within that schedule win or lose.

This is just the DRAFT, with your help, I will make changes and resubmit by Wed.  Remember to help in the context of resume ranking.  Let's talk about a team's resume.

UPDATED POLL INSIDE

Rank	Team
1	Alabama
2	Texas Tech
3	Texas
4	Penn State
5	Florida
6	Southern Cal
7	Oklahoma State
8	Oklahoma
9	Georgia
10	Utah
11	Boise State
12	TCU
13	North Carolina
14	Missouri
15	Ohio State
16	California
17	Michigan State
18	Georgia Tech
19	Oregon State
20	Maryland
21	South Carolina
22	Pittsburgh
23	Wake Forest
24	Miami (Florida)
25	Mississippi