I am going to get a lot of this wrong.
If you came up with a Top 25 this week, so did you. You just don't know which bits you got wrong yet.
Top 25 polls after one week are silly. Almost as silly as preseason polls. We know more about some of these teams that we did last week, but still not a whole heck of a lot. Too many teams played (and beat up) cupcakes, especially Division I-AA cupcakes. Florida destroyed Charleston Southern, as expected. I guess they get to stay at #1. For now. But a bunch of other, less-heralded teams decimated lower-division opponents. Why can't they be #1 too? For instance, Air Force beat Nicholls State 72-0 on Saturday. What the heck do I do with that piece of information? And, without doing some internet research, can any of you tell me which state Nicholls State is actually located in?
Compounding this issue is the fact that, at CGB, we have three different voters with not only differing opinions on various teams, but differing philosophies on how to even rank those teams. Avinash has decided to take a strict résumé approach to ranking teams, á la Doc Saturday. I maintain that, this early in the year, such an approach gives you a silly (though thoroughly justifiable) ballot. Yellow Fever's ballot disagreed with both of ours. Here's what our madness produced:
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| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | |
| 2 | Alabama |
 3 |
| 3 | Brigham Young |
18 |
| 4 | Texas |
 2 |
| 5 | Southern Cal |
2 |
Yes, BYU in the Top 5. I had the Cougars at #6, actually, but I don't disagree with this result. Beat a Top 5 team on the road? Why, you get to be in the Top 5, son!
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | Oklahoma State |
5 |
| 7 | California |
5 |
| 8 | Mississippi | |
| 9 | Boise State |
10 |
| 10 | Ohio State |
4 |
| 11 | LSU |
3 |
| 12 | Penn State |
5 |
| 13 | Miami (Florida) | |
| 14 | Virginia Tech |
5 |
| 15 | Oklahoma |
11 |
OkState, Cal, and Boise all benefit from big wins, albeit all at home. They also benefit from teams like VATech and Oklahoma. Miami (FL) debuts at #13 after besting Florida State on the road. I couldn't say why Penn State fell; I guess they didn't beat up Akron enough? Ohio State's near miss vs. Navy explains their drop well enough, but shouldn't LSU have also taken it on the chin a little for struggling with a team currently in the midst of a 14-game losing streak? If you ignore the deltas, however, I think this is a pretty reasonable ranking.
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 16 | Notre Dame | |
| 17 | Cincinnati | |
| 18 | Utah |
5 |
| 19 | Georgia Tech |
2 |
| 20 | Georgia |
4 |
| 21 | Florida State |
1 |
| 22 | Oregon State |
4 |
| 23 | North Carolina | |
| 24 | Baylor | |
| 25 | Navy |
Notre Dame and Cincinnati debut after impressive opening victories, although it remains to be seen just how impressive either victory is. Georgia and Florida State prove that falling to quality competition isn't a death knell on your season, and some other teams filled out the rest of the ballot. Including Baylor. Baylor?!? Ranked?!?! Odd, though justified after winning at Wake.
Honestly, I had a lot of trouble with my ballot after #19 or #20 or so. I picked some teams out of the mass of schools that beat up lesser competition, but I don't feel terribly confident in any of my picks.
Oregon drops out for sucking unbelievably bad on national television, and Iowa falls after needing two blocked kicks to beat a I-AA school at home. Texas Tech and Nebraska could easily be Top 25 teams, though their Week 1 performances didn't give us any indication either way. And TCU? I plum forgot TCU. I didn't even look at my preseason ballot when creating this week's, and so when I looked for teams with good Week 1 performances to rank, I ignored TCU, who didn't even play last weekend. Better luck next week, Horned Frogs.