I'd like to start out by saying that I don't believe that Auburn is the best team in the country. However, I do believe that, at this point in time, they have the best résumé in the country, and that's why they jump Oregon despite the Ducks' shellacking of UCLA (oh, like nobody else has done that this year).
The California Golden Blogs Ballot - Week 9
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Auburn Tigers |
 1 |
| 2 | Oregon Ducks |
 -1 |
| 3 | Boise St. Broncos | -- |
| 4 | TCU Horned Frogs | -- |
| 5 | Michigan St. Spartans |
1 |
| 6 | Missouri Tigers |
14 |
| 7 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 8 | Wisconsin Badgers |
2 |
| 9 | Stanford Cardinal |
2 |
| 10 | Utah Utes |
-1 |
| 11 | Ohio St. Buckeyes |
2 |
| 12 | Arizona Wildcats |
5 |
| 13 | Nebraska Cornhuskers |
2 |
| 14 | LSU Tigers |
-6 |
| 15 | Oklahoma Sooners |
-10 |
| 16 | Florida St. Seminoles |
-2 |
| 17 | Iowa Hawkeyes |
-5 |
| 18 | Arkansas Razorbacks |
1 |
| 19 | South Carolina Gamecocks |
-3 |
| 20 | USC Trojans |
2 |
| 21 | Mississippi St. Bulldogs |
3 |
| 22 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys |
-4 |
| 23 | Baylor Bears | -- |
| 24 | Miami Hurricanes |
-1 |
| 25 | Nevada Wolf Pack | -- |
| Dropouts: West Virginia Mountaineers, Kansas St. Wildcats | ||
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "
Elsewhere, Missouri finally beats a respectable opponent and moves up into our Top 10; Les Miles' magic voodoo bag finally runs out; and we welcome Baylor(!) to our poll (and no, this is not a basketball poll). Justifications after the jump:
ragnarok: First of all, LSU clearly caused some confusion, getting votes anywhere from 6th to 19th. Do you guys care to comment?
Berkelium97: Les Miles owed his once-pristine record to a boatload of luck. Look at how many near-losses that team had. Just like I penalized Oklahoma for barely scraping by in several of its wins, LSU doesn't get much benefit from week after week of voodoo magic.
Norcalnick: I suppose I should comment since I had LSU at 6. Looking back, I'm thinking maybe I should have Bama above LSU. My original thought process was that LSU and Alabama had a similar resume in terms of wins, but LSU's loss was closer and to a better team than Alabama's. But now I'm noticing that Bama's wins were more impressive in terms of margin of victory, so I guess I should switch them. Luckily this problem will be solved in a week.
ragnarok: And what about Auburn? Up to #1, despite our skepticism of LSU being justified?
Yellow Fever: Auburn has a more impressive list of victories...or is it that the SEC is still worse than we thought this year? I'm inclined to give Boise the benefit of the doubt here and leave then ahead of the Tigers based on their longer track record.
Berkelium97: Auburn’s superior strength of schedule gets them the nod over Oregon for the number 1 spot. Unless Oregon steamrolls USC, I’ll probably put Auburn at #1 next week too (unless the fighting Masolis upset Auburn).
Norcalnick: Auburn clearly has the number 1 resume in the country thus far, though Oregon, and to a lesser extent Michigan St. & Missouri, will have chances to state their cases next week.
ragnarok: Speaking of Missouri...
Yellow Fever: I realize Missouri has beaten a mostly nondescript slate of opponents, but Oklahoma being ranked number 1 by the computers going into this weekend has to count for something. Whether that means they should be ahead of TCU at this point is a good question, but one that will resolve itself once they play Utah anyway.
Berkelium97: Besides beating an overrated Oklahoma team, Missouri hasn’t done much this season. We’ll see if they can keep up with Nebraska next week. If the Tigers win, they’ll have a good shot at cruising to the BCS title game.
Norcalnick: I'm not sure what to make of Missouri. Prior to playing Oklahoma their best win was probably over Texas A&M. And it's not like Oklahoma was the most convincing Top-10 team. Let's not forget that they've been out-gained on a per-play basis this year, a bright red alarm if there ever was one.
ragnarok: Final thoughts...
Yellow Fever: I was hoping to shoehorn a Big East team in there somewhere, but even I can't justify ranking West Virginia after their debacling against Syracuse last weekend. Truly inexplicable.
Berkelium97: Utah keeps falling downward as BCS league teams rack up more notable wins. It’s tough to ignore that fact they have been destroying everything in their path. TCU at Utah is going to be a fun game.
My reports of the Foles-less Wildcats’ death appear to be greatly exaggerated. I bumped them back up to 14th where they belong.
There’s not much to say about 20th-25th. It’s a hodgepodge of strange teams that can be great one day and terrible the next.
Norcalnick: Sorting out the various one loss teams is getting progressively harder each week. Suddenly Wisconsin has one of the best resumes in the nation, almost on par with Alabama's one loss resume. Balancing teams without many good wins and one loss vs. a very good team against teams with good wins and one very bad loss is surprisingly difficult.
Baylor! Sure, they don't have any particularly impressive wins, but their offense looks legit and they've earned a spot at the bottom of the poll as much as any middling team from the ACC or Big East.