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2017 Week 3 Poll

I hate the polls. I think it has silly swings of teams and doing a poll before several games are played clouds judgement. For instance, MSU was 8th in the nation last year when Wisconsin beat them on the road. UW soared through the rankings as a result, but MSU finished 3-9 (1-7) so was it really an impressive win? As a result, I don’t do my poll until the first month of the season is in the books, but I’ll weigh in on what the poll right now.

Real AP Poll:

  1. Alabama (58)
  2. Oklahoma (2)
  3. Clemson (1)
  4. USC
  5. Penn State
  6. Washington
  7. Michigan
  8. Ohio State
  9. Oklahoma State – Anyone else remember when Baylor was in the top ten and people bashed their scheduling?  OSU has faced a decent AAC team in Tulsa and South Alabama in their first two weeks.  Not exactly murderer’s row.
  10. Wisconsin
  11. Florida State
  12. LSU
  13. Georgia
  14. Louisville
  15. Auburn
  16. Virginia Tech
  17. Miami – I know Hurricane Irma put a monkey wrench in a lot of plans and maybe having the kids play while wondering about friends and family back in Florida would be cruel, but a tiny, tiny selfish part of me that I’m not proud of was disappointing UM was so quick to cancel a trip to a decent Arkansas State club.  Makes getting a read on this ACC contender a bit of a challenge because the Bethune Cookman opener was extremely soft.
  18. Kansas State
  19. Stanford
  20. TCU
  21. Washington State
  22. USF
  23. Tennessee
  24. Florida
  25. UCLA

Dropped: Notre Dame (24)

RV: Utah, South Carolina, Colorado, West Virginia, Oregon, Maryland, Notre Dame, SDSU, Houston, Mississippi State, Boise State, Cal, Vanderbilt, Iowa, Texas Tech, Michigan State

Josh’s Top 25:

N/A, I’ll wait until after week four to formally introduce my poll but I would have had a lot of these teams ranked as well. Here are a few gut reactions in bullet form:

  • Tad surprised USC jumped Penn State.  PSU has played two complete games.  USC was great against Stanford, but that Western game showed some flaws.  On a neutral site, I’d take the Lions at this point ahead of the Trojans
  • TCU is on quite a rise but just a reminder that their wins are Jackson State (FCS) and Arkansas, a team no one expecting a thing from in the SEC this year.  9/23 at Oklahoma State will be the real test for the Frogs’ potential
  • Washington State still ranked and Boise still receiving votes?  Devil’s advocate: neither are that good.  Tons of questionable coaching and player decisions in that game.  Curious to see how the Cougs look on the 29th against USC in Pullman and Boise State have a few tricky games before heading to SDSU on 10/14
  • Not sure how I feel about UCLA being ranked.  A miracle comeback against a poorly coached TAMU team and then blowing out Hawaii.  I’m waiting and seeing with the Bruins.  Just don’t trust Jim Mora Jr. enough
  • Vanderbilt with just a couple votes?  I mean, I’m not sure they deserved to be ranked but they won at a good C-USA team convincingly and then shutout a FCS team.  They’ve allowed six points all year.  Not per game, all year.  Eight quarters, six points.  With their tough schedule upcoming (KSU, Bama, at Florida, and UGA) they’ll have plenty of cracks at a statement win but the early returns have been as impressive as what TCU or Oklahoma State have done.

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