Sorry dear readers everything is pushed way, way back this week. I started a brand new job on Monday and, well, there was some adjustment and a lot of take-home work but now that I’m more settled in, we should be returning to our regularly scheduled blogging.
Anyway, of course I’m not changing my blog to start my poll before four games have been played. That’s crazy, I hate the poll having too much say in things since wins become really impressive at the time and a team gets jumped up for a big win, but that club never has their ranking adjusted if that win turns out to be a dud. Think of it like this, Notre Dame beat Michigan and climbed up the poll to 8th. What if Michigan spirals and is sitting at 3-3 by the mid-point of the year, are the Irish going to see their rank dip any? Nope. That’s why I like to wait and actually watch some games.
Real AP Poll:
- Alabama (54)
- Clemson (6)
- Georgia
- Ohio State
- Oklahoma
- Wisconsin (6) – Man that writer up in Eau Claire is really sticking to their vote.
- Auburn
- Notre Dame – A win is a win but Ball State hanging around was one of the more shocking results of last weekend.
- Stanford
- Washington
- Penn State
- LSU
- Virginia Tech
- West Virginia – It’s too bad Tech and WVU are no longer conference rivals. That would be an awesome match-up this year.
- TCU
- Mississippi State
- Boise State
- UCF
- Michigan
- Oregon
- Miami (FL)
- USC
- Arizona State
- Oklahoma State – Didn’t I say this team was on my radar? It feels good to sometimes be right.
- Michigan State
Dropped: South Carolina (24), Florida (25)
Receiving Votes: Utah, Texas A&M, Boston College, Houston, Maryland, Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Duke, NC State, Ole Miss, Hawai’i, Washington State, USF, South Carolina, Florida State
Teams on my Radar:
American Athletic Conference
Solid weekend for the power six conference. I’m so glad they call themselves that. USF remaining on my radar with that fun win over Georgia Tech, but they aren’t the only team sniffing around. Cincinnati is 2-0, Houston is 2-0 and just bushwhacked Arizona, and several teams are 1-1 with a chance to string victories together. There is also a team in Orlando that is probably going to be ranked every week again this year.
Atlantic Coast Conference
Clemson and Virginia Tech are sure things. Miami still has plenty of time to figure things out and, who knows, maybe LSU eating them up will make Miami more prepared for the other good DLs they will face, including Clemson’s if there is an ACC title game re-match. Boston College is 3-0 and NC State, Syracuse, and Duke are all 2-0. FSU is still a talented club sitting at 1-1 and Wake looked good in a losing effort to B.C.. Honestly, outside the Tar Heels, this league looks like total chaos with some good upset potential.
Big 12 Conference
Oklahoma, Okie State, TCU, and WVU are all worthy of being ranked right now. The Cowboys were on my radar but if people want to hit them on their schedule, I understand. The nice thing about waiting unlike the AP and the coaches is I’ll get to see the Pokes take on Boise State. Several teams are 1-1 but unimpressive, Iowa State is a talented club but 0-1 and Baylor is enjoying a hot 2-0 start.
Big Ten Conference
Indiana and Maryland are 2-0, maybe they join the quadrangle of OSU, PSU, Michigan, and MSU as ranked clubs in the east before long. Wisconsin still hasn’t had a great first quarter but they are pretty dang good in the other quarters. Iowa and Minnesota are each 2-0 and playing some solid defense. Don’t toss out Northwestern. They were demolished by Duke a season ago and still won 10 games. They’re a dangerous club.
Conference USA
Marshall and Louisiana Tech are 2-0 but I think the real story is North Texas. Mason Fine and his fellow offensive players are launching fireworks every week. UNT is 2-0 and have already outscored opponents 104 to 39. Mean Green probably own the best shot at getting into the polls from this league but it is still a bit of an uphill battle…unless they keep smoking teams.
FBS Independents
Notre Dame survived a massive hangover a week after taking down Michigan. BYU fought hard against a good Cal team. They head to Wisconsin next. Taking down a top ten team will most likely get them ranked.
Mid-American Conference
This league has some really fun teams to watch but just no marquee victories yet as Northern Illinois is 0-2 against Utah and Iowa, Akron’s game with Nebraska was shelved, Ball State came up short against the Irish, and the others haven’t really played a blockbuster yet. Still, the MAC has some teams that could sniff the polls if they keep racking up the Ws. Buffalo is already 2-0, Eastern Michigan is 2-0 and just took down Purdue, and the high octane Toledo Rockets are 1-0.
Mountain West
Fresno State, SDSU and Utah State are intriguing 1-1 teams but the real headliners are Boise State and Hawai’i. The Broncos are already a top-20 ball club and look every bit the part through two weeks. The Rainbow Warriors have raced out to a 3-0 start and their fun and gun attack is racking up the yards and points so far.
Pac-12 Conference
For a league that people wrote off, they have produced a bunch of 2-0 teams. Stanford, Oregon, Cal, Wazzu in the north and Colorado, Arizona State, and Utah in the south. Talented USC is 1-1 but young, they very well could be rolling in a couple of weeks and making us all look silly. A very, very wide open league and while that isn’t ideal for making the “playoffs,” it does make it way more interesting as viewers.
Southeastern Conference
Yeah Georgia is going to run away with the east but how about the 2-0 starts of Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and Missouri? The Wildcats especially are fun with Benny Snell Jr and just knocked off Florida for the first time since I was in diapers. Out west four teams are ranked and they are all 2-0 (Alabama, Auburn, LSU, MSU) but don’t forget that about Ole Miss’s 2-0 start, what if they do the unthinkable and take down Alabama?!?
Sun Belt Conference
The three best teams: App State, Troy, and Arkansas State all missed opportunities to take down ranked foes. As a result only Georgia Southern and Louisiana-Monroe are clean in the record books sitting at 2-0. The problem is no one expects GASO and ULM to run the tables and meet each other in the title game so unfortunately, we probably won’t see a Sun Belt team make the polls for quite a while…if anyone makes it at all.
Big Ten and Counting 