After the jump you'll find my draft ballot for week one, followed by brief commentary. You'll note the lack of meaningful delta scores on my ballot, because I abstained from the preseason balloting. Of course, my rankings this week are only marginally less meaningless than would have been a preseason ballot, so next year I probably ought to just get it together and submit a preseason ballot on time. It's all noise for a while, anyway.
My voting philosophy is an ad hoc blend of resume voting and power polling, with the ratio of former-to-latter approaching 1 as the season progresses. At this point, I'm trying to reward quality wins, but the rankings reflect a good deal of opinion (read: wild speculation). If you have strong feelings on voting methodology, or my ordering of teams, the comment sections is yours.
Burnt Orange Nation Ballot - Week 2
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 2 | Ohio St. Buckeyes | -- |
| 3 | Boise St. Broncos | -- |
| 4 | TCU Horned Frogs | -- |
| 5 | Texas Longhorns | -- |
| 6 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -- |
| 7 | Florida Gators | -- |
| 8 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 9 | Iowa Hawkeyes | -- |
| 10 | Miami Hurricanes | -- |
| 11 | Oklahoma Sooners | -- |
| 12 | Georgia Bulldogs | -- |
| 13 | Arkansas Razorbacks | -- |
| 14 | Wisconsin Badgers | -- |
| 15 | Auburn Tigers | -- |
| 16 | Virginia Tech Hokies | -- |
| 17 | Florida St. Seminoles | -- |
| 18 | South Carolina Gamecocks | -- |
| 19 | West Virginia Mountaineers | -- |
| 20 | Penn St. Nittany Lions | -- |
| 21 | USC Trojans | -- |
| 22 | LSU Tigers | -- |
| 23 | Utah Utes | -- |
| 24 | Michigan Wolverines | -- |
| 25 | Missouri Tigers | -- |
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "
Scattered Notes
- Bama gets the first week nod by virtue of my preference for Saban over Tressel, but I see the Buckeyes as having higher upside. I'm not married to the idea that either team will run the table, but I'm comfortable with them at the top for now.
- The Broncos didn't look like an indomitable team last night, but they picked up what was by far the most impressive win of the weekend, winning a de facto road game despite matching the Hokies in stupid mistakes.
- Teams better get to Texas early, because health allowing, this is a team that will be nasty by November. The stars are aligning for 2011, if they don't get there sooner.
- Blogging is a humbling hobby, as often as we're wrong-wrong-wrong. But it was validating to be right about Taylor Martinez and Nebraska. Of course, it's not so great for Texas. Damnit.
- I'm not sure about Iowa, Florida, Oregon, or Iowa, but I can envision all three having big seasons.
- Oklahoma is flawed in precisely the ways it seemed likely they might be. Whether we'll be able to take advantage of their defensive weaknesses remains to be seen, but they'll need more from Landry Jones to be a national title contender. I don't think he's elite.
- Denard Robinson is vicious... I wonder if Michigan will have a defense this year? They're going to put up points.
Who impressed you in week one?