Here's my first attempt at putting a ballot together for SBNation. I'm not sure that I'm in favor of either a pure power poll or a poll based solely on resume, so I've tried to do a little bit of both when necessary and the two things I feel strongly about are an attempt to be careful about moving teams up solely because they haven't lost and punishing teams for losses against good teams. Other than that, I'm still trying to work through a more developed philosophy and pay more attention to those top teams and how they perform each week.
A couple thoughts:
- I'm more pessimistic about the Longhorns than the AP and Coaches Polls, in large part because I'm not overly impressed with the level of competition Texas has faced so far this season. Even a highly competitive loss to Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl would be enough to convince me to move them up, a bit out of the mainstream poll orthodoxy. Sometimes a loss can mean more than a win against a weaker opponent.
- I'm not particularly interested in punishing teams like Texas A&M and Florida State for losses to good teams and I would put the Aggies higher if they hadn't blown such big leads in such spectacular fashion.
- Florida State's loss to Clemson hurts the Sooner win a bit in my opinion and the absolute dominance of LSU and Alabama so far is too much to ignore.
- Buying on Clemson right now. It's going to be fun watching Sammy Watkins and Tajh Boyd grow together. Heck, it already is fun watching those two.
- Russell Wilson adds an element to the Wisconsin offense that it hasn't had in recent memory.
- I have no idea what to do with Boise State and I expect that to continue for the rest of the season with TCU down a bit. Will they be tested at all for the rest of the season.
- After around the top 15 or so, I honestly haven't had a chance to watch enough of those teams to separate them particularly well.
Anyway, I appreciate any and all feedback moving forward as I work to develop a more comprehensive strategy to put this thing together. Ballot after the jump...
Burnt Orange Nation Ballot - Week 6
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | LSU Tigers | -- |
| 2 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 3 | Oklahoma Sooners | -- |
| 4 | Wisconsin Badgers | -- |
| 5 | Stanford Cardinal | -- |
| 6 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys | -- |
| 7 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 8 | Clemson Tigers | -- |
| 9 | Boise St. Broncos | -- |
| 10 | Arkansas Razorbacks | -- |
| 11 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | -- |
| 12 | Michigan Wolverines | -- |
| 13 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -- |
| 14 | Texas Longhorns | -- |
| 15 | South Carolina Gamecocks | -- |
| 16 | Virginia Tech Hokies | -- |
| 17 | Florida St. Seminoles | -- |
| 18 | West Virginia Mountaineers | -- |
| 19 | Michigan St. Spartans | -- |
| 20 | Arizona St. Sun Devils | -- |
| 21 | Illinois Fighting Illini | -- |
| 22 | Kansas St. Wildcats | -- |
| 23 | Texas A&M Aggies | -- |
| 24 | Florida Gators | -- |
| 25 | Baylor Bears | -- |
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "