Here are my thoughts on this week’s poll:
- Although Alabama did beat LSU on Saturday, I decided to keep the top 3 as it is. At this point, barring an unexpected upset, it’s clear that the BCS national championship will be the winner of the SEC title game and Texas if it doesn’t lose. It’s tough to rank the three teams because they are so equal, but the reason I left Alabama at #3 is quarterback play. Florida and Texas have experienced QBs who have been down this road before. Alabama doesn’t, and the one thing I can see keeping the Crimson Tide from the national title game is their quarterback play.
- The next three spots in the poll also remain unchanged because the two highly ranked teams that lost — Oregon and Iowa — were only ranked 7th and 8th in last week’s poll. I guess it was a good decision to not make a last-second change to my poll after all.
- Georgia Tech, despite only beating Wake Forest in overtime, is now ranked 7th by virtue of so many higher-ranked teams losing. The same sort of goes for Pittsburgh, though it did receive a bump in the rankings based on the fact that it only has one loss this season.
- Although LSU lost, I didn’t move it at all in the rankings. The reason for that is because when you take an overall look at the ranked teams’ resumes, the Tigers probably have the best two losses in the country (Florida and Alabama).
- Ohio State’s impressive win at Penn State was good enough to vault the Buckeyes up to #10. If OSU can beat Iowa on Saturday, it will clinch a Big Ten title and a trip to the Rose Bowl. Based on the fact that Ricky Stanzi is injured and Iowa’s luck finally ran out over the weekend, I expect the Buckeyes to win.
- Oregon fell into the trap of the dreaded letdown game. One week after rolling USC, the Ducks got beat by Stanford 51-42. I could have dropped them more than just 4 spots, but Oregon is still a good team. It just had a big meltdown one week after a huge win.
- Iowa is the next team to fall in the poll. The Hawkeyes were upset by Northwestern, though I don’t think anybody was shocked to see this happen. It didn’t help that Ricky Stanzi got hurt early in the game, but Iowa’s amazing streak where all of the bounces seemed to go its way was bound to end eventually. Having only one loss, the Hawkeyes are still a good team, but I think the Buckeyes will hand them their second loss this week.
- Penn State also dropped based on the fact that it lost to Ohio State. I expect the Nittany Lions to finish with only two losses, which is why they are still ranked this high.
- Houston and Utah dropped because some other teams moved up.
- The next three spots didn’t change at all.
- The last five spots in the poll changed a little bit, with Clemson and Auburn re-entering the top 25. Notre Dame and Cal dropped from the rankings after losing to Navy and Oregon State, respectively. I’m really glad Navy won, because now any talk of Notre Dame going to a BCS bowl can finally stop.
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