BlogPoll: Preliminary Week 9 Ballot

... The ballot in which somehow, some way, the Pac-10 dominates. 5 teams? Really?! This week we rank Oregon (#9), Southern Cal (#16), Arizona (#17), California (#19), and Oregon State (#24). What happened to our East coast bias?

The biggest losers on the week are Virginia Tech (down 10), Southern Cal (down 10), and Oklahoma State (down 7). Not many significant gainers on the week, other than Arizona jumping up 5 spots ... by not playing? This is probably more a product of the bottom 3 teams falling out of our poll - South Carolina (#23), Mississippi (#24), and West Virginia (#25) - in favor of Clemson (#22), Oregon State (#24) and Brigham Young (#25) than anything the Wildcats have done on the field.

The bottom 5-6 spots in our ballot this week have really weak resumes. At 6-3, BC maybe should be ranked, but two teams that beat BC decisively - Virginia Tech (#21) and Clemson (#22) - are in this week. Therefore, we will hold off on the Eagles for another week (or two).

And no, we still don't have Notre Dame ranked this week. BC remains their best win on the season (a four point victory at home), their loss to 5-4 Michigan is looking more and more suspect as the week's go by, and they've only played 2 true road games ... going 1-1 with their lone win coming at 3-6 Purdue.

Leave your thoughts/suggestions in the comments section below.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama (8-0)	--
2	Florida (8-0)	--
3	Texas (8-0)	--
4	TCU (8-0)	1
5	Cincinnati (8-0)	1
6	Iowa (8-0)	1
7	LSU (7-1)	2
8	Boise State (8-0)	2
9	Oregon (7-1)	3
10	Georgia Tech (8-1)	2
11	Miami (Florida) (6-2)	2
12	Houston (7-1)	2
13	Penn State (8-1)	2
14	Utah (7-1)	3
15	Pittsburgh (7-1)	3
16	Southern Cal (6-2)	10
17	Arizona (5-2)	5
18	Oklahoma (5-3)	1
19	California (6-2)	1
20	Ohio State (7-2)	1
21	Virginia Tech (5-3)	10
22	Clemson (5-3)	3
23	Oklahoma State (6-2)	7
24	Oregon State (5-3)	2
25	Brigham Young (6-2)	1

For your reference, here is last week's ballot.

Waiting Room: Wisconsin, Boston College, Notre Dame, South Florida

By Conference: Pac-10 5, ACC 4, SEC 3, Big Ten 3, Big XII 3, Mountain West 3, Big East 2, Conference USA 1, WAC 1

Teams We Disagree On The Most: Brigham Young (6.36), Boise State (5.66), Ohio State (3.54), Oregon State (3.54)

Teams We Agree On: Alabama (#1), Cincinnati (#5), Utah (#14)

Games Jeff Watched:

Coastal Carolina at Clemson (in-person)
North Carolina at Virginia Tech
South Carolina at Tennessee
West Virginia at South Florida (50%)
Miami (Fla.) at Wake Forest (50%)
Georgia Tech at Vanderbilt (50%)

Games Brian Watched:

Central Michigan at Boston College (twice)
Penn State at Northwestern (in-person)
North Carolina at Virginia Tech
Indiana at Iowa
Georgia vs. Florida
Mississippi at Auburn (50%)