Here is our preliminary week 6 ballot, Al Skinner approved (not really). No changes at the top, a big ol' "what to do with Michigan State and Texas" question, and two new teams this week. I've been informed by management that I absolutely can't vote this week until the games are done tonight, so that gives everyone an opportunity to weigh in on this ballot.

That also means I'll be scoreboard-watching the following games:

• Connecticut at Syracuse - Happy 6 OT anniversary!
  
• Duke at North Carolina (sadly)
• Ohio State at Indiana
• New Mexico at UNLV

Rank	Team	Record	Conference	Delta
1	Kansas	23-1	Big 12	--
2	Syracuse	23-1	Big East	--
3	Purdue	20-3	Big Ten	2
4	Kentucky	22-1	SEC	2
5	Georgetown	18-5	Big East	3
6	Duke	19-4	ACC	3
7	Kansas State	19-4	Big 12	3
8	Villanova	21-2	Big East	5
9	West Virginia	19-4	Big East	2
10	Ohio State	18-6	Big Ten	2
11	New Mexico	21-3	Mountain West	4
12	Butler	21-4	Horizon	2
13	Wake Forest	17-5	ACC	NEW
14	Wisconsin	18-6	Big Ten	1
15	Michigan State	19-6	Big Ten	11
16	Gonzaga	19-4	West Coast	NEW

Thoughts:

• For the second straight week, Kansas and Syracuse run 1-2 in our ballot. Move along, nothing to see here.
  
• Two Big East teams take a tumble this week - Villanova and West Virginia - after West Virginia beat Nova on Big Monday and Georgetown dropped 100+ on the Wildcats during Saturday's mid-Atlantic snowpocalypse
• Wake Forest joins the party as our second ACC team. The Deacs took down UVA in OT on Saturday, and then had a dunkfest on BC yesterday. The rest of the ACC schedule sets up prettty, prettttty, pretttttty good for Wake. Now if they can learn to close out teams down the stretch, this team can easily make it through the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
  
• Michigan State and Texas, a team that beat Sparty back in December, are both in crazy, Connecticut Huskies-esque tailspins. (OK, I partially take that back. The Huskies beat DePaul on Saturday. Mea culpa.) The Spartans have now dropped three straight games to Wisconsin, Illinois and Purdue, while the Longhorns have lost their last 2 and five of their last seven games. I keep MSU in this week since they lost to 2 teams in our ballot. Texas, on the other hand, has sustained losing for much longer and gets the boot this week.
• Gonzaga, welcome to the show. An overtime, upset loss to San Franciso is the only blemish on the Zags WCC resume, while their only non-conference losses came to teams on this ballot - Duke, Wake, Michigan State. The Bulldogs will likely sleepwalk through the rest of their WCC schedule and won't be tested again until tournament time.
  

Dropped Out: Texas (#11), Vanderbilt (#16)

Welcome: Wake Forest (#13), Gonzaga (#16)

Maybe Next Week: Texas, Vanderbilt, Maryland, Brigham Young

By Conference: Big East 4, Big Ten 4, Big 12 2, ACC 2, SEC 1, Horizon 1, Mountain West 1, West Coast 1

Your thoughts?