2011 Blogpoll: Week 14 Ballot
by Brian Favat on Nov 29, 2011 10:30 AM EST
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Here is our week 14 SB Nation Blogpoll Top 25 ballot. Not a whole lot of movement this week. Baylor (up 4), Nebraska (up 4) and Michigan (up 3) are the biggest gainers on the week, while Clemson (down 7), Penn State (down 7) and Arkansas (down 5) all drop with losses. Virginia and Notre Dame are out this week, replaced by Florida State and Texas.
Teams encouraging the most disagreement include Boise State (6.36), Penn State (6.36), USC (4.24), Wisconsin (2.83), Clemson (2.83) and Oregon (2.83)
Maybe next week: Southern Miss, West Virginia, Cincinnati, Auburn, Notre Dame, BYU
By conference: 5 SEC, 5 Big Ten, 5 Big 12, 4 ACC, 3 Pac-12, 2 Mountain West, 1 Conference USA
Thoughts / comments, let's hear 'em.
BC Interruption Ballot - Week 14
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | LSU Tigers | -- |
| 2 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 3 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys |  2 |
| 4 | Stanford Cardinal | -- |
| 5 | Virginia Tech Hokies | 2 |
| 6 | Houston Cougars | -- |
| 7 | USC Trojans | 1 |
| 8 | Arkansas Razorbacks |  -5 |
| 9 | Boise St. Broncos | -- |
| 10 | Michigan St. Spartans | -- |
| 11 | Wisconsin Badgers | -- |
| 12 | Georgia Bulldogs | 1 |
| 13 | Oregon Ducks | -1 |
| 14 | South Carolina Gamecocks | 1 |
| 15 | Oklahoma Sooners | 1 |
| 16 | Kansas St. Wildcats | 2 |
| 17 | Michigan Wolverines | 3 |
| 18 | Baylor Bears | 4 |
| 19 | TCU Horned Frogs | -- |
| 20 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | 4 |
| 21 | Clemson Tigers | -7 |
| 22 | Florida St. Seminoles | -- |
| 23 | Texas Longhorns | -- |
| 24 | Penn St. Nittany Lions | -7 |
| 25 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | -2 |
| Dropouts: Virginia Cavaliers, Notre Dame Fighting Irish | ||
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings
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Why are we rating Alabama as the #2 team in the country? The NC game should be reserved for conference winners. If we put Alabama in that game than what was the point of playing LSU-Alabama in the regular season? Assuming LSU wins the SEC championship, the only choices are VTech or OSU.
by chicagofire1871 on Nov 29, 2011 3:06 PM EST reply actions
Agree
However, my dissatisfaction with the current college football postseason format doesn’t inform my ballot.
Editor, BC Interruption
So your saying ND can never play?
The BCS match up is between the best two teams in the nation. Thats LSU and Alabama.
LSU is the best team in the country without argument. The rest is subjective.
Editor, BC Interruption
Based on what? The fact that they have played during the regular season and one team lost in OT?
So I guess you take a team that lost to a 6-5 Iowa State and has a defense ranked 107 out of 120 teams? Good God, man.
Alabama as #2 is a subjective argument based on human polls and computer rankings. #playoff
Editor, BC Interruption
Yes it is a subjective argument
But also a very strong one. Alabama has been overwhelmingly impressive all season, dominating everybody but LSU, even strong teams. Statistically the defense is the best in several years (at least) and the offense is strong, too.
It boils down to arguments in every case. But do you really think some other team has a better argument than Alabama for being #2?
Ha, well I guess that’d be one way to force them to join a conference!
Honestly I hadn’t even considered the ND situation when I said conference winners only in the NC game, but I guess I stand by that viewpoint, and just say ND needs to be in a conference.
by chicagofire1871 on Nov 29, 2011 8:13 PM EST up reply actions
Appropriate linkage
Did 2003 Nick Saban Really Insist Only Conference Champs Should Make Title Game?
Editor, BC Interruption
And as the link states, he never said that only conference champions deserve a shot at the title.
See the quotes and read Fowler’s response at the bottom. Look, I agree this is a screwed up mess and we will likely see changes next year but this year it is what it is. I’m a Bama fan but even I don’t like it from the view point that even if we win have we really won? Maybe if we beat them by 14 or more points, which I doubt given the strength of both defenses.
As a side note this certainly is a good conversation piece.
Good luck next year. We are headed to Bean Town next spring and hope to get in a Celtics game.
Disagree on VT
Don’t think the Hokies deserve a shot at the MNC even with a win in the ACC Championship Game. Played no one all year. Only ranked one ranked opponent (@ Georgia Tech) and got pasted by the only other Top 25 team they played at home. Hokies currently ranked 22nd in the Sagarin ratings behind (notably):
10. Houston (12-0)
12. Texas A&M (6-6)
14. Texas (7-4)
16. Baylor (8-3)
18. Missouri (7-5)
21. TCU (9-2)
Editor, BC Interruption
What's so special about conferences?
Having conferences be the basis opens numerous huge cans of worms:
(1) What’s the practical advantage? Start with this, because I’m about to name a few disadvantages.
(2) It’s only to be unexpected that multiple of the best teams could come from a single conference. The conferences are certainly not equal. So you’d certainly exclude better teams in favor of lesser teams if you only take conference champs.
(3) Independents get a free pass. (So really, you’re encouraging teams to leave their conference. Or would you make independents ineligible? That has its own can of worms.)
(4) Conferences are flying in every direction, disintegrating and reforming themselves. It’s almost random. We really want to base the national championship on this?
(5) What’s to prevent powerhouse teams to rig their own conferences, where they offer a slice of TV payouts in exchange for getting a few weak sisters to pave their way to their annual coronation as conference champ?
(6) Why should a national championship be left to the whims of obscure local rules for determining conference champs?
Looking at all that, what’s the real problem with letting the two best teams play?
Listen, the problem this year is not that a non-conference-champ will probably get in. That’s not a problem, that’s a necessity of you’re going for the highest quality championship game you can get.
The problem is that LSU has run so far away with it that NOBODY really deserves to play them, so it’s easy as pie to focus on #2 and start describing the reason that team shouldn’t play them. But that problem is inherent in any post-season championship system.
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