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BlogPoll: Preliminary Week 15 Ballot

Seven one-loss teams. Plus two undefeated mid majors. Nearly indiscernible. A mess, right? We aren't going to vault Florida or Oklahoma to No. 1 by default like the AP poll did just because they got to play an extra game. Let's take a look at these seven teams one loss and all nine teams SOS.

Losses:

Texas - lost @ Texas Tech 39-33
Florida - lost vs. Ole Miss 31-30
Oklahoma - lost vs. Texas 45-35
Alabama - lost vs. Florida 31-20
Southern Cal - lost @ Oregon State 28-21
Texas Tech - lost @ Oklahoma 65-21
Penn State - lost @ Iowa 24-23

Looking at these losses, we would rank the teams based on their one loss as follows:

1. Texas
2. Alabama
3. Oklahoma
4. Penn State
5. Florida
6. Southern Cal
7. Texas Tech

Add in the two mid major undefeated teams, and here is an examination of one strength of schedule measure (SOS rank in parenthesis).

1. Texas (1)
2. Florida (2)
3. Oklahoma (3)
4. Texas Tech (5)
5. Penn State (17)
6. Utah (24)
7. Alabama (32)
8. Southern Cal (42)
9. Boise State (69)

Taking the two factors together, given that Texas has what we would consider the best loss and the highest strength of schedule, we are going with 1. Texas 2. Florida 3. Oklahoma, and so on, and so forth.

Lucky for Oklahoma fans, the blogpoll doesn't crown any "mythical" national champion.


Similarly, we are keeping the Eagles in the poll this week at No. 20. Seems a bit unfair to drop them out of the poll entirely (like the AP) because the Eagles had to play an extra game while Georgia Tech and Florida State were sitting in the clubhouse. We were down to our backup, redshirt freshman QB making his second career start and the defense looked completely gassed (fourth consecutive "must win" game). A 9-4 season is enough in our opinion to warrant getting some poll love. Coulter Krugman award be damned.

However, we didn't treat Missouri and Ball State with those same kid gloves. Missouri drops 5 to No. 23 and Ball State is out this week. Really, what was their excuse?

As always, comments/thoughts are welcome.

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



Dropped Out: Ball State (#16), West Virginia (#22), Northwestern (#25).

Welcome! Oregon State

Waiting Room: Northwestern, Iowa, Ball State