With the release of the inaugural BlogPoll for 2006 comes the first roundtable. Kind of like the arts and crafts section of the polling process, it allows all of us a chance to ramble and rant about our picks, other people’s picks, and then have some fun at the end. Props to The House Rock Built for hosting the first go-round.

1. What’s the biggest ripoff in this preseason poll? Either pick a team that’s offensively over or underrated, or you can rag on a particular voter’s bad pick (hey, we’re all adults here, we can handle it).

This one’s easy, with the benefit of procrastinating until others were done with their roundtable entry. Tom at Off Tackle is probably going to be a punching bag for this question, being the lone voter to put Cal at #1. Seems odd, but if you can defend it, go right ahead. (I could see a few ways that Cal could have the power and the schedule aligning correctly to get them to the top, but don’t think I’d give them all that credit right now.) What’s interesting is his answer to this question in the roundtable:

As for underrated teams, I think that Cal deserved better than #10, they should be about 5 spots higher based on the talent of their defense and the Lynch/Fossett duo.

So you’re saying they deserve to be #5, but voted them #1? Hmmmm-kay.

(But again, I can see where this would make sense, it just struck me as odd.)

As for an under-rated team coming in, I don’t know that I see one in the poll. Michigan State is hanging in the “Also Receiving Votes”, and could always be a candidate to hit the middle of the poll at least, but in all likelyhood will throw up a 6-6, 7-5 type year and be off the poll where they belong. Just Sparty bein’ Sparty.

2. What shold a preseason poll measure? Specifically, should it be a predictor of end-of-season standing (meaning that a team’s schedule should be taken into account when determining a ranking), or should it merely be a barometer of talent/hype/expectations?

I could answer this all day and be a hypocrite when it comes to filling out my ballot. I really don’t think scheduling should have any weight in the process. But you really can’t help but take a peek when considering where two teams of equal talent may be headed, and a schedule with a couple heavy hitters and few other pitfalls can be beneficial to a team in the final process as well.

However, I don’t believe it should be a predictor of “end-of-season standing”. I think I commented on that with Ohio State’s ranking. I could easily consider them #1 by the end of the year if they come together and take care of most of their business. However, there is just enough question in my mind to keep them from deserving it right now. Of course, unless someone comes out and blows my doors off in the first two weeks, I think the winner of Texas-OSU will have a major argument for the top spot.

3. What is your biggest stretch in your preseason ballot? That is to say, which team has the best chance of making you look like an idiot for overrating them?

Possibly Northern Illinois. Unfortunately, that’s just because they may get the MAC stigma that comes along with things. They’ve got the talent to be a very, very good team, unfortunately, in the MAC, that means getting out to an 8-0, 7-1 type start, and one more loss gives it all back. I still think they’ll dent most polls at some point this year.

Toward the top of the poll, I’d say Miami. As usual, their defense should allow the offense to get by on being adequate. However, a subpar performance on D and less than adequate offense, and they could sink like a stone.

4. What do you see as the biggest flaw in the polling system (both wire service and blogpolling)? Is polling an integral part of the great game of college football, or is it an outdated system that needs to be replaced? If you say the latter, enlighten us with your new plan.

I think polling is an integral part of college football, but only as a means to an end. I don’t think that even if a playoff becomes a reality, they’ll ever take the conference champs straight up. Therefore, the poll system needs to continue to be refined and (close to) perfected.

However, I don’t know how that can be entirely possible. Everyone gets on the coaches for voting when they can’t see the games. I don’t know how many of the AP voters actually watch more than a couple games a week, and certainly don’t see enough of all the teams deserving of poll consideration. I worked in the media for almost 10 years covering games on the weekend (focusing on Ohio State, unfortunately), and know that I didn’t see nearly as much football as I should have to make an adequate assessment of the nation’s talent. And I’d have to believe at least 85% of the AP voters are in the same boat.

5. You’re Scott Bakula, and you have the opportunity to “Quantum Leap” back in time and change any single moment in your team’s history. It can be a play on the field, a hiring decision, or your school’s founders deciding to build the campus in Northern Indiana, of all godforsaken places. What do you do?

This one’s been racking my brain. Dan mentioned the two that immediately came to mind, and some others have surfaced in a thread at Ay-Ziggy-Zoomba.com started by fellow voter OrangeandBrown.

(Three Falcons on the panel? I guess someone had to make up for the Toledo fans that kept trying to submit their ballot in crayon.)

Anyway, what came to mind to me as one that REALLY may have changed the course of things was “The Fat Punter Game” that Dan brought up. BG football was rolling pretty good in the early ’90s, and a third MAC title in four years would have been outstanding. But 73 fat-ass-rumbling yards later, no title, and while 1995 was a decent year, things were never the same. By 2000, they were 2-9 and losing to Buffalo. Shelley Meyer’s Husband came in and turned things around, but while rival Toledo was maintaining a steady course through the ’90s, BG was spinning its wheels. Even with the success they’ve had in the last five years, there’s always the hesitation that the next bout of “Blackney Years” is right around the corner.

My favorite “What If?” thought, however, is wondering what would have happened had Don Nehlen not bolted for an assistant job at Michigan. It recently came out during his interview at his College Football Hall of Fame induction that the administration at BG “didn’t care about winning”, so he started looking for a new job. While West Virginia was likely a step-up regardless, I don’t think it was that much of a step up that he would have bailed for if he was successful and happy at BG (his alma mater). Seeing what he did to bring WVU onto a national stage in the ’80s only makes me wonder if it could have been the same case at BGSU.