So it’s official. The BlogPoll is my Journalism 110 class reincarnated. Now, while I don’t expect Brian to be quite as lenient as that professor was at letting me retake quizzes later in the afternoon, I’d feel like a real ass if I didn’t at least contribute my thoughts on the final poll.
As stated earlier, Florida’s outright ripping of Ohio State in the Tostitos Non-Fiesta Bowl earns them #1. It probably would have anyway, but I do think Boise State is more deserving that some are giving them credit for. Not easy to rank them, really, but they deserve more. And I think they’d be getting more love if they didn’t fall victim to the “Hey! We’re up 18 in the third quarter! Let’s cruise home!” mode (also known as “Michigan circa 2005 mode” they went in after returning that INT for six. They’ve since been accused for having to pull out trickery to get the win (at least they continued to up the degree of difficulty there…if the Statue of Liberty play would have only tied the game, I’d fear for the planet’s sanity at what they’d have pulled out next, but I’m guessing it would have involved a mule and quite possibly Tony Danza).
Now, consider this. They beat Oklahoma, who many might have thrown in the title mix had Florida lost to Arkansas if not for the Oregon debacle/bitchfest in September. As it was, Notre Dame was a win over USC from trying to lay a claim to the #2 spot, and I’d argue that Boise State might have any number of wins over tougher opponents than the Irish, Idaho included.
So I don’t know what to do with Boise State. Or LSU. Or Auburn.
Hell, even season-dominating OSU gets a question mark, based mostly on the round robin played by those SEC schools, who just might have been as tough as advertised.
In the interest of throwing SOMETHING out that isn’t really going to be counted anyway, here’s my top 10 (after that was a weekly exercise in futility anyway):
1. Florida
2. LSU – A solid finish, and an anomoly of a defensive loss to Auburn with a loss to the national champ deserves props.
3. Ohio State
4. Boise State – USC helped make the Oregon State win more impressive, they did the rest on their own.
5. USC – How they napped against two half-breathing Pac-10 teams, I don’t know. The second half of the Rose Bowl was like watching Trojans of old (but not quite to their expiration date, I swear!)
6. Louisville
7. Michigan – Maybe a little high even for a team that didn’t show for two and a half of their last four halves of the season, but I think they deserve to be ranked above Wisconsin for the beating they put on the Badgers early on. And….
8. Wisconsin – See above, and playing Ohio State would have added the other loss. Good work come bowl time, though!
9. Auburn – The loss to Georgia is pretty gnarly, but the other loss was to SEC finalist Arkansas and nothing to sneeze at. Actually had them at 6, but thought again about the Georgia loss and the tight win over (meh) Nebraska.
10. West Virginia – Probably the most well-rounded of the Big East teams, the gack-job in the S. Florida “tweener” game keeps them from the top 5, easy.
So there ya have it. By next year, I will devise a program that locks my keyboard and seals access to my bed on Tuesday nights until I have finished the BlogPoll.
And, with this season in the books, BG is again tied for the best record in the country. GO FALCONS!