This is a bit of a weird poll. I guess I should have done one last week despite sleeping through the deadline, just to get more of a flow, but it was kind of interesting (and surprisingly challenging) to give teams somewhat of a fresh start nine weeks into the season, and rank them based on their whole body of work, not necessarily affected too much by Saturday’s result (except for you, USC!)
So, what we have is a poll table who’s up/down arrows mean nothing, and no one “dropped out”, although there are a few teams from two weeks ago that are no longer in the poll, never to be seen again, if I can help it.
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ohio State |  25 |
| 2 | Michigan | 24 |
| 3 | Florida | 23 |
| 4 | Auburn | 22 |
| 5 | West Virginia | 21 |
| 6 | Tennessee | 20 |
| 7 | Texas | 19 |
| 8 | Louisville | 18 |
| 9 | California | 17 |
| 10 | Southern Cal | 16 |
| 11 | Notre Dame | 15 |
| 12 | Rutgers | 14 |
| 13 | Arkansas | 13 |
| 14 | Oklahoma | 12 |
| 15 | Boston College | 11 |
| 16 | Georgia Tech | 10 |
| 17 | LSU | 9 |
| 18 | Wisconsin | 8 |
| 19 | Wake Forest | 7 |
| 20 | Boise State | 6 |
| 21 | Oregon | 5 |
| 22 | Virginia Tech | 4 |
| 23 | Texas A&M | 3 |
| 24 | Washington State | 2 |
| 25 | Missouri | 1 |
Watched: Michigan-Northwestern here and there, the occasional Ohio State-Minnesota minute, parts of IU taking the last pieces of John L. Smith’s dignity and molesting them, something that may or may not have happened in Philadelphia, and various highlights here and there in between. (And, as usual, I’m sure there were plenty of games I left out.)
As for the poll itself, 1-2 is self-explanatory, Florida gets a big jump based on how they’ve played of late, and a one-point loss to Tennessee doesn’t carry all that much weight anymore, seeing how the Vols have actually chosen to play this season. (And play quite well.) Wasn’t too sure what to do with WVU… Every time I’ve seen them, they don’t impress me, but they pile it on late and have at least two AP voters in their pockets (one in the front, one in back, I can only assume), but that doesn’t affect me. Undefeated is undefeated, but I still think a one-narrow-loss Florida team QB’s ’em to death. The rest is just kind of going by feel. Some teams got big pushes early in my thought process (Oregon), only to be dumped lower as things moved along, some, like Wazzu, are surprisingly not bad for having more than a couple losses.