Well, after a rather (harumph, harumph) lengthy hiatus, here we go again. Once more, football season is upon us and once more the powers that be have seen fit to let yours truly participate in the College Football BlogPoll Top 25, which this year is being hosted by SB Nation.
As the two of you who followed my prattling in the past may realize, this represents a change as, in years past, the BlogPoll was hosted by CBS Sports. All I can say is that the move to SB Nation represents a huge step forward for the BlogPoll and for those of us out there that call ourselves bloggers.
At any rate, given that introduction, without any further adieu, here is my draft preseason ballot for your consideration, comment, and criticism:
My Ballot for Week 1 (Preseason)
The VolNation Blog
Ballot – Week 1
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide | — |
| 2 | Ohio St. Buckeyes | — |
| 3 | Florida Gators | — |
| 4 | Oregon Ducks | — |
| 5 | Boise St. Broncos | — |
| 6 | Texas Longhorns | — |
| 7 | Oklahoma Sooners | — |
| 8 | TCU Horned Frogs | — |
| 9 | Virginia Tech Hokies | — |
| 10 | Wisconsin Badgers | — |
| 11 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | — |
| 12 | Pittsburgh Panthers | — |
| 13 | Miami Hurricanes | — |
| 14 | Iowa Hawkeyes | — |
| 15 | Arkansas Razorbacks | — |
| 16 | Penn St. Nittany Lions | — |
| 17 | USC Trojans | — |
| 18 | LSU Tigers | — |
| 19 | Missouri Tigers | — |
| 20 | North Carolina Tar Heels | — |
| 21 | Florida St. Seminoles | — |
| 22 | Auburn Tigers | — |
| 23 | West Virginia Mountaineers | — |
| 24 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | — |
| 25 | Connecticut Huskies | — |
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »
Explanations after the jump…
Comments, Explanations, and Excuses
Here are the high-points of the week’s changes:
Top of the Heap:
It’s hard to argue with the Alabama Crimson Tide being at the top of the preseason polls given the fact that they are … ummm … LOADED! Be that as it may, I imagine that some folks may feel that Ohio State is more deserving, and in the end they may be. At this point, however, I simply cannot justify putting a team with a quarterback that everyone seems to think is outstanding, but has rarely managed to impress on the field, ahead of the reigning national champion.
As a Tennessee fan, however, I am a bit concerned considering that the Vols play three of my top five teams this year, two in the first three games. Yikes, it could be a long season.
Others of Note:
This is a preseason ballot, which means that it is not worth a bucket of warm spit (thank you John Nance Garner) since it really amounts to little more than idle speculation and is based upon the flimsiest and most unreliable sorts of information (i.e. the word of so-called “experts” and “analysts”). Thus, I imagine that there will be a fair amount of movement in my poll rankings once the season gets underway. That said, here is the conference-by-conference breakdown:
-
SEC: 5 teams
-
ACC: 5 teams
-
Big Ten: 4 teams
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Big XII: 4 teams (including Nebraska)
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Big East: 3 teams
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PAC-10: 2 teams
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Big East: 3 teams
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Mountain West: 1 team
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WAC: 1 team
I suppose I should be a bit surprised to see the ACC with so many teams and the Pac-10 with only 2. I suppose I should know better, than bucking the conventional wisdom on this, but then again, I have always been an idiot.
Parting Thoughts
At any rate, Having taken the time to consider my feeble attempt at ranking the powers in college football, feel free to try and convince me that I am wrong — which is part of the way the BlogPoll is supposed to work. I promise that I will consider all insults comments and will (on occasion) amend or revise my ballot to reflect the general consensus.
You can view the final results of this week’s poll over at SB Nation later this week and check out an analysis of how the collective blogging brain-trust arrived at this week’s result. If you’re craving even more BlogPoll goodness, you can also check out how other bloggers voted and see how your team fared across the Blogosphere.
Either way, it is nice to finally be back, and I look forward to bringing you more throughout the season.
And away we go …
— So it goes … 
