Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Blogpoll Ballot -- Week 5

Will be breaking the silence soon, as long as my presentation tomorrow goes well. To whet your appetite:

RankTeamDelta
1 Southern Cal --
2 LSU --
3 Oklahoma 1
4 California 2
5 Ohio State 2
6 Oregon 2
7 Boston College 8
8 Rutgers 1
9 West Virginia 3
10 Texas 3
11 Kentucky 5
12 Clemson 14
13 Wisconsin 2
14 South Carolina 4
15 Miami (Florida) 11
16 South Florida 2
17 Penn State 12
18 Cincinnati 7
19 Alabama 5
20 Purdue 6
21 Arizona State 5
22 UCLA 4
23 Virginia Tech 3
24 Missouri 2
25 Hawaii 2

Dropped Out: Florida (#3), Arkansas (#17), Nebraska (#19), Louisville (#20), Georgia (#21), Texas A&M (#22), Georgia Tech (#24).

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Terse answers to Big Ten Roundtable questions

Thanks to OMGTINNOMJLOL for hosting ...

1. Clearly, Week 1 was a huge week for upsets with Appalachian St. beating Michigan and Clemson beating FSU (though if that really shocked anyone I'd be surprised). What are your upset games for Week 2 and why?

Yeah, Michigan got pantsed. I mean, Appalachian State? I'm more upset than joyful at this loss; that's at least 24 months of "the Big Ten is weak!" fodder for the talking heads. Check that; they would've been saying all that anyway, but now they have an earth-shattering fiasco to point at and say, "that's proof, baby." Even Northwestern beat that I-AA opponent, Wolverines. Nice going.

A great thing to come from last week: now it's OK to pick Minnesota and Michigan to lose every week. Prove us wrong, ladies!

Upsets ... well, I'd pick Miami over the Gophers, but I'm not sure that counts as an upset per se. I really don't see any other Big Ten team losing, except probably Michigan because they have a legitimate opponent. (And, oh yeah, they lost to Appalachian State.)

Nationally, let's talk about South Carolina over Georgia. The Dawgs smothered what was supposed to be a reasonably decent Oklahoma State team and may be puffed up enough to believe they can pull a Michigan and go to sleep on unranked South Carolina. But you can't pull that against the Ol' Ball Coach! If Georgia wins, it's because they wake up in the second half and put some effort into beating the Gamecocks. (Sorry, no abbreviation there; I don't want to arouse people's prurient interests.)

I think South Florida is a program on the rise. At the very least they'll give Auburn a scare this weekend.

BYU over UCLA? If anyone can lose that game (besides Lloyd Carr, Joe Paterno, or Bobby Bowden) it's Karl Dorrell.

What an odd world we live in when Washington over Boise State is considered an upset. While the the Hoosier Report doesn't give Ty Willingham much credit, let's face it -- thus far, his career indicates he's more of a football genius than is Charlie Weis. I want to see Willingham succeed and the Irish regret their personnel moves. Call it wishful thinking, but I'm picking the Huskies.

2. What do you think about the BTN? How'd it look? How were the announcers? Did the first weekend change your opinion of the BTN?

I think it screwed me out of watching the biggest, most embarrassing upset in college football history live. I didn't see it, I won't see it, I don't like it.

3. Now that we're a game into the Season evaluate the Big Ten's strength.

Here's what we know:

A. Minnesota and Michigan will both have long seasons. Minnesota, duh. Michigan can still wake up and outscore their offense and maybe pull out nine wins. Their lack of defense will cost them dearly against Wisconsin, Penn State, and Ohio State.
B. Wisconsin is better than you thought. 42 points? More than I thought I'd see.
C. We don't know anything about anyone else. They all took care of business, as they were supposed to. We know they're not chokers, but we don't know if they're any good. Michigan State looked serviceable on defense and impressive on offense. Illinois is bad, but not losing-to-the-MAC-or-IAA bad. Everyone else? Who knows?