From Old Virginia Ballot - Week 10
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | LSU Tigers | -- |
| 2 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 3 | Oklahoma Sooners |  1 |
| 4 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys | 1 |
| 5 | Stanford Cardinal | 2 |
| 6 | Clemson Tigers |  -3 |
| 7 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | 6 |
| 8 | Boise St. Broncos | -2 |
| 9 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 10 | Michigan Wolverines | 4 |
| 11 | Penn St. Nittany Lions | 8 |
| 12 | Kansas St. Wildcats | -2 |
| 13 | Michigan St. Spartans | -2 |
| 14 | Wisconsin Badgers | -2 |
| 15 | South Carolina Gamecocks | -- |
| 16 | USC Trojans | 2 |
| 17 | Virginia Tech Hokies | -- |
| 18 | North Carolina Tar Heels | -- |
| 19 | Arizona St. Sun Devils | 6 |
| 20 | Texas Longhorns | 1 |
| 21 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | 1 |
| 22 | TCU Horned Frogs | -- |
| 23 | Arkansas Razorbacks | -3 |
| 24 | Georgia Bulldogs | -- |
| 25 | Houston Cougars | -- |
| Dropouts: Texas A&M Aggies, Texas Tech Red Raiders, Cincinnati Bearcats, Syracuse Orange | ||
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First, lemme let you in on the fixes I had to make. My trusty system put UNC and Texas A&M 11th and 12th, respectively. UNC, I sort of get. They added to their profile this week by beating a previously-strongish Wake Forest. Their wins over Louisville and UVA and close loss to GT looked better this week, and plus they have no bye week, which latter factor is a big help. That combined to skyrocket them from like 28th or whatever to 11th. OK, fine, I can rank them without any qualms, but not 11th. I think they're much better off where they are.
A&M is more puzzling. I guess my system just likes all their close losses to good teams too much. I'd considered cutting all 5-3 teams out of consideration to begin with, and I decided A&M hasn't done enough to impress me that they should stay in. (I guess UNC's kinda the same way, but at the very least, they're 6-3 with a few more wins by their opponents.) So A&M bumps to 26th, and look who's the beneficiary: Houston. Even without having to bump A&M, Houston is only two of my system points out of the rankings this week. They have a pretty lousy top-to-bottom list of opponents (particularly at the top) but my conscience doesn't let me rank a 5-3 team over an 8-0 one. Houston's got two lousy opponents next on the docket, which will keep them treading water, but they finish strongish with SMU and Tulsa and if they get through that undefeated, I could see them moving into the top 15.
I also had to switch MSU and Wisconsin. They're only one system point apart, so it's not like I had any great conflict in doing so. It's obvious in that case who should be on top now - MSU beat Wisconsin and one of their common opponents as well.
Lastly, I had to switch Alabama and Oklahoma. That's right - the system gave me Oklahoma #2 this week. Actually, that's not at all indefensible. Thanks partly to this weekend, OU's top four of K-State, Texas, FSU, and Mizzou is much stronger than Alabama's of Arkansas, PSU, UF, and Vandy. If Oklahoma's one loss was to a team that didn't just get blown the fuck out by Iowa State, I might have let it stand. But that's what went down, so I gave 8-0 the benefit of the doubt over 7-1. This weekend, Oklahoma plays A&M, and LSU and Alabama, of course, play each other. So it's well set up for the possibility of Oklahoma (or maybe Okie State vs. K-State) breaking the LSU-Alabama stranglehold on the 1-2 spots.
The other teams under consideration, in order, were:
Texas A&M
Texas Tech
Washington
West Virginia
Cincinnati
Southern Miss
Auburn
Syracuse
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