From Old Virginia Ballot - Week 6
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide |  1 |
| 2 | LSU Tigers |  -1 |
| 3 | Clemson Tigers | 7 |
| 4 | Michigan Wolverines | -1 |
| 5 | Oklahoma Sooners | 4 |
| 6 | Texas Longhorns | 9 |
| 7 | Wisconsin Badgers | 11 |
| 8 | South Carolina Gamecocks | -2 |
| 9 | Illinois Fighting Illini | 3 |
| 10 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | -3 |
| 11 | Boise St. Broncos | 5 |
| 12 | Stanford Cardinal | 1 |
| 13 | Arizona St. Sun Devils | 1 |
| 14 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys | -9 |
| 15 | North Carolina Tar Heels | -- |
| 16 | Kansas St. Wildcats | -- |
| 17 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -9 |
| 18 | Florida Gators | -14 |
| 19 | Washington Huskies | -- |
| 20 | USC Trojans | -1 |
| 21 | Auburn Tigers | -- |
| 22 | South Florida Bulls | -11 |
| 23 | West Virginia Mountaineers | -- |
| 24 | Michigan St. Spartans | -- |
| 25 | SMU Mustangs | -- |
| Dropouts: Virginia Tech Hokies, Iowa St. Cyclones, Vanderbilt Commodores, Oregon Ducks, Penn St. Nittany Lions, Houston Cougars, Ohio St. Buckeyes | ||
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As sure as I was last week that LSU should be #1, I'm sure this week that it should be Alabama. It's actually very close per the formula, but I think the formula got it right in spitting out Alabama ahead of LSU - the thrashings of Florida and Arkansas and a convincing win over Penn State are, for now, better-looking than LSU's top threesome of West Virginia, Oregon, and Kentucky.
The formula once again returned Michigan as #3, but I sanity-checked them down a level in favor of Clemson. The formula penalizes Clemson (as it should) for an ugly win over Wofford, but when VT, FSU, and Auburn are three-fifths of your pelts, that's a worthy schedule.
Quite a few teams were victimized something fierce this week. Because we go resume-style, I'd much rather you be 4-1 than 3-1, and so teams with bye weeks (Iowa State, Vandy, Okie State) get punished by the formula. So be it. As the season wears on, and more and more teams get byes and the bye effect gets watered down by more games, it evens out.
Other teams got punished for losing. At this juncture in the season I refuse to consider 3-2 teams, and OSU probably wouldn't have stuck anyway. South Florida came back to earth in Pittsburgh on Thursday. Florida came crashing down for not being especially competitive; had they played Alabama close they could've saved themselves about half that 14-place drop. My formula is not kind to teams that lose by four touchdowns; I think there should be no reward for getting your ass kicked just because the team that kicked your ass is the best in the country, and so close losses to decent teams like Illinois or even Iowa State count for better than ass-beatings by the elite. It doesn't take a good team to get your ass beat by an elite one. (Naturally, though, ass-beatings by not-elite teams get you even more of a penalty: I plugged 36 teams into the formula this week, and therefore evaluated 168 games, and South Florida's shit-egg in Pittsburgh is the worst of them all.)
The best of the 168, in case you're wondering: Wisconsin's alley-beating of Nebraska. Didn't see that one coming. Their next-best win, though, I consider to be the one over Oregon State, which is why Whiskey is only 7th.
Later today: we expound upon the win that felt like a loss.
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