There was an interesting comment in last week's BlogPoll post I wanted to address, but it came in after the post had kind of run its course, so let's rekindle the discussion here. Essentially, the question is how scheduling will change once we have a selection committee.
With any luck, the committee will act like the committees in other NCAA sports, and value schedule and out of conference schedule in particular. But that's going to require the stones to select, hypothetically, a three loss team with an insanely difficult schedule over a two or even one loss team with an easy schedule. I just don't see that happening. I think the committee will value schedule, though this is just guessing, but at the end of the day, NOT LOSING will still be valued above all else. Which means we shouldn't expect the end of paycheck games, though we might see a slight increase in quality neutral site games like the Cowboy Classic. We can only hope, as it couldn't really get worse. The race to the bottom in scheduling is one of the biggest competitive issues in college football.
It makes polls a difficult exercise, as there's so little to base our judgments on, even at the end of the year. Power conferences don't play each other much. We have a more meaningful regular season full of meaningless games. Poll after the jump
And The Valley Shook! Ballot - Week 2
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 2 | LSU Tigers |
 1 |
| 3 | Oregon Ducks |
 -1 |
| 4 | West Virginia Mountaineers | -- |
| 5 | USC Trojans | -- |
| 6 | Kansas St. Wildcats |
12 |
| 7 | Florida St. Seminoles |
-1 |
| 8 | Georgia Bulldogs |
5 |
| 9 | Oklahoma Sooners |
1 |
| 10 | Michigan St. Spartans |
1 |
| 11 | South Carolina Gamecocks |
-3 |
| 12 | Clemson Tigers | -- |
| 13 | Virginia Tech Hokies |
1 |
| 14 | Arizona St. Sun Devils | -- |
| 15 | Tennessee Volunteers |
4 |
| 16 | UCLA Bruins | -- |
| 17 | Texas Longhorns | -- |
| 18 | Oregon St. Beavers | -- |
| 19 | Ohio St. Buckeyes |
2 |
| 20 | Baylor Bears |
4 |
| 21 | Ohio Bobcats |
-1 |
| 22 | ULM Warhawks | -- |
| 23 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | -- |
| 24 | Arizona Wildcats | -- |
| 25 | Northwestern Wildcats | -- |
| Dropouts: Oklahoma St. Cowboys, Wisconsin Badgers, Utah Utes, Arkansas Razorbacks, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Texas A&M Aggies, Michigan Wolverines | ||
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "
Almost no changes in my top 5, but the rest of the top 25 was practically lit on fire. And before you count up the teams, yes, I've ranked six Pac-12 teams, more than any other conference. Hey, they brought it this week, and usually against fellow BCS conference teams. We're beginning to get some actual data to rate teams with. Sure, this is still more of a power poll, but we're getting closer to 50/50 resume/power at this point. And please, I need help, so I'm openly soliciting input.
All of the losers dropped out of my poll, and I dropped Michigan as well. That game against Air Force is too much of a red flag along with the collapse of the Big Ten. I'm not sure they are any good at all right now.
1 Alabama The Michigan win doesn't look quite as good and they went through the motions against WKU. Perhaps we should play this season after all.
2 LSU A thorough demolition of Washington looks even better with the way the rest of the Pac-12 performed. How good is UW?
3 Oregon Another huge halftime lead followed by the team stepping off the gas.
4 West Virginia On a day a lot of big teams struggled, perhaps it was best to be idle.
5 USC Sort of not really struggled with Syracuse. Never in real danger of losing, but couldn't put them away
Big, massive, almost incalculable gap
6 Kansas St That was an ass-kicking. Anyone have a better looking win?
7 Florida St Okie St beat up on Savannah St too.
8 Georgia Old man football is this year's meme. Please update your stylebook.
9 Oklahoma The UTEP struggle looks even worse, but they righted the ship this week against a bad team
10 Michigan St Pretty much the only Big Ten team that has lived up to billing
11 South Carolina The Vandy win looks a little worse, but they did demolish ECU with ease.
12 Clemson At this point, it's nothing but question marks, so Clemson's getting a bit of a track record vote here
13 Virginia Tech I have a feeling the GT win will look better and better as the year moves on
14 Arizona St Not only did they make it look easy, they might have made it look easy against the front runner to make the Big Ten title game... which says more about the Big Ten
15 Tennessee Looking like a possible contender in the SEC East
16 UCLA I'm a chronic doubter of the Bruins, but they manhandled Nebraska and really should have won by more
17 Texas I've been a Horn skeptic and they sill haven't beaten anyone any good, but they beat them soundly
18 Oregon St OK, maybe Wisconsin isn't any good, but the Beavers just ended that bandwagon before it left the garage
19 Ohio St Following a simple formula of struggle early, then blow 'em out late
20 Baylor Thin resume, but at last they blew out SMU, right?
21 Ohio The PSU win loses luster but it was still a tough road win for a team that won 10 games last year
22 UL Monroe Guys, Arkansas isn't very good.
23 Notre Dame Damn you, Purdue.
24 Arizona Didn't just beat Okie St, they beat the hell out of Okie St
25 Northwestern Vandy and Cuse aren't very good, but who else has two wins over BCS conference teams right now?
Not Ranked by strongly considered: Louisville, Stanford, Iowa St, Mississippi St, TCU