Polling - Week 10: Close to status quo
Utah... Really? (Photo courtesy: USA Today Sports)
My ballot for this week's CBR power poll:
CrystalBallRun.com Power Rankings Ballot – Week 101. Alabama
2. Oregon
3. Florida State
4. Ohio State
5. Miami
6. Baylor
7. Stanford
8. Missouri
9. Fresno State
10. Northern Illinois
Just missed the cut: Auburn, Clemson, Oklahoma
Notes:
*We've hit the point in the season where I doubt that there will be that much movement in the rankings, especially in a week like this with so few marquee games. These teams kinda are who they are now.
*How much should a bad loss hurt? Namely, Stanford dropped one to a pretty mediocre outfit in Utah. On the other hand, the Cardinal have run up some solid wins this year, too – Arizona State, UCLA, Washington, Oregon State. If Stanford had beaten Utah and lost to ASU, conventional wisdom says that's better. I guess that's fair, but it seems arbitrary.
*Fresno and NIU present tough cases. For point of reference, Sagarin ranks Fresno's schedule 114th and NIU's schedule 127th. I try to reward the teams that have had the best seasons, though, and it's hard to fault those two for knocking down the competition in front of them, which has included a handful of major teams. For now, I'll take what Stanford and Mizzou have done to this point over those two.
(Very wishy-washy this week. Imagine what that's like for the voters who actually matter.)
*The Seminoles could strengthen their case to move ahead of the Ducks with a monster win over Miami this weekend, obviously. Same goes for The U, but that's not happening.