BlogPoll: Irish rise to No. 1

Blatant Homerism Ballot - Week 9

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	2
2	Kansas St. Wildcats	--
3	Alabama Crimson Tide	2
4	Oregon Ducks	3
5	Ohio St. Buckeyes	1
6	Oregon St. Beavers	-2
7	Louisville Cardinals	2
8	Georgia Bulldogs	7
9	Florida Gators	-8
10	LSU Tigers	1
11	Florida St. Seminoles	6
12	Clemson Tigers	6
13	South Carolina Gamecocks	6
14	Stanford Cardinal	6
15	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	-5
16	Oklahoma Sooners	-4
17	Texas A&M Aggies	5
18	Texas Tech Red Raiders	-5
19	UCLA Bruins	--
20	Nebraska Cornhuskers	1
21	Northwestern Wildcats	--
22	Louisiana Tech Bulldogs	3
23	West Virginia Mountaineers	--
24	Texas Longhorns	-1
25	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	--
Dropouts: Rutgers Scarlet Knights, USC Trojans, Ohio Bobcats, Penn St. Nittany Lions

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

Notes:

*Maybe it's overexuberance following Notre Dame's impressive win over Oklahoma, but, to me, the Fighting Irish have assembled the best body of work in the country. The difference between ND and Kansas State? KSU's cupcake wins versus Missouri State and North Texas.

*Louisville presents a real problem. The Cardinals have some decent wins, but nothing really stands out. Their best win looks like either North Carolina or Cincinnati.  The Cards are living on the edge, having won five of eight games by a touchdown or less. A loss or two can't be far behind.

*Despite Louisville's undefeated record, I ranked Oregon State ahead of it. Week in and week out, the Beavers have played a dramatically superior level of competition – Sagarin ranks Oregon St.'s schedule as the ninth-toughest in the country; the Cards come in 99th.

*Mississippi State should feel lucky that it didn't get penalized even further for gaming the system.

*Probably the homerism in me, but I can't penalize Oklahoma too severely for losing to two of the best teams in the country.

*That clump of Big 12 teams at the bottom doesn't exactly rev my engine. Hey, that's what happens when you have to rank 25 teams.