Monday Poll Bashin'/Look who's ahead of Florida and USC

The ambiguity in college football keeps on truckin’ as three more top-ten teams lost along with #11, #14, and #15. Michigan—a team that started the season ranked in the top-five—didn’t even receive a single vote in any poll as recently as week three. Now, Michigan is all the way back to up 12th (up eight spots from last week) in the BCS standings ahead of Florida and USC without having beaten a single team ranked in either poll. In between Michigan’s fall and subsequent rise, there have been 22 teams ranked in the top ten. Just three weeks ago, Cal was ranked #2. Now, Cal isn’t ranked in either poll. Just two weeks ago, South Florida was ranked #2. Now, the Bulls aren’t ranked better than 20th in any poll. So many teams have been banished as afterthoughts only to return quickly and prominently like Georgia. Nobody knows who the best team is. The web of “who beat who” is so entangled that most attempts at rationalizing a top-25 become illogical very quickly.

Because the pollsters follow ridiculous “unwritten guidelines” on dropping teams after losses and bumping teams after wins regardless of the caliber, the polls are not capable of reflecting a true top 25 with so much mayhem going on. Nobody thinks Kansas and Hawaii would beat Florida but that’s what people are pretending to think if that makes sense. I fear that without polls, more than half of the hype in college football would vanish. However, the polls are idiotic. They should be disbanded.

Just when I think that the idiocy is dying down, the next poll comes out to prove me wrong…


Florida over Auburn

Unbelievably, the USA Today poll is immune from criticism on this one. The AP totally dropped the ball by ignoring the fact that Auburn beat Florida at Florida. They both have three losses. Auburn has the best win of the two teams. Tebow-mania has officially infected the polls.

Texas @ #12 in USA Today

Texas has no business being ranked 12th. I have to admit that it’s possible that the Longhorns are the 12th best team but there is absolutely no evidence suggesting that is true. Texas hasn’t beaten a team that received even a single vote in any poll this week. I thought Hawaii had that market cornered. Texas has played two teams that could even remotely be considered good. Not surprisingly, it lost both including a 20-point blowout loss to unranked Kansas St. The AP also has Texas too high at #14.


Hawaii @ #11 in USA Today

This is getting ridiculous. Hawaii hasn’t beaten a team with a winning record. Hawaii also hasn’t even played a team outside of the WAC, I-AA, and the Mountain West. Despite possibly the weakest schedule in NCAA history, Hawaii still needed overtime in two games to dispatch of terrible opponents. Just to give an example of what major conferences have done against Hawaii’s opponents, let’s look at the two teams Hawaii had to beat in overtime. Hawaii beat Louisiana Tech 45-44 in OT. Lousiana Tech lost 42-12 to Cal and 24-0 to Ole Miss. Hawaii also needed overtime to beat San Jose St. San Jose St. lost 45-3 to Arizona St., 34-14 to Kansas St., and 37-0 to Stanford. Please stop voting for Hawaii. You might as well vote for the Northern Iowa Panthers. They’re undefeated and haven’t beaten anyone either.

Va. Tech only drops 3

Virginia Tech was way overrated last week and it is absurd that the Hokies only dropped three spots after a miserable performance on Thursday night. If you didn’t watch the game, you probably think that a four-point loss to the #2 team in the country is a good showing. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Virginia Tech has a terrible offense. BC played about as bad as a good team could possibly play. Plus, BC isn’t really the #2 team talent-wise. Virginia Tech has had two tests this year and has failed both. It lost by 41 to LSU and played lousy in a huge home game against BC. Until Va. Tech beats a team with a pulse, it shouldn’t be sniffing the top 15.

Auburn over S. Florida

Auburn has two losses. S. Florida has three losses. I’m not a big “records” guy but the polls love “records” which is the only thing that can explain Virginia’s presence in the top 25 over the last few weeks. S. Florida also beat Auburn at Auburn. So, why is Auburn ranked ahead of S. Florida again?