Blog Poll Week One

Last week I created a bit of a stir when I put Utah at the top of my ballot. My reasoning was that Utah was at the top of my ballot last season when they defeated Alabama to remain unbeaten and had just as much right to be there as a one-loss Florida. Since they haven't lost since then, I kept them at #1, making me the most popular blogger in the state of Utah.

I think it all comes down to being a Penn State fan and knowing all about being undefeated and unrewarded. I have also seen great PSU teams drop from number one DESPITE winning, which is why I tend to keep teams there until they lose. Am I right? That's your opinion. But what is the point of having a ballot system if we're going to get our panties all bunched up over strength of schedule and quality wins and garbage like that. We might as well just let the computers decide. If you really want to know who's number one, have a playoff.

Anyway, Utah is still on top (they won) but my ballot may not count here in America, as I got this email from Brian at mgoblog who created and runs this poll:

A couple of preseason ballots were basically protests against the idea of preseason balloting. This distorts poll results and looks bad, so I don't like it. If you don't like the idea of preseason or early-season voting, you can abstain until week four; I don't take attendance until then. I would prefer that to old AP ballots or SOS rankings. . . .I've never had a vote-spiking procedure but I do now: any ballot that wins Mr. Bold by five clear points (or if two ballots are five clear of the third place votes, etc etc) will be spiked. This is incredibly hard to do and should only get invoked when a ballot is intentionally bizarre. I will review each ballot up for spiking to see if there's any reason to it whatsoever.

I've never been spiked before. We shall see . . . My intention was NOT to make a mockery of the system. I don't think my ballot was specifically referred to (it's not a SOS ranking or an old AP ballot) but I got the sense my #1 choice wasn't acceptable. I am a nonconformist. The problem here is that we are being asked to pick who the best team is, an impossible feat, not just now but at any point in the season. It is ALWAYS a biased choice. I picked a team I thought deserved to be #1 and I explained my rationale. You need not agree with it, but if Utah falters along the way, they will drop on my poll like any other loser. Until then, I stand by my choice.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Utah
2	Florida
3	Texas
4	Southern Cal
5	Mississippi
6	Penn State	1
7	Alabama	6
8	Boise State	3
9	Brigham Young	13
10	LSU	1
11	Ohio State	1
12	Oklahoma State	2
13	Oklahoma	7
14	Georgia Tech	1
15	California	2
16	Nebraska	3
17	Iowa	1
18	Virginia Tech	10
19	TCU	1
20	Kansas	3
21	Oregon State	3
22	Michigan State	3
23	Miami (Florida)
24	Missouri
25	Notre Dame
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Oregon (#12), Georgia (#18), Florida State (#21).