2008 CBS Sports Blog Poll Top 25 Week 14 Ballot: Oklahoma over Texas

by corn blight on Nov 30, 2008 1:49 PM CST in BlogPoll Comment 15 comments

My top five haven't changed since last week.

#1 - Alabama, although I'm not sold on them as a solid #1, I think Florida will beat them in the SEC Championship game. A solid win over their rival Auburn, although not that impressive because Auburn lost a lot this season (especially their minds).

#2 - Oklahoma.

#3 - Texas.

#4 - Florida. No doubt either Alabama or Florida will be in the national title game, so right now rankings don't matter as much. Win the game, you get your shot at immortality. I don't care for either of these teams, so don't ask me to pick one.

#5 - USC. USC lost that one game to Oregon State and it cost them everything. Pete Carroll did his whining about a playoff earlier in the year, so hopefully we won't have to hear much more from him.

Oklahoma - Texas

I have Oklahoma ahead of Texas for the following reasons:

- End of season high. Oklahoma played a better opponent on the road and beat them. Texas got a down Aggies team, the Sooners got an Oklahoma State team that's done as well as any Cowboy team in the last 20 years.

- Texas non-conference schedule is a joke, while Oklahoma soundly beat both TCU and Cincinnati. Should the "head-to-head" reference come up in a discussion with a Longhorn, feel free to throw the "body of work" phrase in their face.

The bottom line here is I firmly believe teams (especially power house school like Texas) should be doing a better job of scheduling tough games and if they're not they deserve to be penalized where it hurts the most - at the end of the year.

Is this subjective? Yes, but all things college football are subjective. This is not the NFL where things are neatly packaged (and I might add, is boring as watching corn grow when compared to college football).

Other

Yeah, I'm ranking Nebraska at #24. Our four losses came against Oklahoma, Missouri (before the loss to Oklahoma State sucked the life out of them), Virginia Tech, and Texas Tech in OT. That's not a bad group to lose to.

Again, tell me why I'm wrong.

Rank	Team	Delta

1	Alabama	--
2	Oklahoma	--
3	Texas	--
4	Florida	--
5	Southern Cal	--
6	Penn State	1
7	Texas Tech	1
8	Utah	2
9	Boise State	1
10	Cincinnati	7
11	Ohio State	2
12	TCU	1
13	Ball State	2
14	Oregon	8
15	Oklahoma State	4
16	Georgia Tech	5
17	Missouri	5
18	Georgia	4
19	Brigham Young	--
20	Boston College	--
21	Pittsburgh	5
22	Northwestern	4
23	Michigan State	1
24	Nebraska	1
25	Mississippi	1

Dropped Out: Oregon State (#16), Florida State (#23).

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Comments

Texas should be over Oklahoma

If college football goes to a playoff system then it’s head to head wins/losses that determines who moves on. Texas beat OU at a neutral site, they should have won the B12 south.
If you want to consider “body of work” then the strength of schedule should be put back into the BCS equation.

You can't possibly be a scientist if you mind people thinking that you're a fool.
~Wanko the Sane

by JLew on Nov 30, 2008 5:11 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

I'm not

for a playoff. Probably one of the few left, but I’m not.

And I definitely believe SOS should be in the BCS – there needs to be some incentive for teams to schedule good games.

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!

by corn blight on Dec 1, 2008 12:20 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I agree about strength of schedule...

…but with polling, you have to make some decisions, and at some point in time, the transitive property of college football is going to come into play, and you are going to have to make a decision as to which games mean more than others.

In my case, I look at how Oklahoma dispatched Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, and give them the edge over Texas.

by Husker Mike on Nov 30, 2008 9:22 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

You can't look at Head-to-Head

That’s why we’re in this mess in the first place. If you want to use Head-to-Head, I’d pick Texas Tech over Texas. They’re 11-1, and beat Texas.

Oh, but then Oklahoma is 11-1 and beat Texas Tech. And so on, and so on. Head to head is moot.

by Wolvie on Nov 30, 2008 10:12 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Yeah

I agree 100% Wolvie. I get so tired of hearing how Tex. beat OU. So what they lost to Tech who OU beat . Its a three way tie you cant just throw out Tech. They were the last to lose so maybe they should be rated the highest. No I think OU is the best of the three right now and it is a season long deal so I would vote for OU. If it was simply Tex and OU in the equation then Tex would have to go but its not.

by taflorom on Dec 1, 2008 12:40 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Yes, it's called a 3 way tie...

And it’s a mess. But you have to decide a winner somehow. As for Tech you can logically drop them with their blowout loss to OU, and scraping by Baylor. They are the weaker of the 3 teams. Then the question becomes OU or Texas. I say Texas because they beat OU.

You can't possibly be a scientist if you mind people thinking that you're a fool.
~Wanko the Sane

by JLew on Dec 1, 2008 8:47 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Agree with JLew

Texas did beat OU on a nuetral field, 50% crimson and 50% burnt orange. Mack could have rolled up the score on A&M last week but he pulled McCoy at the beginning of the fourth quarter(didn’t want to get him hurt whent he game was clearly in hand). One of these times when Stoops is running the score up he is going to lose a really good player like Bradford or Murry it only takes one hit. If that were to happen when they are up by 45 points I wonder what the reaction will be?

by Huzkerfan on Dec 1, 2008 9:25 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Fine...if Tech is the weaker of the 3 teams...

You lost to the weaker of the three teams, and shouldn’t go.

Someone has to get left out, the tiebreaker fell all the way to the BCS, and unfortunately this year it’s the Longhorns watching from afar. If you want to take the polls out of it, I’m all for that. Come up with a Strength of Schedule formula, Points For/Points Against system, etc., to find which of the three teams was the strongest, which had the “best” 11-1 record.

Besides, talk about blowout losses and margin of victory all you want, computers are apparently not allowed to take that into consideration. Let’s look at Margin of Victories/Losses for our little round-robin.

Oklahoma: Lost by 10, Won by 20 (10)
Texas: Lost by 6, Won by 10 (4)
Tech: Lost by 20, Won by 6 (-14)

I’m sure you’ll say, “forget about the margin of victory, our defense is better, we lost by less than the other two”. Well, if you’re going to immediately discount/discredit Tech for losing by 20, give the offense that laid that smack down equal credit for winning by 20.

There’s ALL SORTS of ways to spin it, benefiting either school. Is Texas deserving? Yes. Is Oklahoma deserving? Yes. This is all a pointless argument. ::sigh::

by Wolvie on Dec 2, 2008 12:20 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

you're leaving out context of games

Tech – won at home on last second play
OU – won at home convincingly
Texas – won on neutral field by 10.

UT was only team that didn’t get a home game among the round robin.

by DogTown on Dec 2, 2008 10:05 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Not using head to head = irrational

Seems that if you have a tie, you peel back team after team until someone is left standing.

Of the three teams, which can you eliminate first? Most people (cornblight included) have pushed out Tech. In fact, there is near consensus that Tech is out of the picture. Fair? maybe, maybe not. But it’s moot bc the vast majority of people deemed the ass whooping by OU was too much.

So that leaves us with UT and OU. Seeing as how 45 > than 35, there should not be any more discussion.

For sake of argument, let’s say hypothetically that we could eliminate OU first for some reason. I would argue just as adamantly that 39>33, and that Tech is most deserving.

by DogTown on Dec 2, 2008 10:15 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Why did

Northwestern drop 4 spots after winning by 17?

by taflorom on Dec 1, 2008 12:42 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

well

hell, man, I am looking for feedback. :)

Go Big Red Nebraska!
Our Cobs Are Bigger Than Yours!
Corn Nation!

by corn blight on Dec 1, 2008 7:43 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

And

Utah drops also after being idle? The won their last game by 24 and yet you drop them because they didn’t play? and move Tech up for their narrow victory over Baylor??? And you move PSU above them when they too were idle. your polling isn’t making much sense.

by taflorom on Dec 1, 2008 12:46 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

OK

my post about Northwestern dropping after being idle and winning their last game by 17 didn’t post. so I had asked first why they dropped 4 spots? and then they next post about Utah etc.

by taflorom on Dec 1, 2008 12:48 AM CST reply actions 0 recs