Blogpoll Roundtable - Week 5 Chaos Edition

Part of Blogpoll voting responsibility comes participation in Blogpoll roundtables. The hosting blog asks questions about college football on a national level, and we the Blogpoll participants provide the answers.

This weeks’ blogpoll roundtable is hosted by fellow Husker site Big Red Network. You should have them bookmarked by now. 

This week's questions have to do with last week's upsets, whether or not the teams that lost can make it back, and whether it helped the non-BCS teams get further into the mix.

Q: Of the four presumed national title contenders to go down this past week--USC, Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin--which team has the best chance to get back in the race by the end of the year?

You can toss Wisconsin because of the weakness of the Big 10. Even if they run the rest of the table, which is doubtful, they’ll be placed behind a two-loss SEC or Big 12 team.

USC could make it back because they’re USC and the national media loves to suck up to them so they can get the chance to interview Pete Carroll, Will Farrell and some other wannabe jock star simultaneously.... or maybe it's the Song Girls?

Georgia and Florida - as part of the SEC you’re granted an extra loss every season because everyone’s bought into the “conference is too tough” mantra they spew every year. Unfortunately, I think both these teams proved they’re going to need serious help getting through the rest of the season in the Top 10.

My vote: USC

Q: But what does this mean for Ohio State? Are they back in?

No. No one wants to see Ohio State on that stage again until they can win a big game against someone outside their conference. Maybe they can do that in a BCS bowl, but not in the national title game.

Ask yourself - how many TV’s do you think will be turned off if the Buckeyes were in another title game? You’ve got your answer.

Q: Did the week that was open the door for any of the undefeated out of some of the non-BCS conferences like the Mountain West or the Big East? (Yup, that's a cheap shot. Thanks, Virginia Tech for not allowing me to make it about the ACC.)

Last week left a blemish on some good teams, so what that did was take away their margin for error. If a team like South Florida ends up being undefeated, you can’t justify putting a one-loss team from anywhere other than the Big 12 or SEC in the big game.

That margin for error means some voters feel like a team like Utah, BYU, or South Florida deserve a chance to show how well they can compete.