Rank	Team	Delta
1	Kansas	2
2	LSU	2
3	West Virginia	2
4	Missouri	2
5	Georgia	2
6	Virginia Tech	2
7	Arizona State	5
8	Oklahoma	7
9	Texas	--
10	Oregon	8
11	Hawaii	4
12	Boise State	1
13	Florida	--
14	Virginia	--
15	Ohio State	1
16	Tennessee	1
17	Clemson	7
18	Connecticut	1
19	Boston College	3
20	Southern Cal	1
21	Wisconsin	2
22	Cincinnati	4
23	Auburn	2
24	Illinois	2
25	Brigham Young	1

Is this parity? Is that what this is? I'm pretty sure I don't like it. Look at this mess. Why is Georgia #5? I don't think they deserve it, but they've worked their way up and into that position.

I feel like I should have dropped Oklahoma further, but I still think they're a better team than Texas. I'd take them against Oregon and everyone else below them and that's why I kept them higher than I'd like.

There's still plenty to prove - obviously everyone will be watching the Kansas - Missouri game. The winner of that will face Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game and there's no reason to believe why the Big 12 North won't prevail. People tend to base their beliefs on the previous year's experience and that idea went out the window in the first couple weeks of this season.

Ohio State doesn't get much credit this week for beating Michigan because the Big 10 sucks this year. A whole lot of unimpressive teams.

Southern Cal doesn't get a lot of respect because they're a team full of highly rated athletes that really isn't very good. Oregon without Dixon? Thanks for leaving Arizona State on top there guys, really appreciate what you've done for that hired gun Dennis Erickson.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Oklahoma	1
2	Oregon	1
3	Kansas	1
4	LSU	1
5	West Virginia	1
6	Missouri	1
7	Georgia	1
8	Virginia Tech	5
9	Texas	3
10	Clemson	4
11	Boise State	8
12	Arizona State	1
13	Florida	5
14	Virginia	7
15	Hawaii	1
16	Ohio State	15
17	Tennessee	7
18	Cincinnati	8
19	Connecticut	9
20	Penn State	3
21	Southern Cal	1
22	Boston College	7
23	Wisconsin	3
24	Michigan	15
25	Auburn	8

Why drop Illinois? Because the Big 10 sucks, that's why and they don't deserve to move up just because they beat a #1 fake team. Ohio State gets hammered for the same reason. I don't see why we should reward a conference that is on the verge of becoming what we thought the Big East would be.

Any other arguments?

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Ohio State	--
2	Oklahoma	1
3	Oregon	3
4	Kansas	1
5	LSU	2
6	West Virginia	2
7	Missouri	2
8	Georgia	2
9	Michigan	3
10	Connecticut	4
11	Arizona State	7
12	Texas	1
13	Virginia Tech	2
14	Clemson	3
15	Boston College	13
16	Hawaii	--
17	Auburn	1
18	Florida	1
19	Boise State	3
20	Alabama	9
21	Virginia	5
22	Southern Cal	2
23	Penn State	3
24	Tennessee	2
25	Illinois	1

No doubt most have LSU ranked higher than I do, but I do have a reason. Imagine that crazy uncle you have who likes handguns. He throws a can in the air, shoots a hole through it and while he's screaming some rebel yell his next shot takes off your big toe. That's LSU. Whoooeeee, bang!   Some day when they start playing with consistency I'll rank them higher.

Oregon and Oklahoma are nearly identical in the teams they've played and beat. They both have a ways to go yet. Kansas is ahead of LSU because they're a better team. Do they have better all-around athletes? No. If everyone played their best on every day, would LSU beat Kansas? Yes. Has Kansas played more consistent football. YES! That's why they're ranked above LSU.

Notice - I haven't ranked the SEC very well, have I? That's because as the year goes on, I'm not convinced they're the great conference everyone makes them out to be. Defenses are giving up points left and right, the offenses are wacky and inconsistent, the whole conference is, well, as messed up and dysfunctional as everyone else. Auburn? meh. Tennessee? meh. Alabama? meh.  I don't see any reason for excitement.

Missouri hasn't yet suffered from the Pinkel factor. They'll have a great big showdown with Kansas in the not so distant future. Only one will stand. Whooeee!

UConn keeps winning. Good for them. Keep thinking they'll lose and wait for basketball season and they go and win again. Can someone do something about this?

Given what I've said about LSU, Texas really doesn't deserve to be 12th, do they?

Welcome to a blogpoll roundtable. The coaches this week are about your relationship with your coach(es). I'm curious as to how the rest of all y'all feel about your coaches. Maybe it's that "misery loves company". Maybe I'm just bitter that your relationship right now has to be better than mine.

Here's your questions. Please post your replies in the comments section, and let's have fun with this one.

Pete Carroll went to college from the NFL and turned USC into a huge success. This lead to a bunch of copy-cats: Bill Callahan at Nebraska, Charlie Weis at Notre Dame, Dave Wannastache at Pitt, Greg Robinson at Syracuse among them. All of them are failing, some like Callahan and Weis are failures of historical proportions. Give reasons as to why you think these coaches have failed.

If you were the coach of a failing team and walked outside to discover someone planting a "For Sale" sign in your yard, would you (one answer only, please):

• A -  Listen to them explain their actions in an understanding and calm demeanor
• B - Ignore them, then remove the sign after they've left your yard
• C - Yell at them to "Get the Hell Out Of My Yard!"
• D - Call the police and tell them you've shot a prowler.....
• E - Invite them in, then bury them in the basement with the rest

Every coach has a habit that annoys their fans. Bill Callahan says "No question" at the beginning of nearly every answer he gives. What's your coach's most annoying trait?

Have you ever contacted your school's coach or athletic department to voice your happiness or displeasure? Explain.

Please respond with the answer that most closely describes your feeling about your current coach:

• A - He's good (or great) and he can stay as long as he likes.
• B - I like our coach, but if he doesn't do better in the next year or two he's gone.
• C - meh
• D - He needs to be replaced at the end of the season.
• E - Burnin's too good for him. Hangin's too good him. He deserves to be torn into little bitsy pieces and buried alive.  

You have one question of any subject you can ask any member of your school's coaching staff. What is it and to whom is it directed?

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Ohio State	--
2	Boston College	--
3	Oklahoma	--
4	Arizona State	--
5	Kansas	--
6	Oregon	--
7	LSU	--
8	West Virginia	1
9	Missouri	1
10	Georgia	10
11	Alabama	4
12	Michigan	9
13	Texas	1
14	Connecticut	12
15	Virginia Tech	7
16	Hawaii	1
17	Clemson	9
18	Auburn	4
19	Florida	8
20	Wake Forest	6
21	Wisconsin	5
22	Boise State	4
23	South Florida	10
24	Southern Cal	12
25	Purdue	1

Note no change in the top seven. Regular polls have LSU higher, but I'm not putting them up there until they earn it back, which means they're going to have to do something fantastic or other people have to lose.

The blogpoll is posted here for discussion. I'm particularly interested in where (if at all) you'd rank UConn, Wake Forest, Purdue, and Wisconsin.  

How 'bout Boise State re-entering the poll?

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Ohio State	1
2	Boston College	1
3	Oklahoma	1
4	Arizona State	1
5	Kansas	2
6	Oregon	3
7	LSU	5
8	Virginia Tech	2
9	West Virginia	2
10	Missouri	11
11	Florida	7
12	Southern Cal	3
13	South Florida	12
14	Texas	--
15	Alabama	11
16	Virginia	8
17	Hawaii	--
18	Kentucky	10
19	South Carolina	13
20	Georgia	--
21	Florida State	5
22	Auburn	3
23	Penn State	2
24	Oklahoma State	2
25	California	9

More carnage this week.

Y'all realize that UCLA is 4-0 in the Pac-10?  Symbolic of a truly psychotic season. It's anyone's bet as to who will be in the National Title game. How 'bout Michigan?

Keep in mind that all rankings used in this article (and on this site) come courtesy of the Blogpoll, not the BCS, the Harris, or the old coaches poll. Want to know who votes, look down the left side panel. Want to know how they vote? Nothing is hidden.

This week's blogpoll roundtable is being hosted by Straight Bangin'.

1) Coming into the season, many people had October 6th circled on their calendars because it was thought that the LSU-Florida game would be the single match-up that wielded the most influence over the rest of the sport. Now that a singular cataclysm has given way to a weekly series of upheavals, is there a single remaining game that has the greatest potential to deliver on the promise of unique significance foretold in the preseason blogosphere? Which one is it and why?

Navy versus Notre Dame.

I figured that Notre Dame would suck, but I didn't realize they'd historically suck. Navy hasn't beaten them in 43 years. I'd like to see Charlie Weis and Jimmy Clausen associated with the breakage of a 43-year streak because that's just how bitter I am this year.

2) Bill Callahan's tenure has been so embarrassing for Nebraska fans that the school just fired the athletic director who hired him. Meanwhile, Tom Brady is doing just fine without Charlie Weis, even though he invented offense; Dream Coach Pete Carroll is facing criticism for his team's preparation and attitude; the Urban Meyer Revolution is televised but not as advertised due to an unreliable running game; Mack Brown's players get arrested a lot; and so forth. Don't get me started on Lloyd Carr. All around the country, coaches are under duress, even the beatified ones. Name a coach or two (or three) who most deserves the criticism and explain why.

You need to draw the line between coaches who are being criticized for losing and coaches who deserve criticism because of doing something stupid. Why? Because it's pretty easy to bitch and complain about the coaches when your team is losing.

Lloyd Carr, for example, at least won a national title at Michigan. That's more than any other coach there had done in the past 60 years. Lloyd Carr achieved more than all them other coaches, so maybe it's Michigan itself that has underachieving in it's DNA.

Then you move onto the guys who deserve the criticism they get because they've brought it upon themselves. Charlie Weis can step up to the line because of the sheer arrogance with which he conducts himself.  Throw Nick Saban and Dennis Erickson in there as well as paid gunslingers.

All of these pale in comparison to the king of stupid that is Coach Fran. Dennis Franchione deserves all of the criticism heaped upon him.   I cannot imagine what possessed a man who's being paid a good sum of money to sell an insider's newsletter, not tell his boss, and then not claim the money as income. This is a guy who's been coaching nearly 30 years. He's been a head coach at seven different schools. This isn't something he cooked up when he was drunk and did on the spur of the moment. He planned to be stupid and then maintained that level of stupidity until he was caught.

The only people dumber than a coach like that are the people who will hire him in his next position. When Indiana hired Kelvin Sampson (basketball), I thought to myself, "Are they stupid or what?" after his violations at Oklahoma. Turns out, yes they were! You don't get dumber than that.

3) With few elite teams, a plethora of pretenders, and the aforementioned steady procession of upsets, filling out a ballot each week can be challenging. What is the single hardest decision you'll have to make this week when voting?

I'd like to say "whether or not to do it", but that's not true. I committed to it, but it's more than frustrating to rank other teams when your team is coming apart at the seams.

4) This one is similar to the last question: many teams have sent voters mixed signals all year. Is BC really a top-five team? What am I supposed to do with South Carolina? Are there even two good teams in the Big Ten? Borrow a page from EDSBS and give me two teams to buy and two teams to sell.

Buy, Sell, buy, sell. Are there no holds? What happened to the mind of a long-term investor? Dead with the rise of the week-traders. So sad. And here I go contributing to the call of instant gratification.

Sell:

#4 Boston College before they face Virginia Tech next week, then Florida State, Maryland, Clemson, and Miami in that order.

The Pac-10. Look at what's going to happen in the Pac-10. Cal, USC, Oregon, and Arizona State. They're going to eat each other alive with the schedules that are coming up. It will be amazing if any of them get through it unscathed.

(I guess I should have written this before tonight and sold South Florida. Where's the fun in that?)

Buy:

#13 Kansas. Oh, they haven't played anyone, but given the season, they're undefeated which is a lot more than many other "name" teams can say. They go to Colorado and Texas A&M, both winnable games for them. The biggest game they have left is Mizzou at a neutral field. Don't be surprised if they win the Big 12 North.  

Unranked Iowa. They play at Purdue, but then they get Michigan State, Northwestern, Minnesota, and Western Michigan. When you're buying and selling, it's about finding the unknown stocks that are going to rise, right?

5) Now that we know the strengths and weaknesses of many teams, explain to me how your team will make out over the remainder of the regular season.

What kind of cruel bastard are you to come up with a question like this?

They're probably going to be a neurotic dysfunctional mess. That's what they've been most of the season, and I don't see that changing. The players say they support their coaches and then they go out and play like they don't want them around next season. It doesn't make much sense.

Maybe some aura of darkness has lifted since Steve Pederson's firing and we'll win the rest of our games. I'd like that. I like winning, especially if it'd mean we'd beat Texas and Colorado and somehow beat out Missouri for the Big 12 North. Am I expecting that? Am I mad?

Rank	Team	Delta
1	South Florida	4
2	Ohio State	1
3	Boston College	1
4	Oklahoma	2
5	Arizona State	3
6	South Carolina	4
7	Kansas	6
8	Kentucky	7
9	Oregon	2
10	Virginia Tech	2
11	West Virginia	5
12	Tennessee	6
13	Texas	13
14	LSU	13
15	Southern Cal	7
16	California	14
17	Hawaii	--
18	Florida	2
19	Auburn	--
20	Georgia	1
21	Missouri	14
22	Cincinnati	13
23	Texas Tech	3
24	Virginia	2
25	Penn State	1

This is nuts.

We're down to six undefeated teams: Ohio State, Boston College, South Florida, Arizona State, Kansas, and Hawaii.

Should South Carolina be that high?

I'm of the mind that losers should drop harder than they do in the regular AP polls, the coaches dropped LSU to only fifth, yet rank Arizona State at 12th. That sounds a little like they're not paying much attention, doesn't it?

Comments welcome, please.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	--
2	California	1
3	Ohio State	2
4	Boston College	3
5	South Florida	1
6	Oklahoma	4
7	Missouri	4
8	Arizona State	9
9	Cincinnati	3
10	South Carolina	5
11	Oregon	3
12	Virginia Tech	1
13	Kansas	7
14	Illinois	12
15	Kentucky	7
16	West Virginia	--
17	Hawaii	4
18	Tennessee	8
19	Auburn	6
20	Florida	1
21	Georgia	12
22	Southern Cal	20
23	Wisconsin	19
24	Florida State	2
25	Connecticut	1

LSU is a clear cut number one now. Cal moves up by virtue of not playing any one. Ohio State, Boston College and South Florida? Where did these teams come from?

Oklahoma and Missouri have set themselves up for a great game next weekend. Can Mizzou move into the Top Five?

I'm not a Dennis Erickson fan, but they continue to win. They weren't that impressive against Washington State (watched part of the game), but again, who else are you going to put there?


Cincinnati, Kansas, Illinois - all over-achieving? Or is it early yet?

And, yes, USC drops all the way to 22. They struggled against Washington, their destruction of Nebraska is nothing special and they were upset by a horrible team. I considered not ranking them at all.

Feedback is certainly encouraged. Required?

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	1
2	Southern Cal	1
3	California	5
4	Wisconsin	3
5	Ohio State	4
6	South Florida	12
7	Boston College	4
8	Kentucky	18
9	Georgia	5
10	Oklahoma	7
11	Missouri	6
12	Cincinnati	14
13	Virginia Tech	3
14	Oregon	2
15	South Carolina	7
16	West Virginia	12
17	Arizona State	9
18	Texas	12
19	Florida	14
20	Kansas	1
21	Hawaii	6
22	Purdue	2
23	Miami (Florida)	2
24	Nebraska	--
25	Auburn	1

Based on feedback, this is the blogpoll I submitted this evening. Missouri shouldn't be at #11, should they?

This week's Blogpoll roundtable is being hosted by My Opinion on Sports.

The Battle for #1 – USC and LSU are separated by one vote in the AP poll. We made the switch in last week’s blogpoll by putting the Tigers in our top spot. State your case for who should be the top team in the country.

I changed my Blogpoll vote this week, moving LSU to #1 instead of USC for the sole reason that USC wasn't so impressive against Washington last weekend. Previous to the Washington game I figured that USC would run through the Pac-10 without a problem. Now I doubt they will.

LSU has the best defense in the nation, allowing only 6.4 points per game. They've dominated everyone they've come up against. They have a tougher road on the way to the national title.

Oklahoma, Florida, West Virginia, Texas and Rutgers were all upset this weekend. Of those teams, who has the best shot of getting back into the national title hunt?

Texas wasn't that good to begin with, so they're out. Wait - let me clarify that - Texas was going to be okay as long as Colt McCoy was superman. He's no where near Superman, and Texas has other issues so you can count on them losing more than one other game.

Florida has that tough SEC schedule so you can count them out. West Virginia and Rutgers - neither team is so dominant as to get through the rest of their schedules unscathed. Both of them have yet to play Cincinnati and Syracuse, teams that appear to have found themselves.

Oklahoma is still the best team in the Big 12. It's pretty obvious that the Colorado game had them looking ahead to the Texas game this coming weekend.  That won't happen again this season. Given that the rest of the BIg12 is horribly dysfunctional, who's going to stop them?

Looking at the current AP Top 10, who is grossly overrated and who should be in there that isn’t?

I'm not sold on Kentucky, but they are undefeated. You could probably pick Wisconsin here just because of the way they've played down to their mediocre opponents, but I like how they play football. They win ugly, but they do win.

South Florida belongs there. Are they the best team in Florida now? They beat Auburn. Auburn beat Florida. They beat West Virginia. Why not?

I'd like to say that Ohio State is overrated because I can't stand the Buckeyes, but their road win at Washington was impressive. Even further now after the way that Washington played USC.

Neither Florida nor Oklahoma belong in the Top 10 after losing this past weekend. It's representative of the polls that they don't drop the top teams far enough when they lose. Arizona State, Hawaii or Mizzou could be in the Top Ten. Why not? All three are undefeated and give this year's season there's something to be said for that.

What is the worst coaching mistake you’ve seen this season?

Coach Dennis Franchione's admission that he has been selling inside information about the Aggies is just about the dumbest thing I can remember a coach doing. Bill Byrne didn't need an excuse to fire him, but this is like icing on a going-away cake.

If he knew that it was going to be controversial, why do it? He needed the money? He wanted to feel closer to big-name boosters? He has this need to write and this was his outlet? Bill Byrne is going to have his head on a plate.

This is the kind of crap that fuels college football opponents who point out that college athletes are being exploited for big bucks.

What an idiot.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	LSU	1
2	Southern Cal	1
3	California	5
4	Wisconsin	3
5	Boston College	6
6	South Florida	12
7	Ohio State	2
8	Hawaii	7
9	Kentucky	17
10	Georgia	4
11	Missouri	6
12	Cincinnati	14
13	Virginia Tech	3
14	Oklahoma	11
15	Oregon	3
16	South Carolina	6
17	Arizona State	9
18	Kansas	1
19	Florida	14
20	Purdue	--
21	West Virginia	17
22	Texas	16
23	Miami (Florida)	2
24	Nebraska	--
25	Kansas State	1

Here's my initial blogpoll ballot for the week. I watched the USC - Washington game for a while and thought USC looked very ordinary, so I dropped them below LSU.

Cal  moves up to #3 - did anyone notice how far off the Oregon defensive backs were playing DeShean Jackson?

I still like Wisconsin. They play ugly football, but they've always played ugly football and found a way to win. I'll rank them higher than Ohio State in the Big 10 because OSU doesn't have much of an offense. They should have crushed Minnesota much worse than they did.

BC moves up, South Florida contained the three-headed monster that is Mountaineer football. That's pretty impressive and they get rewarded for it.

I hadn't ranked Kentucky before, believing that they're a fluke (and I"m still not convinced). Missouri goes to #11? ee what all those losses have done? Complete, utter chaos.

Cincinnati goes to #12. I did watch them dismantle a decent Oregon State team a few weeks ago, they deserve some consideration.

I thought about ranking Auburn, but no. One good game does not a team make.

Discrepancies? Injustice? Let me know, please.