Week 8 Blogpoll: Extra Tasty Crazy

By Trev Alberts
formerly of ESPN.com

Get ready for an extra dose of crazy, loyal Trevians, as if the season to date hasn't been chock full of absolute life-questioning upsets. Just saying, there's a lot of madness to go around, and this week's blogpoll is no exception. Between my over-correcting, my under-correcting, and my flat out bold presumptions...well....you take a look.

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


The breakdown: The top 5: USF, Ohio State, Boston College, South Carolina, Kentucky-
There it is. I'm saying it right now. South Florida is the best team in the country today. Undefeated, untied, and with wins over West Virginia and at Auburn that leaves them above the rest. A consensus number one in the computers, and if they'd been around for more than 10 years, they'd be no doubt number one. Ohio State may have the pedigree, and they may have a chance to close the gap with games against Penn State and Michigan, but for right now, put up the horns for the Bulls. Boston College is here on undefeated momentum, a Heisman candidate at QB, and that lovely East Coast bias. South Carolina over Kentucky over Louisiana State by the wonders of the transitive property.

The next 5: Louisiana State, Southern Cal, Oklahoma, California, Virginia Tech-
And that leaves a very angry, very deadly Tiger team here at number 6. Its at that point in the season that you can argue that they are the best team, but are also the most underrated. That point when talent and potential start giving way to computers, polls, wins, and losses. Southern Cal is up here yet again trading on their name, as Stanford isn't the best loss in the world. In fact, Colorado, Oregon State, and LSU are better losses, but that's the way it goes.

The middle 10: Oregon, Hawaii, Kansas, West Virginia, Florida, Arizona State, Missouri, Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia-
We now settle on strength of losses and quality wins. Oregon's sole loss to Cal looked really good until they forgot they couldn't stop the clock against the Beavers. However, since some crazy types think Michigan is rankable, I guess that shellacking gets more credit. Kansas should probably be higher than Hawaii, and they'll have plenty of opportunity to overcome the Colt Brennan mojo. WVU has the 1-loss edge over Florida, to USF of all teams, while Arizona State retains zero credit for their resume to date. Mizzou has the ability to shock some people, but they couldn't get past Oklahoma, placing them in the strange creamy middle of talent vs. resume. Tennessee is back to pasting people proper while Auburn and Georgia still fail to impress....beyond beating Florida of course.

The last 5: Florida State, Virginia, Cincinnati, Texas Tech, Kansas State-
Rounding out the bottom of the list are some teams with some respectability, like Florida State, some teams clamoring for SOME respect, like UVA, Cincy, and TTech, while Texas, like many of the mysterious remains, clamoring for someone to look past their record and trade on their name a little more. See also Michigan. K-State beat Texas, so that puts them here, and the horns down there.

The mysterious remains:
Illinois, Penn State, Texas, Michigan (really?!)-
Let's get this out of the way right quick. Michigan lost to a DI-AA team. I don't care how good Appalachian State is this year. I don't care how good Michigan is now. All I care about is that at the bottom of the Top 25, there are plenty of teams with better resumes than the skunkbears that deserve the honorable mentions that this ranking strata entails. The redacteds and the zombies are having better years overall than UM, not to mention K-State thoroughly. Texas may be back to there cupcake stomping ways, but they need to earn it just like everyone else.

Trev Alberts is not a recognized Blogpoller. He is the Trev.