Week 11 Blogpoll/Trevonics: On the Road Again?

By Trev Alberts
formerly of ESPN.com

We're compressing posts all of the place, my loyal lemmings of football knowledge. The kid is out there "finding himself" or some other kind of lame new age crap this weeekend. I don't know. Something to do with Himalayan shamans and those weird Scandinavian midget guide business or something. Maybe he's just sick of me and is already abusing my new mental health vacation policies. These are the kinds of things that are important when your staff is normally run by a bunch of figments of the imagination. On top of that, there's that whole bombing of ImaginationLand that's really cramping production around here, not to mention that the Muppet Newscaster is out picketing for the Writers' Guild for reasons only known to him. Anyway, we're going to take a look at the sections of polled blognostery, then some quick picks.

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

The breakdown:
The top 5: Ohio State, Louisiana State, Orgeon, Kansas, Oklahoma -
Ohio State takes the lead yet again as the world's most boring #1 team. Only some team from Michigan stands in their way from rolling into the title game with nary a scratch on them. The chainsaw and the duck is more that just a bedtime story Papa Alberts used to read to me in my youth. This time around, the chainsaw's conference buddies may not be enough to get it past a PAC-1o champion duck. Of course, in the story, the townspeople all rigged their votes in the end anyway, so the predictions were all thrown to hell. Kansas has a legitimate claim to spoil everything if they can run the table, but that would involve a Big XII Champion from the little known North division. Oklahoma stands in their way, rounding out the top 5 for destroying Mizzou.

The next 5: Missouri, West Virginia, Arizona State, Boston College, Virginia Tech-
Things begin to sort themselves out now. Missouri has a chance to scratch and claw its way past the Jayhawks into the Big XII title game. West Virginia is the best team in this crazy Big East season. Arizona State could give the Mountaineers a game, but I'm sure they've their ranking between WfnVU and BC. BC is a falling dagger ladies and gentlemen. Its time to play for Matt Ryan's Heisman, and its basically the Dolphins model from the Marino years. Look that up, see how it worked out. Virginia Tech is doing what Virginia Tech does.

The middle 10: Hawaii, UCONN, UGA, Southern Cal, Florida, Texas, Boise State, Auburn, Alabama, Clemson-
The fine logjam of a dilly of a jam of a pickle down here in the middle ten. Hawaii, UCONN, and UGA are doing all they can to get some notice, but its just not happening these days. The Huskies still have a chance to make some waves if they get past Cincy and West Virginia. If they do that, no reason they shouldnt have at least the Mountaineers current ranking. SC>Florida>Texas in the remaining class of the blogpoll, with Boise State ahead of the next tier by means of their resume. Bama has been playing well, but I still think Auburn can win the Iron Bowl this year (and maybe ruin Georgia's season too). Clemson ran so fast, I couldn't put them any lower.

The last 5: Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida State, California-
In the last 5, resumes are ruling the roost. What else can I say if I'm ranking the Cavaliers ahead of all of these teams? I'll just point out how far Cal has fallen and move on.

The mysterious remains:
Cincinnati, Illinois, Arkansas-
Three teams that still have the opportunities to do some serious damage to their conferences and cobble together some kind of respectable season. They're all having "good" years, but they are on the precipice of OK. I'm looking at you, Arkansas.

Now for the quickened picks:

Wisconsin (+2.5) over Michigan
Clemson (-9) over Wake Forest
Missouri (-19.5) over Texas A&M
Tennessee (even) over Arkansas
Alabama (-5) over Mississippi State
Kentucky (-3.5) over Vanderbilt
Boise State (-24) over Utah State
Virginia Tech (-6.5) over Florida State
Ohio State (-15) over Illinois
Texas Tech (+6.5) over Texas, Texas to win
Cincinnati (-6.5) over UCONN
Arizona State (-7) over UCLA
Auburn (+2) over Georgia
Oklahoma (-38) over Baylor
Virginia (+3.5) over Miami(FL)
Florida (-6.5) over South Carolina
Kansas (-6) over Oklahoma State
Louisiana Tech (+36.5) over Louisiana State, LSU to win
California (+4) over Southern Cal
Boston College (-6.5) over Maryland
Hawaii (-17.5) over Fresno State
Air Force (-3) over Notre Dame

Trev Alberts is not a recognized Blogpoller. His gets migraines when he does it too much.