Week 8 Mumme Poll

I vote in Senator Blutarsky’s Mumme Poll, which his attempt to do a poll by approval rather than by precise rankings.

My ballot for this week:

Top 5

Alabama
Florida
Southern California
Penn State
Texas


Rest of the top 12

Boise State
Georgia
Ohio State
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas Christian
Utah


Comments:

The only trouble I had with the top 5 was determining whether to put Oklahoma or Florida in there. I am not a pure resume ranker, but rather I am looking at a combination of resume, power, overall talent, and even who I think would beat whom on a neutral field. I have seen no evidence thus far that Oklahoma plays defense. At all. Oklahoma’s resume is remarkably similar to Georgia’s: got beat by the only good team they’ve played. Because I believe in defense, and because Florida, so far, is playing some pretty good defense – and because I am convinced that Oklahoma at their best is not as good as Florida at their best – Florida gets the top 5 slot.

Penn State still hasn’t played anyone, but that changes this week. If they beat Ohio State the way they’ve beat everyone else their top 5 slot will be unassailable.

Most of the next group was pretty easy also. The issue is with the mid-majors: Boise State, Texas Christian, and Utah. They’re winning, impressively, over cupcakes – but how do I view them compared to a 1 loss BCS team from a weak conference? (I’m talking to you Georgia Tech, South Florida, Pitt, and anyone from the Pac 10 not named USC). At least BYU is gone and TCU gets a vote for getting rid of them. For now, I am going with the pretty undefeated records of Utah and Boise State, but remaining undefeated against bad competition will not keep them in the top if teams like Georgia Tech and Pitt keep winning.

I did not rank Texas Tech. The Red Raiders are a complete fraud. They have played an astonishingly weak schedule including TWO D1AAFCSEIEIO teams (so has GT, which is a large part of why I’m not on their bandwagon yet), got taken to overtime by a bad Nebraska team, and allowed a bad Texas A&M team to put up a bunch of points and stay in the game for far too long. Yes, I know that Utah and Boise State also have not played anyone, but they, at least, are not getting challenged by their cupcakes.

Looking forward to this week:

Penn State – Ohio State. The de facto Big 10 Title game and Penn State’s first legitimate challenge. I am seriously pulling for JoePa to put the wood to the Buckeyes, for all of the obvious reasons.

Georgia – LSU. Georgia’s second game against a decent team – if they lose this one, you can put the Dawgs down for a final record of 8-4 and the Music City bowl. Win impressively and it sets up a great Cocktail party to determine the SEC East and a possible rematch with Alabama in Atlanta.