Polls and Ballots: Week 7

I'm sure everyone saw yesterday that Wake moved up to #21 in the AP and coaches polls - a pretty good week's work considering Wake didn't even play. It's funny how sometimes not playing is the best thing a team can do.

I'll try not to to do this every week because I know how annoying (and maybe even painful) it would become, but for this week at least I'm going to consider where Wake might be without the loss to Navy. I think the Deacs could be as high as 8, but also as low as 14. Compared to the high end, the current position really isn't all that bad, but the fact that we could be looking at a single digit right now is painful.

Below you'll find my ballot for this week's BlogPoll. I don't even look at the other polls when I make my ballot, so don't be surprised by some significant difference. The differences arise because I'm ranking teams exclusively on what they've done so far. In no way am I projecting forward with these rankings. Yes, I do have Vanderbilt in the top 10. Why? Because they're undefeated and have beaten 2 ranked teams (Alabama and USC are the only other team in the top 10 to have accomplished that - but USC also lost). They may lose 4 of their next 5 and disappear in a hurry, but I'm not concerned with the future right now.

I also put a lot of stock in a team being undefeated. I recognize Ball State and Tulsa haven't exactly beaten anybody, but the fact is they also haven't lost a game. More and more one loss teams will move in front of them if things were to continue at this pace, but right now I think a team with one loss better have lost to to a ranked team or have wins over ranked teams if they're going to be jumping undefeated teams. The ballot is below. Notice the fancy new logo - BlogPoll is some sort of big deal now - the poll will appear on CBSSports.com. I think they may still be working out some kinks, though, because I can't find it there yet.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Oklahoma	--
2	Alabama	--
3	Missouri	--
4	LSU	--
5	Texas	--
6	Vanderbilt	3
7	Penn State	1
8	Southern Cal	2
9	Texas Tech	2
10	Georgia	4
11	Oklahoma State	2
12	Brigham Young	1
13	Utah	3
14	Boise State	6
15	Ohio State	11
16	Florida	5
17	Northwestern	1
18	Ball State	1
19	Tulsa	4
20	Wake Forest	4
21	Virginia Tech	4
22	North Carolina	4
23	Connecticut	11
24	Pittsburgh	2
25	South Florida	17

Dropped Out: Kentucky (#19), Auburn (#22), Wisconsin (#23).