SB Nation Blogpoll Ballot: Week Twelve

No need to bandy about such hyperbole. To be fair, I do think reads sort of oddly. But I suppose my interpretation is that the blogpoll prioritizes the best teams, as opposed to it being a reflection of desired bowl seedings. The SBN Blogpoll has no bearing on the bowl situation, so why introduce that element into the rankings?

Still, I don’t hate the idea of keeping Okie St at 2, since I think they could be the 2nd best team in football despite it being their turn to blow a should-have-been-gimme. I think the Sooners are better than 13th—they lost in a slugfest to a talented Baylor team on the road, so I don’t think that’s grounds for a 10-spot plummet. Having Houston that high is absurd, and I’d still slide Bama ahead of Stanford. Arky at 6 is fine — they’d need show up against LSU before I’d be ready to call ‘em a top 5 team (which they very well may do.) The homerist in me is content having us ahead of UGA for all the reasons GM eloquently laid out a few posts back. Clemson at #19 sounds right, so long as Sammy Watkins isn’t at 100%. When healthy, that kid boosts ’em ten spots on his own IMO.

There are two traditional rationales for poll voting: resume vs. power poll. Even most opposed to Alabama in the title game concede that the Tide are #2 by either measure.

I have found it personally discouraging to see widespread efforts to manipulate poll results simply because the two best teams happened to face each other in the regular season. I don’t want to see Alabama in the title game either, but I need a better rationale than “because I don’t want them.”