| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | LSU | -- |
| 2 | California |
 4 |
| 3 | Southern Cal |
 1 |
| 4 | Ohio State |
5 |
| 5 | Wisconsin |
5 |
| 6 | Florida |
2 |
| 7 | Kentucky |
6 |
| 8 | Oklahoma |
5 |
| 9 | South Florida |
9 |
| 10 | Boston College |
1 |
| 11 | Oregon |
1 |
| 12 | South Carolina |
2 |
| 13 | Georgia |
2 |
| 14 | Arizona State |
12 |
| 15 | Texas |
10 |
| 16 | Cincinnati |
5 |
| 17 | West Virginia |
10 |
| 18 | Missouri |
1 |
| 19 | Virginia Tech |
1 |
| 20 | Miami (Florida) |
2 |
| 21 | Rutgers |
13 |
| 22 | UCLA |
3 |
| 23 | Kansas State |
3 |
| 24 | Hawaii |
1 |
| 25 | Florida State |
1 |
Justifications, clarifications, explanations:
The horror! The horror! The challenge of filling out a ballot after a weekend like the last one is not to overreact or underreact. You don't want to pound a team just because they lost, even if they were undefeated; on the other hand, you don't want to go too easy on someone with a truly egregious loss. My sense is that Auburn is a better foe than Colorado and I still see Florida as the favorite in the SEC East, better than Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, et al. So I kept the Gators above Oklahoma. Another chance at correction could come after this weekend. Texas, West Virginia and Rutgers have all been exposed, in my mind, as good teams but not great ones. Thus, they tumble.
No. 2 Cal. First of all, if this goes wrong, I'm blaming it on Kyle, who convinced me that this was actually a good call. A few strong wins by Southern Cal and some lackluster victories by the Golden Bears will reverse that; but no matter the excuses, the Trojans needed to beat Washington by more than a field goal to stay above Cal.
Surging... South Florida might be too low or too high here, but if they get through the Big East, they could be a player in the NC discussion. Ditto for Kentucky, only in the SEC -- Thursday will tell us a lot about this team. I'm still having a hard time teasing out the difference between Ohio State and Wisconsin.
Debuts. Arizona State was going to find its way onto this week's ballot one way or another. Then they went out and drilled Oregon State. Yeah, it's Oregon State, but Arizona State should have been moving up for a couple weeks now. Kansas State beat Texas and Florida State beat Alabama, both good enough to make it on the ballot; K-State probably should be above Texas, but we'll see.
Falling out. Alabama didn't impress in losing to FSU; Clemson lost to Chan Gailey; Penn State lost to Ron Zook.
Considered. Nebraska, because I'm the kind of person that likes getting burned until my skin melts. Illinois beats the Nittany Lions. Connecticut is undefeated, but they need to play someone. Purdue gets a big test in the form of Ohio State this weekend; if they play well, even a loss could move them up.
So tell me where I'm wrong.