BlogPoll 2011 FInal: Alabama at the Top. Ugh.

by Chris Pendley on Jan 11, 2012 10:00 AM EST in College Football

Ugh. Do we have to? (We do?) Fine. Well, okay. I guess I'm ....wait, what happened Monday night? Really? An absolute throttling?

Ugh.

Okay. Well. Here's the final BlogPoll for the year. Let's just be done with 2011, okay?

Rocky Top Talk Ballot - Week 16

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama Crimson Tide	2
2	LSU Tigers	-1
3	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	-1
4	Oregon Ducks	--
5	Stanford Cardinal	1
6	Arkansas Razorbacks	1
7	Boise St. Broncos	-2
8	Wisconsin Badgers	--
9	South Carolina Gamecocks	2
10	Michigan St. Spartans	--
11	Baylor Bears	3
12	Georgia Bulldogs	--
13	Oklahoma Sooners	-4
14	Kansas St. Wildcats	-1
15	TCU Horned Frogs	2
16	Houston Cougars	--
17	West Virginia Mountaineers	--
18	Michigan Wolverines	-3
19	Southern Miss. Golden Eagles	4
20	Northern Illinois Huskies	2
21	Missouri Tigers	4
22	Cincinnati Bearcats	--
23	Clemson Tigers	-5
24	Virginia Tech Hokies	-5
25	Florida St. Seminoles	--
Dropouts: Arkansas St. Red Wolves, Nebraska Cornhuskers, Tulsa Golden Hurricane

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "

Notes below the jump.

There are no right answers, only less wrong ones: Alabama, LSU, Oklahoma State. We're picking a national champion from three teams with one loss apiece (not to mention Boise State); two of these teams only lost to each other, and the third has skins on the wall better than the first. And so, because Alabama had the virtue of strangling the #2 team in the nation too late for anyone to come back, they get the #1 spot. There's an actual argument to be made here (it starts with their defense and can be reasoned they outplayed LSU save FG attempts in November, plus schedule is schedule and it's not their fault), but I'm just ready to be done with 2011.
Second-level morass: Oregon, Stanford, Arkansas, Boise State, Wisconsin. This looks familiar, no? We've run through this reasoning a lot; I don't feel like rehashing most of it, but: head-to-head, quality of losses, Boise being Boise, and Wisconsin pretty clearly belonging in this tier.
Um, tier three: South Carolina, Michigan State, Baylor, Georgia, Oklahoma, K-State. I'm honestly not sure how South Carolina ended up at #9; they might be the most uninspiring top-10 finish I can easily recall. Baylor was an absolute blast to watch, and if you think I'm punishing Georgia because of their idiotic handling of the first OT in the Capital One Bowl, you're right. That was dumb.
The only other teams worth ranking: TCU, Houston, West Virginia, Michigan, Southern Miss, Northern Illinois. Did I mention I'm ready for this year to be over?
Team Mizzou: Mizzou. This is self-explanatory.
um: all those other guys down there. Hey look, Tennessee beat a top-25 team this year!

0 recs | 12 comments

Comments

because I like doing this

we’re not the highest vote for anybody, but only two people have Georgia higher than us. That we spiked them a bit and still have them higher than everybody is kinda weird, but I think people are way overrating their SECCG loss. Also, only one person has Missouri higher than we do. I’ve been making that argument all year though. Four of their five losses are against teams in the top fifteen (the other on the road in OT against a team that crushed Southern Cal), and their mid-level wins (Texas, A&M, UNC) are better than most crappy teams.

we’re the lowest vote for Michigan.

Also, random observations while doing this. Someone has Southern Miss at #10. Someone has South Carolina #3. Someone has Arkansas at #3. There are people who have LSU as low as #7. Really?

Incipient_Senescence - January 11, 2012 reply

South Carolina #3?

In an ideal world, they’d be #15 or so. I don’t get that, especially since most everyone else is ranking USC.

Chris Pendley - January 11, 2012 reply

The fun thing about the final poll...

is you can’t ever really be proven to be an idiot.

TEMPLE?! #5!!!!!!
ALABAMA? LETS BE CONTROVERSIAL AND MAKE THEM #2!!

/FIUTAK’D

Caban - January 11, 2012 reply

I thought about doing that.

On a related note, SBN is doing a BlogPoll preliminary for 2012 next week. I don’t think I’m participating, but if I participate I’m going to have to be talked out of ranking all the SEC teams 1-14 and then 15-25 alphabetically. Why? It’s a preseason poll!

Chris Pendley - January 11, 2012 reply

lulz...

A preliminary 2012 poll? That’s hilarious, but I see no reason not to do it. It’s completely absurd, but a protest vote isn’t as much fun as a WTF poll.

Have some real fun…
Arkansas at #1 sounds reasonable… they get Knile Davis back and return Tyler Wilson.
Bama at #2… McCarron looked pretty good, and Eddie Lacy isn’t chopped liver.
I expect LSU to drop fairly dramatically though. Breaking in a new QB and losing Reuben Randle won’t help matters.

Throw Arkansas State in there at #5 with a YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST. Seriously, they could easily be next season’s Houston and you could be all smug about it.

Houston will almost immediately start sucking next season… they were already terrible when Keenum went down 2 years ago, and that was with coaching continuity.

Don’t forget to make an insane prediction for Vanderbilt to win the East next season… nobody will remember it when they go 3-9 ala 2010 Ole Miss, but it will get you lots of kudos in the offseason.

Caban - January 11, 2012 reply