Monday, October 10, 2005

BlogPoll Week Six: Business Is Picking Up

When I write up the rough draft of this poll every week, I usually send it over to Rob, Dill and Tillett to look over as a sort of proof-reading to make sure I didn't mess up anything drastically. There's always a minor issue (This weeks was ND vs. PSU and how far Cal should fall), but nothing of great importance usually shows up. Dill, however, decided to call out my placing of Texas behind VT as a sort of bias against Mack Brown and his team.

Granted, I'd take the Hokies and Vick over the Longhorns and Young in a popularity contest any day of the week, but when you look at what they've done so far this season, it's pretty easy to make an argument for the Hokies. While Texas has that big win over Ohio State, they need to hope the Buckeyes don't put in many more performances like they did Saturday night the rest of the season. Beating a one-loss Ohio State team? Awesome. Beating an Ohio State team that also lost to Penn State and potentially Michigan and Michigan State? Not quite as cool.

Meanwhile, the Hokies have etched out three big road wins against NC State, Georgia Tech and West Virginia. That's WVU's only loss, and the GT game wasn't as much a win as it was a complete and total evisceration. They destroyed Duke and Ohio a combined 90-0 and handled Marshall 41-14. Looking down the road, Va Tech will have the opportunity for two more big wins against Miami in Blacksburg and over a potentially undefeated Florida State team in the ACC Championship. Texas? Not that it's their fault, but since Texas A&M fell off the map, their best two games left are against a Texas Tech team nobody believes in and a Colorado team that already got smacked around by Miami.

Plus, if you throw in the championship games, Va Tech would be getting that win over Florida State on the last weekend before the bowls are chosen. Texas would get to make it's final statement against Colorado or Nebraska. Again, not Texas' fault, but when you look at how weak the Big 12 is this year combined with how crappy Oklahoma did last year after winning their league, you see why I am skeptical.

It's silly to start talking about the potential of mulitple unbeatens this early in the season. I remember back in 2002 there were a half-dozen or so - featuring Miami, Ohio State, NC State, Notre Dame - for a while, and everyone was freaking about whatever would we do. Well, in one weekend that number was cut in half, and Notre Dame's green jersey debacle against Boston College followed to leave us with the Buckeyes and Hurricanes.

But while it's silly, it's also interesting to look at. There's potential for an undefeated Florida State team playing an undefeated Virginia Tech team in the same weekend that an undefeated Georiga team is taking on an undefeated Alabama team. Obviously, UGA and Bama still have to prove themselves in an underwhelming and confusing SEC, but the potential is there. Meanwhile, even if everyone else wins out, I can't imagine the ACC winner not being in the Rose Bowl, especially since Florida State would have beaten Chris Leak and Marcus Vick.

Throw in the fact you could have an undefeated USC playing undefeated UCLA and a Penn State team that ran the table (but their non-conference would kill them if the Big Ten doesn't keep a couple more premier teams at the top), and things could get really interesting.

But, odds are that none of this will happen. UCLA, Georgia, Penn State and Alabama will all most likely stub their toe. Florida State and Va Tech could easily be upset by the Florida teams left on their schedule (The Gators and Canes, respectively.) USC is losing to us this weekend, and we can't forget, despite the "swagger" of Vince Young, Mack Brown still coaches Texas, and an end of season meltdown against the Aggies or Red Raiders is very possible.

In case you're interested in judging for yourself, here's the schedules of some of the remaining contenders:

Texas
Va Tech
Georgia
Florida State
Penn State
USC
Alabama
UCLA

Week Six

1) Southern Cal
2) Virginia Tech
3) Texas
4) Florida State
5) Georgia
6) Alabama
7) Notre Dame
8) Miami (Florida)
9) Penn State
10) Louisiana State
11) UCLA
12) Florida
13) Michigan State
14) Texas Tech
15) Louisville
16) California
17) Oregon
18) Ohio State
19) Tennessee
20) Auburn
21) Boston College
22) Wisconsin
23) West Virginia
24) Minnesota
25) TCU

Games Watched:
Due to attending the Penn State game, I was only able to see that and the first twenty minutes of Northwestern/Wisconsin and Marshall/Va Tech.

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