Fanbogs - College Football Weblogs

November 8, 2005

Fanblogs XIV Poll - Week 11

Poll of the Fanblogs.com authors & contributors for games played through November 7, 2005:

First place votes in parenthesis. Weighted ballot points appear beside team name. Teams are ranked on likelihood to beat lower ranked teams on a neutral field, rather than a forecast of final season rankings.


1. Texas (7) 163
2. Southern California (5) 161
3. Miami (Fla.) 135
4. Alabama 132
5. LSU 114
6. Notre Dame 96
7. Penn St. 88
8. Virginia Tech 84
9. Georgia 78
10. Ohio St. 54
11. Oregon 28
12. Florida 27
12. Florida St. 27
14. West Virginia 18


Others Receiving Votes:
Texas Tech 16, Auburn 10, Wisconsin 10, California 9, UCLA 5, Georgia Tech 2, Northwestern 2, TCU 1


How they voted:
Kevin Donahue:1) Texas, 2) Southern California, 3) Miami (Fla.), 4) LSU, 5) Alabama, 6) Penn St., 7) Notre Dame, 8) Ohio St., 9) Virginia Tech, 10) Georgia, 11) Auburn, 12) Florida, 13) Texas Tech, 14) Florida St.

Pete Holiday:1) Texas, 2) Southern California, 3) Miami (Fla.), 4) Notre Dame, 5) Virginia Tech, 6) Georgia, 7) Alabama, 8) Penn St., 9) LSU, 10) Ohio St., 11) Florida, 12) Oregon, 13) Wisconsin, 14) Texas Tech

Jeff Quinton:1) Texas, 2) Southern California, 3) Miami (Fla.), 4) LSU, 5) Alabama, 6) Georgia, 7) Virginia Tech, 8) Notre Dame, 9) Florida St., 10) Penn St., 11) Ohio St., 12) UCLA, 13) Northwestern, 14) Florida

Josh Crockett:1) Texas, 2) Southern California, 3) Miami (Fla.), 4) Alabama, 5) LSU, 6) Penn St., 7) Georgia, 8) Virginia Tech, 9) Notre Dame, 10) Ohio St., 11) California, 12) West Virginia, 13) Florida, 14) Florida St.

John Ludwig:1) Texas, 2) Southern California, 3) LSU, 4) Alabama, 5) Miami (Fla.), 6) Penn St., 7) Notre Dame, 8) Ohio St., 9) Virginia Tech, 10) Georgia, 11) Oregon, 12) Florida, 13) Georgia Tech, 14) West Virginia

Mike Boone:1) Southern California, 2) Texas, 3) Miami (Fla.), 4) LSU, 5) Alabama, 6) Ohio St., 7) Oregon, 8) Notre Dame, 9) Wisconsin, 10) Virginia Tech, 11) Florida, 12) Florida St., 13) UCLA, 14) West Virginia

Josh McClain:1) Southern California, 2) Texas, 3) Alabama, 4) Miami (Fla.), 5) Penn St., 6) LSU, 7) Georgia, 8) Virginia Tech, 9) Notre Dame, 10) West Virginia, 11) Florida St., 12) Oregon, 13) Ohio St., 14) TCU

Dave:1) Southern California, 2) Texas, 3) Alabama, 4) Miami (Fla.), 5) Notre Dame, 6) LSU, 7) Georgia, 8) Virginia Tech, 9) Penn St., 10) Ohio St., 11) Texas Tech, 12) Florida, 13) Florida St., 14) Auburn

Robert Knodell:1) Texas, 2) Southern California, 3) Alabama, 4) Penn St., 5) Miami (Fla.), 6) LSU, 7) Virginia Tech, 8) Georgia, 9) Notre Dame, 10) West Virginia, 11) Ohio St., 12) Oregon, 13) Texas Tech, 14) Florida

Michael Hickerson:1) Texas, 2) Southern California, 3) Alabama, 4) Miami (Fla.), 5) Florida St., 6) Notre Dame, 7) LSU, 8) Virginia Tech, 9) Georgia, 10) California, 11) Penn St., 12) Texas Tech, 13) Wisconsin, 14) Ohio St.

Aaron White:1) Southern California, 2) Texas, 3) Alabama, 4) Miami (Fla.), 5) Penn St., 6) LSU, 7) Notre Dame, 8) Virginia Tech, 9) Georgia, 10) Ohio St., 11) Florida, 12) Texas Tech, 13) Oregon, 14) Auburn

MisterIrrelevant.com:1) Southern California, 2) Texas, 3) Alabama, 4) Miami (Fla.), 5) Notre Dame, 6) LSU, 7) Penn St., 8) Georgia, 9) Virginia Tech, 10) Oregon, 11) Auburn, 12) West Virginia, 13) Florida, 14) Texas Tech

Posted by Kevin Donahue

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Comments:

  1. Ranjit said:

    posted on November 8, 2005 4:20 PM — 151.193.220.27 — link — abuse?



    I always wondered...why the top 14? Why not have people rate their top 10 or top 15?

  2. JC in SoCAL said:

    posted on November 8, 2005 6:57 PM — 67.113.165.178 — link — abuse?



    Whats up with no love to Oregon. On 8 of the 12 polls Oregon can't even crack the top 14? With their only loss to USC how can they not be ranked with 2 loss Auburn, Florida, and N.D., geez don't hand out votes based on program prestige and reputation hand them out based on whos winning and who isn't.

    Also, what is CAL doing up there. Crockett and Hickerson it that your Alma Mater? CAL knocked out loss #2 to Oregon last week, dropped out of the AP and Coaches top 25, and are 4th in the PAC-10. Lets try watching some of these games or at least the highlights for that matter before you vote.

    Warning to Texas... watch out for Kansas. This game has upset written all over it. Kansas is got the run covered. Watch out, you aren't to Pasadena yet.

    Fight on Trojans

  3. Fanblogs Author Mike Boone said:

    posted on November 8, 2005 10:04 PM — 68.35.231.61 — link — abuse?



    Is there really such a large gap between 'Bama and LSU?

  4. Fanblogs Author Kevin Donahue said:

    posted on November 8, 2005 10:20 PM — link — abuse?



    Fanblogs does the Fanblogs XIV poll (instead of 15) because, well, nobody else does 14. I wish there was a better explanation, but -- really it was just an effort to be different a couple years ago.

  5. Aaron said:

    posted on November 8, 2005 11:43 PM — 67.183.232.99 — link — abuse?



    JC, Oregon is ranked #11 overall in our poll. That sound about right to me. Without Clemens they may get by some of the other Pac-10 competition, but I would wager they would lose to every single team we have ranked above them.

    Also, if Kansas hadn't destroyed Nebraska that might be true. But now Texas has seen what Kansas can do and will prepare accordingly. As much as I despise the Shorthorns, they've done everything they need to do so far to be ranked #1 or #2 and be in line for a NC game bid. Sure, their schedule isn't as strong as some other teams, but neither is USC's. And Texas did go into the Horeshoe and beat Ohio State. Sadly, they are for real this year.

  6. gaffbag said:

    posted on November 8, 2005 11:54 PM — 70.110.18.99 — link — abuse?



    I have to say "Fanblogs XIV Poll" does look a lot spiffier than "Fanblogs XV Poll" would. And there is literally no sarcasm implied in that sentence at all - it's just an aesthetic fact.

    Based on the logic of the voting rules presented above, the voters who put Cal on their lists believe that Cal would have beat both UCLA and Oregon had they played on neutral sites - even though in reality they lost both games on the road. That's really giving the Bears a lot of undue credit.

    However, I have to say that the rules themselves are destined to result in paradoxical situations. For instance - Notre Dame beats Michigan at Michigan, Michigan State beats Notre Dame at Notre Dame, Michigan beats Michigan State at Michigan State. How you could one possibly rank these teams based on the neutral site logic? Based on factors such as strength of schedule, and other outcomes, obviously, but these don't change the basic fact that there is no way to actually rank these teams in such a way that would yield the actual outcomes that occurred - unless we were to assume that we should expect these teams to perform better on the road than at home.

  7. bry422 said:

    posted on November 9, 2005 9:01 AM — 152.50.0.194 — link — abuse?



    I think this poll is pretty accurate. The only small problem I have is with ND. ND is living off the success of a game they lost. I'd feel better with ND around the 10 hole.

  8. Fanblogs Author Kevin Donahue said:

    posted on November 9, 2005 9:08 AM — link — abuse?



    Keep in mind that the poll doesn't give too much weight to who beat someone weeks ago, it's almost a poll in a vacuum: who would win today on a neutral field.

  9. Fanblogs Author Mike Boone said:

    posted on November 9, 2005 9:33 AM — 68.35.231.61 — link — abuse?



    I always vote like its a vacuum. Its helpful if you look at the poll and don't try to compare teams W-L record and just decide who they could beat today.

  10. Fanblogs Author dave frey said:

    posted on November 9, 2005 11:35 AM — 66.186.235.209 — link — abuse?



    Drat. Forgot to vote this week. I suck.

  11. Fanblogs Author Pete Holiday said:

    posted on November 9, 2005 12:32 PM — 12.223.242.140 — link — abuse?



    6. Gaffbag:
    One part of the voting rules that you missed is the simple clause "more often than not" -- no team is going to be 100% against any team ever. Pretty much how we'd like our voters to run their hypothetical is like this:

    "If, right now, Team A played Team B 100 times (under identical situations) which team would win most often."

    One example of how this might work in a slightly counter-intuitive way: if you believe that UGA's loss to Florida was because Shockley was out, you wouldn't really change your rankings all that much (so long as Shockley was only out for one week). Which is why I think 'Bama is a bit over-rated in this poll: they have yet to find an offense post-prothro. To their credit, they have gotten the job done, but would they win "more often than not" against all but the top three teams in the country? I doubt it. (Full disclosure: I'm an Alabama alumnus)

    Those rules exist because we want our voters ranking the best teams, not the teams with the best W/L records -- you don't need a poll to do that.

  12. portis said:

    posted on November 9, 2005 3:53 PM — 24.140.92.2 — link — abuse?



    The Beast is Back!!

  13. duckman said:

    posted on November 12, 2005 8:53 AM — 66.223.208.241 — link — abuse?



    Oregon may not have Clemens’s talent on the field, but they do have his leadership and most of all his inspiration off the field. I have seen Clemens play in blowout after blowout in some of the most disappointing seasons that I have witnessed as a Ducks fan, and finally when it is his turn for a winning season, fate takes it away. He continues to lead his team as much as one can from the sidelines. I find his lack of bitterness and his leadership qualities inspirational and I believe the Ducks do to. I am not saying that they are unbeatable, but I am saying that if you underestimate the Ducks your only reward will be the pain of defeat. P.S. GO DUCKS!!!!!

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