After Week #5, who should be #1?

[SmoothPancakes]

Nice, thanks!

Yeah, I love that site. It's nice to check out some ballots of big name voters, plus even voters around the region here where I live. That, and anytime I see some team in the "Others Receiving Votes" and wonder "who the hell used/wasted a vote on THAT team", I can go find out who.

THAT is a VERY good question!

Yes it is. There was one voter, Tom Hart, who the AP kicked out of it's poll at the beginning of the season and replaced him with another voter because he was involved to whatever extent (I can't remember just how much) with the Big Ten Network, even though his preseason poll showed no Big Ten bias whatsoever. Granted, in Hart's case, he was essentially affiliated to whatever extent with the Big Ten via the BTN.

But still, if the AP claims to do whatever they need to do to limit bias in their poll, then someone there at the AP is dropping the ball hardcore, because Wolf's ballot is the biggest example of bias I have seen on a ballot for as long as I can remember. It's not even just one or two weeks. Wolf's ballots, every single week, has been MAJORLY biased against the entire Big Ten Conference, as well as he apparently likes the Big 12 Conference. Sitting there ranking Texas #1 week after week until they finally lost. Now ranking Oklahoma #2 (while they are a good team and worthy of a Top 5-7 ranking, they are definitely not worthy of a #2 ranking).

[JBHuskers]

It's good to know that local guy Steven Sipple is level headed on the polls LOL figured he would be.

[JeffHCross]

Yes it is. There was one voter, Tom Hart, who the AP kicked out of it's poll at the beginning of the season and replaced him with another voter because he was involved to whatever extent (I can't remember just how much) with the Big Ten Network, even though his preseason poll showed no Big Ten bias whatsoever.

That's pretty stupid considering practically everyone in the AP Poll is involved with, at the very least by covering, some team in college. And then you have people like Herbie who would have every reason in the world to be biased.

It's constantly strange to me that Herbie ends up being one of the most neutral people around. Certainly not complaining -- just surprised. I'm always surprised when people aren't biased.

[steelerfan]

I'm always surprised when people aren't biased.

You shouldn't be. Those guys have their statuses (stati, lol?) to protect.

Then, look at yourself, I haven't seen you dropping OSU votes even though they're in the conversation. Some guys can keep biases under wraps and understand the difference between fandom and fandumb. Those are the guys who the AP needs. Not guys who have agendas.

[morsdraconis]

I'm sorry, but there's no way that Oregon should be overtop of Boise State. Alabama #1, sure, whatever, but Boise State not at #2 is just a crock of bullshit. Oregon has beaten ONE decent team (Stanford, who is DECENT but hasn't really beaten anyone worth a damn yet).

I mean, how is a team that CONSTANTLY has 1st half deficits given more points for being able to overpower shitty teams when Boise State (the new team that everyone loves to hate) just flatout out plays them for 60 minutes. Virginia Tech was on the only game where they were behind at some point and never by more than 6 points. Oregon, on the other hand, has been down by double digits three times. Sure, the teams they played (again, all pretty mediocre teams) shit the bed and let them get back in it (and finally either blow them out or just win the game), but something has to be said about a team letting teams come out early and jump on them with pretty big leads. There's no way Oregon keeps getting away with doing that against teams, especially when they finally play a team that's halfway decent (which, sadly, probably won't happen with their pushover schedule).

[Rudy]

I have no problem with Oregon over Boise St. In fact I think Oregon should be higher than Ohio St. If someone wants to put Boise #1 or #2 I don't really have a problem with that either. Those arguments can be made.

For people that rag on Oregon's defense, look at the defensive yards per play stat: http://www.cfbstats.com/2010/leader/...10/sort02.html. Oregon's number is ahead of Alabama. Of course Oregon played a couple horrible teams early on but sometimes they give up a lot of yards just because they are on the field quite a bit due to the fast offense.

I think Oregon's biggest worry is the health of Thomas. Costa won't be able to run that offense the way he does and Thomas took some major shots against Stanford. Denard takes a lot of hits for Michigan too. If you run the spread the way those teams do you better have a good backup QB. Michigan has two of them while I think Oregon will be hurt if Costa has to play.