| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Southern Cal | -- |
| 2 | LSU | -- |
| 3 | Oklahoma | -- |
| 4 | Florida | -- |
| 5 | West Virginia | -- |
| 6 | California | -- |
| 7 | Ohio State | -- |
| 8 | Texas |
 1 |
| 9 | Oregon |
1 |
| 10 | Boston College |
2 |
| 11 | Rutgers | -- |
| 12 | Kentucky |
7 |
| 13 | Arizona State |
1 |
| 14 | South Florida |
9 |
| 15 | Wisconsin |
 2 |
| 16 | Clemson |
8 |
| 17 | Hawaii |
1 |
| 18 | South Carolina |
2 |
| 19 | Georgia |
3 |
| 20 | Missouri |
6 |
| 21 | Penn State |
13 |
| 22 | Alabama |
7 |
| 23 | Cincinnati |
3 |
| 24 | Virginia Tech |
2 |
| 25 | Michigan State |
1 |
Dropped Out: Arkansas (#17), Nebraska (#20), Louisville (#21), Texas A&M (#25).
Okay, here's where this damn thing starts to get hard. The issues that come up are many:
- Parity means an incredible amount of teams that just kind of all feel the same to me. Take Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina. Basically, South Carolina beat Georgia who beat Alabama. That is what I am going with. It gets even harder when you're talking about teams like Cincinnati and Missouri, who are undefeated but don't have any great wins (best wins are Illinois and Oregon State, respectively). I have the feeling that some of these teams won't be here at the end of the season, but based on what we have now, this is what we've got.
- Wisconsin started off my preseason poll at #5. Even though they are undefeated, they now stand at #15. I'm not going to be like the mainstream pollsters. If you sleepwalk through the season, you deserve to be punished. Just because they started above Oregon and Kentucky does not mean they deserve to be there. What actually happens is a more proper basis for a vote than what I thought would happen at the beginning of the season. Don't understand why the voters that matter can't understand that.
- I've really wanted to rank Oregon over Cal because I feel like they are the better team. I've ran into that problems of Cal being higher to begin with. Basically, I've decided to ignore that problems for now, as it will work itself out on Saturday.
- Virginia Tech's offense is crap, and I think that all the other pollsters have them overrated based on the preseason hype, but who else am I going to put there?
As always, compelling arguments regarding rankings will be strongly considered. I have until Wednesday to submit my final ballot.
GO DUCKS!!!
--Dave