Ah, the week of the upset. 4 top ten teams went down. And while the Blogpoll gets interesting and screwed up this week, the Pac-10 Power Poll is much more interesting. I've literally been thinking over the top 4 since Sunday evening. And mostly, this is due to those Beavers.
Oregon State's victory over USC was incredible because of how they won. This was a team that looked like absolute crap the first two games of the season, unable to do anything on either line, and they came out and pushed USC around, out of nowhere.
However, despite the loss, I can't justify dropping USC. They are still the most talented team in the Pac-10 and should be favored in every game this season.
But who the hell goes at #2? Each of the next 3 teams in line (Cal, Oregon, OSU) have significant questions. Cal has some big-time injury problems that give me great pause over their long-term success. Oregon, as Dave wrote about, has managed to only create more questions this season. And who knows what OSU is going to show up the rest of the season? Overall, these 3 teams are very even at this point, and this week will provide major tests for all 3.
-
USC: They are still the favorite to win the Pac-10, but they are far from invincible. This week will tell a lot about this team over the long haul.
- Cal: Despite injuries, they are still solid all around, have a solid win over a surprising MSU team, and their loss against Maryland is looking better all around.
-
Oregon: They haven't done anything of substance, and the secondary has been bad, but they get ranked barely over OSU because their loss looks infinitely better than OSU's losses.
-
OSU: They looked mighty impressive on Thursday night, but I just can't get past the loss to Stanford and how uncompetitive they were in Beaver Stadium. This week against Utah on the road will be a good indicator of which games were the outliers. Overall, they don't climb higher than 4th only because of how insonsistent they've been so far this season.
- Arizona: This team has some potential, and would be higher if not for the loss to New Mexico, which is unexplainable.
-
ASU: But ASU gets dropped a spot after Georgia got smacked down. The total lack of a running game and offensive line is going to be tough to overcome throughout the Pac-10 season.
-
Stanford: Stanford somehow sits at 3-2 (2-1). I would love to see them knock off Notre Dame, though going into South Bend will be tough.
-
UCLA: Ah, isn't that cute, they were competitive in a game. I guess you gotta start somewhere.
- Washington State: At least they aren't Washington.
- Washington: Can it get any worse in Seattle? Their only decent player is out for 6 weeks. Is winless on the year too much for this duck fan to hope for?
You'll notice some discrepancies between the Power Poll and the Blogpoll. The Power Poll should answer the question of "who would win on a nuetral field?" while the blogpoll takes the entire resume into account without looking ahead.
The full Blogpoll ballot is after the jump. As always, leave your comments, questions, etc. in the comments. The strength of the blogpoll lies on input before the Wednesday morning deadline, so help us out with your comments.
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama |  10 |
| 2 | Oklahoma | -- |
| 3 | Penn State | 4 |
| 4 | Missouri | 1 |
| 5 | LSU | 1 |
| 6 | Texas | 4 |
| 7 | South Florida | 1 |
| 8 | Southern Cal |  7 |
| 9 | Georgia | 6 |
| 10 | Florida | 6 |
| 11 | Utah | 4 |
| 12 | Brigham Young | -- |
| 13 | Boise State | 1 |
| 14 | Texas Tech | 1 |
| 15 | Auburn | 1 |
| 16 | Virginia Tech | 10 |
| 17 | Wisconsin | 8 |
| 18 | Ohio State | -- |
| 19 | Kansas | -- |
| 20 | Vanderbilt | 2 |
| 21 | California | 5 |
| 22 | Oregon | 4 |
| 23 | Michigan State | 1 |
| 24 | Fresno State | 3 |
| 25 | Oklahoma State | 1 |