One of the things I look forward to with the start of the season, is the BlogPoll coming back into our lives. For those of you that may not have been following the blog last year, ATQ participates in the BlogPoll, which is a college football poll that is compiled by some of the best college football blogs.
To me, the BlogPoll is far superior to any other poll that is out there, for a simple reason: accountability. Every Monday we (and every other participating blog) will be posting our draft ballots on our sites. Members of the blog community can then comment on the ballot, and any edits will be resubmitted by Wednesday, when the final poll is released on CBSSports.com.
On top of this, one of the aspects that the BlogPoll stresses is actually voting based on the accomplishments of each team on the field. Voters are required to rank teams based on season quality, and that once you have enough information, to use only resume to rank each team. Furthermore, BlogPoll voters actually follow college football, unlike the Harris Poll voters, though for some sadistic reason, their votes matter in the BCS.
So keep your eyes out every week for ATQ's BlogPoll ballot, and make sure to comment, because your opinions matters greatly.
After the jump, we'll take a look at our first ballot of the year, and discuss what to expect from college football this season.
While some voters have been doing multiple posts on their top 25, I just can't do that. I'm all for conjecture, but trying to make sense of the entirety of college football before a single down is played is likely an exercise in futility.
First, I should also note that the normal rules don't apply for this preseason ballot, since no football has been played, so this ballot is going to be purely a power poll. For example, I not putting any Big East team in the top 25, because while they'll likely end up above a lot of teams in my list, I think that is a result of their scheduling rather than their actual quality of play.
For the ballot in general, the way I see it, the dropoff between the top 4 teams and the rest of the pack is quite large. Florida, USC, Texas, and Oklahoma are likely to be the best teams in the nation.
Beyond that, it's a crapshoot. Is Penn State really the 5th best team in the country? Is Oklahoma State or Ole Miss actually for real? Until we play some football, I'm gonna pull a Stephen Colbert, and go with my gut.
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| Rank | Team | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida | |
| 2 | Southern Cal | |
| 3 | Texas | |
| 4 | Oklahoma | |
| 5 | Penn State | |
| 6 | Mississippi | |
| 7 | Alabama | |
| 8 | Oklahoma State | |
| 9 | California | |
| 10 | Virginia Tech | |
| 11 | Ohio State | |
| 12 | Oregon | |
| 13 | Georgia | |
| 14 | TCU | |
| 15 | LSU | |
| 16 | Boise State | |
| 17 | Georgia Tech | |
| 18 | Oregon State | |
| 19 | Iowa | |
| 20 | Pittsburgh | |
| 21 | Brigham Young | |
| 22 | Michigan State | |
| 23 | Clemson | |
| 24 | Stanford | |
| 25 | Texas Tech | |