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Ed. Note: Fixed an error in the rankings, added Ohio State at #9 to replace a duplicate Oklahoma State. My bad ya'll.
Many of you may remember ATQ's participation in the SB Nation BlogPoll, a poll of over 100 college writers and bloggers who actually watch games and follow football enough to make an informed opinion, making it far superior to nonsense like the Coaches Poll.
But 2013 is here, and the BlogPoll is not. That makes me sad for a number of reasons, the biggest of which is that the BlogPoll was a bright spot in an otherwise silly enterprise. There were many bloggers willing to take a chance and break away from the status quo of voting and form their own opinions, and this led to a composite ballot that actually made sense, rather than being an overblown power ranking that rarely changed from week to week. I mean, One Bronco Nation Under God's ballot was ridiculous, but what did we really expect?
In lieu of the BlogPoll, ATQ offers a worthy replacement: The QuackPoll. Our voters (David Piper, nds500, Jake Tabor, Dominic Vieira, and me) will be submitting ballots every week, and we will post our composite poll every Wednesday. And boy is week 1 a doozy! Let me paint you a word-picture of what we've got going on.
Dom, Jake, and Noah are power rankings voters. They know that Alabama's offense won't average two touchdowns per game for the rest of the year. They know that Marcus Mariota won't overthrow wide open receivers all season. They know that Washington will lose the Apple Cup again this year. They can see the future, and it is filled with SEC teams.
Dave and I? We're resume voters. We don't care who has the most NFL talent, or who did the best last year. We care what happens on the field. North Dakota State beats Kansas State in Manhattan? They get a spot in the top 10. Washington beat up on Boise State in the opening of new Husky Stadium, and that's good enough for a spot in the Top 5. Oh hi Stanford! You didn't play last week? Guess that means you don't get a spot in our rankings!
Put those two methods together, and you get madness. See below.
The QuackPoll - Week 1 | ||
Rank | Team | Points |
1 | Alabama (3) | 119 |
2 | Clemson (2) | 115 |
3 | Oregon | 103 |
4 | LSU | 97 |
5 | Louisville | 84 |
6 | Oklahoma State | 81 |
7 | South Carolina | 78 |
8 | Florida State | 76 |
9 | Ohio State | 74 |
10 | Stanford | 67 |
11 | Washington | 65 |
12 | Michigan | 64 |
13 | Texas | 59 |
14 | Texas A&M | 56 |
15 | Oklahoma | 51 |
16 | Northwestern | 49 |
17 | Georgia | 49 |
17 | UCLA | 48 |
19 | Wisconsin | 46 |
20 | Florida | 42 |
21 | Baylor | 38 |
22 | Notre Dame | 31 |
23 | Cincinnati | 26 |
24 | Ole Miss | 21 |
25 | Eastern Washington |
19 |
26 | North Dakota State | 18 |