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Five of us set off on our QuackPoll voyage, bright-eyed and dreaming of the uncharted wilderness of the 2013 college football season. Going was good; we were able to ford multiple rivers and win multiple games with no incident, and we were hunting so much food, we had to leave most of it where we killed it. Nothing says America like killing living things and wasting food. It was the dream.
Then, our good fortune began to turn.
First, De'Anthony Thomas suffered a broken axel. We were able to repair it, but it wasn't the same. Then, we got lost in a forest of trees, and Dominic caught dysentery and died. We made our way through the desert and were mauled by a wildcat. Jake did not survive the attack.
But Noah, David, and I made it all the way to the end of the year, and what a trip we had. We watched knights battle bears, a tribe of Native Americans take on a whole pack of tigers, and an army of Trojan warriors abandon their general in the middle of the war. And at the end of it all, here's how the final QuackPoll of the season looks:
Rank | Name | Points (75 max) | Change |
1 | Florida State (3) | 75 | 0 |
2 | Auburn | 71 | +1 |
3 | Michigan State | 70 | +4 |
4 | Oklahoma | 64 | +11 |
5 | Missouri | 61 | +1 |
6 | Oregon | 59 | +6 |
7 | Alabama | 57 | -3 |
8 | Clemson | 56 | +6 |
9 | South Carolina | 50 | +2 |
10 | Stanford | 47 | -1 |
T-11 | Ohio State | 46 | -9 |
T-11 | UCF | 46 | +7 |
13 | Baylor | 39 | -5 |
14 | Oklahoma State | 35 | -10 |
15 | UCLA | 33 | +1 |
16 | Louisville | 29 | +4 |
17 | LSU | 27 | +2 |
18 | USC | 25 | +7 |
19 | Texas A&M | 24 | n/a |
20 | Arizona State | 13 | -10 |
T-21 | Wisconsin | 12 | +1 |
T-21 | Duke | 12 | -4 |
23 | Nebraska | 10 | n/a |
T-24 | Vanderbilt | 5 | n/a |
T-24 | Washington | 5 | n/a |
Also receiving votes: East Carolina (4), and Northern Illinois (2)
Since we didn't do a poll between the end of the regular season and the start of bowl season, the changes look drastic, especially for teams who lost two games in a row in that span (Duke, Oklahoma State, Arizona State). All three of us were impressed by Oklahoma's win over Alabama, who fall below the Ducks thanks in part to a #4 vote for Oregon from Noah. Just for fun, here's our poll from after Week 1 of the season, and where those teams finished.
Week 1 Rank | Team | Final Rank |
1 | Alabama | #7 |
2 | Clemson | #8 |
3 | Oregon | #6 |
4 | LSU | #17 |
5 | Louisville | #16 |
6 | Oklahoma State | #14 |
7 | South Carolina | #9 |
8 | Florida State | #1 |
9 | Ohio State | #11 |
10 | Stanford | #10 |
11 | Washington | #24 |
12 | Michigan | unranked |
13 | Texas | unranked |
14 | Texas A&M | #19 |
15 | Oklahoma | #4 |
16 | Northwestern | unranked |
17 | Georgia | unranked |
18 | UCLA | #15 |
19 | Wisconsin | #21 |
20 | Florida | LOL |
21 | Baylor | #13 |
22 | Notre Dame | unranked |
23 | Cincinnati | unranked |
24 | Ole Miss | unranked |
25 | Eastern Washington | just as unranked as OSU |
26 | North Dakota State | unranked, but with a nat'l championship |
27 | Georgia Tech | unranked |
28 | Texas Tech | unranked |
29 | Nebraska | #23 |
30 | Arkansas | unranked |
31 | Tennessee | unranked |
32 | USC | #18 |
33 | Arizona State | #20 |
34 | North Carolina State | unranked |
35 | TCU | unranked |
Teams with no Week 1 votes that ended up ranked: Auburn, Michigan State, Missouri, UCF, Duke, Vanderbilt
...we only completely missed three of the final top 5. That's not that bad, right?