We have our final blogpoll (week 16) ballot to fill out for the 2006-07 football season.
We submitted our last vote right after the end of regular season when we were all riding high after the expected (at least here on Bruins Nation) win over Southern Cal. This is what we have for our final vote in the blogpoll.
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Florida |
 2 |
| 2 | LSU |
2 |
| 3 | Boise State |
4 |
| 4 | Southern Cal |
5 |
| 5 | Louisville |
1 |
| 6 | Auburn |
7 |
| 7 | Ohio State |
 6 |
| 8 | Michigan |
6 |
| 9 | Wisconsin |
4 |
| 10 | California |
10 |
| 11 | Texas |
1 |
| 12 | Arkansas |
1 |
| 13 | Brigham Young |
5 |
| 14 | Oklahoma |
6 |
| 15 | West Virginia |
5 |
| 16 | Oregon State |
9 |
| 17 | Rutgers |
4 |
| 18 | Boston College |
4 |
| 19 | Penn State |
7 |
| 20 | Georgia |
6 |
| 21 | Wake Forest |
2 |
| 22 | Notre Dame |
8 |
| 23 | Virginia Tech |
7 |
| 24 | Hawaii |
2 |
| 25 | Tennessee |
10 |
Dropped Out: Texas A&M (#17), UCLA (#23), Nebraska (#24).
For your reference, here are the latest rankings from AP and USA Today.
Here are some thoughts that were going through my head early this am (over coffee) when I was filling out the ballot.
It's easy to bash the Big-10 right now after the embarrassing performances by Ohio State and Michigan. Both of those teams appeared slow, unimaginative, and frankly a little Dorrellian against opponents who destroyed them with speed and defense. I wasn't all that surprised by Michigan's loss. However, it was surprising to see Tressell failing to make any in-game adjustments after the disastrous first half. That all said, the Big-10 as a conference did have a decent bowl season, doing all right against the all important point spread. Per Wizard of Odds this is how the BCS conferences stacked up against the point-spread this bowl season:
BCS ConferencesSo, besides the SEC, the Big-10 was the only conference with a winning margin against the point spread. Not too bad. And before anyone wants to pile on Tressell (and even Carr), I'd love to have the problem of being disappointed after loss in a BCS bowl game like those programs. Same goes with the Notre Dame hate. I realize the Irish are an easy target. I hate their NBC contract blah blah blah. But under Weiss (who inherited a team with not the typical ND level talent) they did win the games they were supposed to put them in position for a BCS game. As UCLA fans, we really don't have a lot of right to whine about the Irish, considering we have a team that underachieved yet again, losing to teams like the Cougars, Huskies, Ducks (who turned out be a huge bust), and Seminoles (this year's version). We should save all our hate for teams like Notre Dame getting BCS games, and use it to constantly ask questions like this one.
Conference........ATS
Atlantic Coast.....3-5
Big East............3-2
Big Ten............4-3
Big 12..............2-6
Pac-10.............2-4
Southeastern......6-3
It's too bad California is not being ranked in the top-10 by either of the major polls because I do think they deserve to be in top-10. They finished off the season in style, pounding a decent A&M program into the turf in San Diego. Kudos again to the Cal administration for being serious about this game, and bringing in a coach like Tedford to revitalize a dead football program. And even though they still haven't been to the Rose Bowl (and may not before Tedford goes somewhere else), they deserve credit for making Cal's program relevant. The Cal program, on its own, undercuts all the ridiculous arguments advanced by Dorrell apologists and other blowhards within the UCLA bureaucracy that it is not possible to build a relevant football program within the parameters of the University of California.
As far as Boise State is concerned, I realize this team could be lot of fans' sentimental number 2. But I don't think anyone can rationally argue that they would go through the SEC conference without suffering at least one or two losses. I am ranking them over Southern Cal though. After all, BSU pounded Oregon State, which everyone knows beat the Trojans. And also congrats again to Matt Moore and Oregon State for a good season. The Beavers pulled off an actually meaningful 10 win season, which in addition to the win in their bowl games, featured two key wins against Southern Cal and their arch nemesis Oregon Ducks.
Anyways, we have till tomorrow, I think, to submit changes to our ballot. If you have comments, thoughts on why certain teams should be moved around, please offer them. As always, we can shift around our vote based on persuasive arguments.
GO BRUINS.