The Chosen Blog

Can't really argue much here. Everything is close enough to where I have it, that I can see where you're coming from. One thing though, I really think Florida's overall resume is much better than USC's at this point.

 

Even using your rankings, Florida beat #11 LSU by 13, #18 Tennessee on the road when they had Ainge and were much better, and #30 Georgia. The only loss on the year was to a still very good #10 Auburn team on the road.

 

USC does have the one big win over Arkansas, but McFadden was injured that game and only had 9 carries, and the Razorbacks weren't the same team at all. It's like comparing the Rutgers that barely beat UNC in the opener to the team that beat Louisville last week.

 

Outside of that, the only ranked team the Trojans have beaten is #25 Nebraska, and that would have been a lot closer if Callahan had a decent gameplan. Add in the loss to unranked Oregon State, and I think their overall resume's significantly weaker than that of the Gators. Sure, USC looked better than UF last night, but over the course of the season, Florida's accomplished a lot more.

 

Still though, the rankings were pretty good overall. You got Nebraska and Clemson back in there, and dropped Cal, Tennessee, and Texas about as far as they deserved. Auburn should be down a little further and LSU should be up a little further, but it's probably better than what the AP and coaches will come out with this week.

I agree that Florida comes from a WAY tougher conference than USC and has had a tougher schedule. But the reason I jumped USC over Florida is based mostly on this last week. Florida basically got beat. They won, but they shouldn't have. USC pretty much romped on a good Oregon team. But I understand what you're saying about Florida's resume looking better than USC's. I just couldn't jump Florida all the way up to my #3 team for almost losing. USC will fall soon, and they will fall hard.

 

As far as Auburn and LSU go, I consider them to be equal. I don't hold the loss to Auburn against LSU really. I ranked Auburn ahead of LSU a little because of the loss head to head, but mostly because of the fact they beat Florida and LSU didn't.

 

I try not to punish teams too much for a loss, if it's to a good team. I just don't really like how in the real polls a team loses and drops way below worse teams, then works their way back up, therefore losses later in the season are killers. I'm trying to avoid that.

 

I like that you gave Penn State some respect. I thought about adding them to the end of the NR teams, but then I decided to go with Central Michigan, then I changed my mind again and went with Missouri ahead of Georgia.