BP Poll - Week Twelve

[LordJeffBuck]

Please submit your ballots by noon tomorrow.

Only eight ballots so far - I need at least two more in order to post the poll results.

 

[LordJeffBuck]

BP Poll - Week 12

Here are the results of the 2011 week twelve BP poll:

01. Louisiana State 250 (10)
02. Alabama 239
03. Arkansas 226
04. Stanford 215
05. Virginia Tech 204
06. Oklahoma State 202
07. Oregon 177
08. Houston 174
09. Michigan State 148
10. Oklahoma 145
11. Wisconsin 141
12. Georgia 138
13. Boise State 136
14. South Carolina 123
15. Kansas State 120
16. Clemson 95
17. Penn State 90
18. Michigan 88
19. Southern Cal 84
20. Baylor 67
21. Texas Christian 50
22. Nebraska 41
23. Georgia Tech 25
24. Virginia 20
25. Notre Dame 19


Others receiving votes: West Virginia 18; Southern Miss 6; Tulsa 4; Arkansas State 4; Cincinnati 3; Rutgers 1; Northern Illinois 1
____________________________
If anything demonstrates just how crappy a year it has been for college football, it is Virginia Tech. The Hokies' resume' includes a 20-point loss to the paper Tigers of Clemson; single-digit wins over four unranked teams whose combined record is 20 and 24 - East Carolina (7 points), Duke (4 points), Miami (3 points), and North Carolina (3 points); and no signature victories (an 11-point win over a barely-ranked Georgia Tech is the best they have to offer). Yet the Hokies are #5 in the BCS rankings, and are one win away from an ACC Coastal title and a re-match with Clemson in the ACC title game. If VPI wins out, and the SEC implodes, then the Hokies have a damned good chance to back into the title game (where they will likely get their collective asses kicked by LSU, Bama, or even Arkansas).

And is it really such a great time to be a Badger fan? Wisconsin has been victimized by two fluky plays which ruined their perfect season; if those two plays had gone the other way, we'd all be debating whether this possibly-best-ever Badger team could hang with LSU in the BCS championship game.

Two-division conferences are great, except when your three best teams are in one division, and the winner of your other division lost to Boise State. But that's the current state of the SEC. To make matters worse, if Arkansas beats LSU, and Alabama beats Auburn, then the SEC west will have a three-way tie at the top (and don't ask me who would win the division in that scenario because I don't know). Let's hope that LSU wins out so that we'll have at least one team that actually deserves to be in the BCS championship game this year.

Playoffs, anybody?

 

[Muck]

Playoffs, anybody?

No.

 

[Buckeye513]

Situations like this are exactly why I'm against a playoff. Terrible field and the possibility of non-conference/non-division winners getting in.

 

[sepia5]

1. LSU (--)
2. Alabama (+1)
3. Arkansas (+3)
4. Oregon (--)
5. Stanford (+2)
6. Virginia Tech (+3)
7. Oklahoma St. (-5)
8. Wisconsin (+2)
9. Houston (+2)
10. Oklahoma (-5)
11. Boise St. (+2)
12. Michigan St. (+2)
13. Georgia (+3)
14. USC (+6)
15. Penn St. (+2)
15. South Carolina (-1)
16. Kansas St. (+1)
17. scUM (+5)
18. Clemson (-11)
19. Baylor (NR)
20. TCU (+1)
21. Nebraska (-9)
22. West Virginia
23. Virginia (NR)
24. Georgia Tech (-5)
25. Notre Dame (NR)

Dropped out: Southern Miss (23), Florida St. (25)

This was by far and away the most difficult ballot I've completed this season. What a bunch of wappa goo after the top 3 teams. Despite now having two losses, I could not justify putting Stanford ahead of Oregon after the way the Ducks controlled that head-to-head matchup just two weeks ago. I couldn't figure out how to work USC into that equation, either. Oklahoma's defense has been trying to justify a big drop for weeks now, and that pitiful loss to Iowa State finally justified it. UGA finally jumps South Carolina since UGA will be the east division champ and USC is so depleted on offense compared to how the teams lined up when they met earlier in the season. That Clemson loss was inexcusable. They drop a bunch. Same with Nebraska. A close loss at scUM wouldn't have surprised me, but that beat down against what should have been a less physical team cannot go unpunished.

If we hadn't had the off season from hell, and all senior starters and Coach Tressel were around for the whole season, I have no doubt we'd be playing scUM this weekend for a spot in the National Championship game.

 

[BB73]

Two-division conferences are great, except when your three best teams are in one division, and the winner of your other division lost to Boise State. But that's the current state of the SEC. To make matters worse, if Arkansas beats LSU, and Alabama beats Auburn, then the SEC west will have a three-way tie at the top (and don't ask me who would win the division in that scenario because I don't know). Let's hope that LSU wins out so that we'll have at least one team that actually deserves to be in the BCS championship game this year.

I've posted that multiple times in the last couple of weeks, in the SEC and Arkansas game threads. The 3-way tiebreaker goes to BCS Standings, since they all will have the same record, and they all beat each other. But it's not simply the highest BCS team, it's the head-to-head result of the top 2 BCS ranked teams, as long as they're within 5 spots of each other. So it's actually throw out the lowest of the 3, and then use the head-to-head result of the other two as the tiebreaker. So any of the 3 teams could actually be #1 in the BCS and NOT get sent to the SEC CCG.

Here's my poll this week:

01. LSU
02. Alabama
03. Arkansas
04. Oklahoma St
05. Va Tech
06. Stanford
07. Houston
08. Oregon
09. Boise st
10. Georgia
11. Sparty
12. Wisconsin
13. Oklahoma
14. Kansas St
15. Clemson
16. S Carolina
17. Penn St
18. TSUN
19. Ga Tech
20. Nebraska
21. Baylor
22. TCU
23. Virginia
24. Tulsa
25. West Va

 

[Jake]

Playoffs, anybody?

Absolutely.

It is absurd that this question even needs to be asked, given it is asked in no other sport or no other level of football for that matter. It has been screwed up for so long some people think it is normal.

 

[buckeyegrad]

Playoffs, anybody?

Yes, but not until realignment is complete and we are left with four mega-conferences. A four team playoff of the conference champions would work perfectly.

Anyway, my votes this week:

1. LSU
2. Alabama
3. Arkansas
4. Stanford
5. Oklahoma State
6. Virginia Tech
7. Houston
8. Wisconsin
9. Oklahoma
10. USC
11. Oregon
12. Michigan State
13. South Carolina
14. Boise State
15. Georgia
16. Clemons
17. Penn State
18. Kansas State
19. Michigan
20. Baylor
21. TCU
22. Notre Dame
23. Nebraska
24. West Virginia
25. Virginia

And like others have said, a complete mess after you get past the first three.

 

[Bucklion]

Situations like this are exactly why I'm against a playoff. Terrible field and the possibility of non-conference/non-division winners getting in.

Likely to also get that in the BCS title game if LSU and Alabama win out, however.

 

[Bucklion]

1. LSU
2. Alabama
3. Arkansas
4. Virginia Tech
5. Stanford
6. Houston
7. Oklahoma State
8. Oregon
9. Michigan State
10. USC
11. Boise State
12. Georgia
13. South Carolina
14. Wisconsin
15. Oklahoma
16. Clemson
17. Kansas State
18. Michigan
19. Penn State
20. Baylor
21. TCU
22. Virginia
23. Georgia Tech
24. Notre Dame
25. West Virginia