Brigham Young storms into quebecpenspinning's Top 10!

It’s clear to see that Week One of the NCAA calendar opened up more questions than it actually answered.  Just about the only thing that stayed the same from our preseason ballot were our rankings of Florida and Texas at 1 and 2, respectively, and you’ll see that even I came around on the Gators, on the heels of their 62-3 drubbing of Charleston Southern.  Take a look at the changes to our ballot, after the jump.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida (3)
2	Texas
3	Southern Cal	1
4	Alabama	7
5	Oklahoma State	3
6	Penn State	1
7	Brigham Young
8	Mississippi	1
9	Ohio State	3
10	Boise State	3
11	California	6
12	LSU	2
13	Oklahoma	10
14	Georgia Tech	1
15	Oregon State	1
16	Virginia Tech	9
17	Utah	5
18	TCU
19	Notre Dame	2
20	North Carolina	4
21	Georgia	7
22	Miami (Florida)
23	Nebraska
24	Missouri
25	Michigan
Last week’s ballot

R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find Out What It Means to Me: Okay, maybe Charlie doesn’t love the mid-majors, but 3 teams from the Mountain West and 1 from the WAC reach the quebecpenspinning 25, and they’re all in the top 18.  That’s more than the Pac 10 (2 teams), Big Ten (3), and Big East (none), and as many as the ACC.  Furthermore, the two mid-major teams in the top 10 are as many as any conference other than the SEC.  It’s pretty disheartening that it’s only in the “alternative media” that the non-BCS schools get any respect, as neither BYU nor Boise State make the top 10 in this week’s Coaches Poll.  I won’t get on my playoff soapbox just yet, but BYU and Boise State made awesome statements this week, beating two well-respected and highly-regarded BCS teams.  Let me just ask: is there anyone who’s not amped up to watch FSU travel to Provo and take on the Stormin’ Mormons in two weeks?

Welcome Back, My Friends, to the Show that Never Ends: If you told me Michigan would be a universal selection on all three of our ballots after one week of play, I’d call you crazy.  But as it turns out, the Wolverines looked as good as any Big Ten team in their 31-7 dismantling of Western Michigan.  Tate Forcier answered plenty of questions about how effective Rich Rodriguez’s spread offense would take off in his second year in Ann Arbor, and for one week, at least, put the off-field issues on the back burner and looked pretty damn good in doing so, looking like a potential Big Ten sleeper in the process.  Next weekend’s matchup against Notre Dame will be a great measuring stick of just how far they’ve come.  Though neither Charlie nor Kevin are nearly as high on the Domers as I am, they’re still a much tougher challenge than the Western Michigan Broncos.  And Michigan is just one of 4 newcomers to the quebecpenspinning 25, which dot the bottom four spots of our ballot, as Miami, fresh off their win against Florida State, makes their debut at 22.  Missouri made us look bad for putting Illinois in our top 25 a week ago, although Cincinnatti didn’t make our poll after a brutal annihilation of Rutgers, our #25 team a week ago.

We’re the Accountabilibuddies: Though the Coaches and AP pollers weren’t tough on Ohio State or LSU for just squeaking by inferior opponents, we here at quebecpenspinning will not stand for that kind of uninspired performance.  Though I can at least feel sympathetic for LSU, who went into a rabid packed house at Washington, and faced a Husky team that certainly appears to be on the way up under Steve Sarkisian, a Top 10 team handles one that went 0-12 the year before.  And as for Ohio State against Navy, well, that kind of performance just makes you cringe.  You can’t barely hang on against your warm up opponent.  There was Ohio State’s chance to make a statement, that they were ready for USC to come in, and they couldn’t have looked much worse without losing.  It’s really Kevin who keeps them in the top 10 this week, as both Charlie and I ranked Ohio State at 11.  You’ll also see that Iowa takes an unceremonious drop off of the ballot after very nearly losing to D1-FCS Northern Iowa.  Sure, you won, but you had to block two field goals in the final 5 seconds to do it.  Are you really proud of yourselves?  Really?

Quality or Quantity?: In keeping with the theme, I won’t fault you if you don’t know this is a song by Bad Religion.  But in the context of this Blogpoll, we’re looking at the ACC.  Sure, there are a very solid 4 teams from the ACC in our ballot.  But none of those teams is in the top 13, and Georgia Tech, with it’s funky triple option attack, might be more of a gimmick than anything, just considering how badly they were crushed by LSU in their bowl game last year.  Virginia Tech, who seemed destined to be the standard bearer of the conference, once again, find themselves sliding down the polls after losing to Alabama.  That’s nothing to be embarassed about, the Crimson Tide are a great team.  But Tyrod Taylor completed less than half his passes, for 91 yards.  Somebody’s got to step up in that conference, or else we’ll have a repeat of a year ago, when a #21 ranked Virginia Tech team represented the ACC in the Orange Bowl.

Close, But No Cigar: The following teams were ranked by one or more of us, but failed to make the final ballot: Michigan State, Oregon, Texas Tech, Tennessee