Down Goes Boise! Up goes Nevada!

Sorry about the whole “not posting for a week thing.” I can’t speak for Charlie, but I was actually in Puerto Rico over Thanksgiving break (yeah, you’re jealous) which was great and all, but I didn’t get a chance to watch either of Penn State’s games (against Indiana or Michigan State) live, and the internet access was spotty when available. In short–not the best situation for a blogger.  For a guy on vacation, though? Phenomenal.

Again, our apologies, but we’ll be getting back into the swing of things for basketball and bowl season, so…yeah.

Here’s our Blogpoll ballot for this week. I should warn you, it’s highly eccentric. I’ve been pretty conventional for most of the season, but last week was, pretty much, the capper to a highly unpredictable college football season, and the rankings reflect that. If you’ve got a gripe, I’d love to hear it. And you probably will.

quebecpenspinning Ballot – Week 14

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Auburn Tigers	2
2	Oregon Ducks	-1
3	Wisconsin Badgers	2
4	TCU Horned Frogs	–
5	Michigan St. Spartans	4
6	Nevada Wolf Pack	7
7	Stanford Cardinal	–
8	Ohio St. Buckeyes	–
9	Boise St. Broncos	-7
10	Arkansas Razorbacks	7
11	Virginia Tech Hokies	–
12	Nebraska Cornhuskers	2
13	Oklahoma Sooners	3
14	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	-2
15	Missouri Tigers	–
16	Texas A&M Aggies	2
17	LSU Tigers	-7
18	Alabama Crimson Tide	-12
19	South Carolina Gamecocks	–
20	Florida St. Seminoles	2
21	Air Force Falcons	–
22	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	1
23	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	–
24	Arizona Wildcats	-4
25	Utah Utes	–
Dropouts: Iowa Hawkeyes, N.C. State Wolfpack, West Virginia Mountaineers

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings »

The biggest deviation from the common perception comes right at the top. I’ve got Wisconsin at 3, TCU at 4, Michigan State as the second-highest rated Big Ten team, and Nevada at 6.

Here’s my attempt at an explanation: Wisconsin has been just phenomenal, ever since losing to the Spartans. The offense has just turned it up to a whole new level, and they’ve been doing it without John Clay. Is Bret Bielema running up the score? You bet, and you can thank the BCS system for him having to flex his muscles. But I’ll be damned if it hasn’t worked. As a team, Wisconsin has run for 46 touchdowns. Three backs have at least 860 yards and 13 touchdowns. That’s just obscene. I think TCU is a good team, but they haven’t beaten anyone, and I’m always a believer in giving credit to the non-BCS guys–I’d been loving Boise State all year–but they can’t point to a single marquee win on their schedule. I resent ranking Utah–that’s more out of necessity than the fact that I actually think they’re a good team, and the catastrophic collapses of Oregon State and Baylor diminish those victories.

That’s the same thing holding back Ohio State. I’m sorry, Dr. Gee, but when you call out a school like TCU for playing a “little sisters of the poor” schedule, it helps to back up your hubris with results. Ohio State’s gone the entire season without beating a single team that will finish the year ranked (at least in this ballot), or with fewer than three losses. How you like them apples, you bow-tie wearing doucher? Nevada might not go through the same grind of the Big Ten, I’ll grant them that, but they beat a damn good Boise State team–with a little luck, of course–and have one of the most efficient offenses in the country, and Colin Kaepernick is the best player you’ve never heard of. Actually, in this day and age I’m sure you’ve heard of the Angry Ostrich, but he’s probably The Best Player You’ve Heard Of, But Never Seen Play.

My attempt at unraveling the Big XII situation failed pretty miserably, so I just threw ‘em all together. I can’t make heads or tails out of that conference, though I think Nebraska’s probably the best team. Here’s to hoping they can win their first conference championship since ’99–though the situation definitely reminds me of the Montreal Screwjob of 1997–which, perhaps uncoincidentally, was the only other year Nebraska claimed the Big XII crown.

You’ll remember-Bret Hart was the WWF champion, though he was leaving for the WCW after Survivor Series, and he was defending his belt against Shawn Michaels. Since the event was being held in Hart’s hometown of Montreal (no kidding), Hart arranged to go out a champion, holding the WWF Championship Belt before defecting. Despite the pre-ordained outcome–that the match would end in a disqualification and that Hart would retain the championship–Vince McMahon rang the bell early into the match, while Michaels had Hart locked in to the sharpshooter–Hart’s own famous move. That gave Michaels the win over Hart by submission, even though the Hitman never tapped out. Read all about it on Wikipedia.

Basically, the same thing may well be in effect at the Big XII Championship Game–Dan Beebe surely doesn’t want to see his champion defecting for a rival promotion, and will do everything in his power to prevent it–even cheating. Ask a Nebraska fan about that Texas A&M game a couple weeks ago. In that match-up, Nebraska was penalized 16 times for 145 yards, compared to 2 for 10 on the Aggies. It was a farce of a officiating performance, and you can’t help but theorize collusion from a very pissed off Big XII brass.

Moving on: in the SEC, I’m amazed at the chokejob from Alabama–what an unSaban thing to do, to go up 21-0 and then so utterly collapse in the second half. I know Auburn’s a heck of a team, but Alabama looked like a JV team while Cam Newton bulldozed through the line, hit wide open receivers, and as the Auburn defensive line made the Crimson Tide offense line look like Penn State’s. It was ugly. LSU finally lost again, too–thanks, Arkansas–and here’s to hoping South Carolina can create some BCS chaos with a win over Auburn next Saturday.

I really like Virginia Tech, who might be in the “best one-loss team” conversation had they not inexplicably lost to James Madison. The Big East still sucks. That’s about it.