Final ballot is due Wednesday morning. Let me know your feelings in the comments.
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| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama | |
| 2 | Texas | |
| 3 | Florida | |
| 4 | Cincinnati | |
| 5 | TCU | |
| 6 | Iowa |
 2 |
| 7 | Boise State |
 1 |
| 8 | Oregon |
2 |
| 9 | Georgia Tech | |
| 10 | Penn State |
1 |
| 11 | LSU |
2 |
| 12 | Miami (Florida) |
2 |
| 13 | Pittsburgh |
4 |
| 14 | Houston |
2 |
| 15 | Utah |
3 |
| 16 | Southern Cal |
9 |
| 17 | Ohio State |
2 |
| 18 | Arizona |
4 |
| 19 | Brigham Young |
4 |
| 20 | Oklahoma State |
5 |
| 21 | Oklahoma |
3 |
| 22 | Virginia Tech |
10 |
| 23 | Notre Dame | |
| 24 | California | |
| 25 | Oregon State | |
| Last week's ballot | ||
Dropped Out: South Carolina (#20), West Virginia (#21), Central Michigan (#25).
Notes
- Welcome to the ballot: Notre Dame, Cal, Oregon State.
- The Top 3 is becoming more of a cluster. Florida and Texas both dominated away from home and Alabama had a bye week. The three teams are becoming harder to differentiate. The good news is one of them is guaranteed to lose.
- The next tier of unbeatens includes Boise State, Cincinnati, Iowa and TCU. Iowa looked ragged at home against an inferior opponent for the better part of three quarters before turning the game into a blowout. TCU and Boise had home blowouts. Cincinnati won by 21 on the road.
- The Bearcats have a rather impressive five road wins so far this year, including one against Oregon State out of conference. They probably have the toughest road of the second group to an unbeaten season. They still have play UConn, West Virginia and Pittsburgh in conference and a resurgent Illinois team OOC.
- TCU has a pair of road wins it can hang its hat on: BYU and Clemson. The Frogs have also won at UVa and Air Force. The Frogs still have to beat Utah to finish the year unbeaten.
- Iowa also has a pair of road wins that are nothing to sneeze at in Penn State and Wisconsin. Iowa has looked good in a few of its wins and really bad in others (Arkansas State and Indiana). I'm not entirely sure the Hawks should be ahead of Boise State, but the road wins against PSU and Wisky get them the No. 6 spot.
- Then there's Boise State. For now, the Broncos are ahead of Oregon, but it's getting harder and harder for me to do that. The big question is: would Boise State beat Oregon right now? Probably not. But Boise did in fact beat Oregon and hasn't lost yet, so it should be at No. 7. However, the Broncos' best road win is Tulsa and unfortunately for them the Hurricane are having an off year.
- I put a high value on performance away from home, which is why I have the second group of unbeaten teams ranked the way I do.
- Games watched: North Carolina at Virginia Tech, Texas at Oklahoma State. Games listened to: Indiana at Iowa, Miami at Wake Forest, USC at Oregon.