Gate 21

Lunacy Prevails: Gate 21 Joins the 2008 College Football BlogPoll

August 14th, 2008 |

Author: lawvol

FB 02 Gate21 Lunacy Prevails: <em>Gate 21 Joins the 2008 College Football BlogPoll</em> Gate 21 Well, given the complete lack of discretion of the powers that be, Gate 21 has been offered the opportunity to participate in the National College Football BlogPoll which is orchestrated by Brian over at the MGOBlog. I know that some people are not a fan of Brian or his blog, but the BlogPoll sounded like fun, and I am always a fan of riding the coattails of others due to my complete lack of talent as a blogger. You can read about the philosophy of the BlogPoll over on the MGOBlog. This year the BlogPoll includes a few other faces from around this neck of the woods who you can also check out from time to time, including: Fulmer’s Belly and Rocky Top Talk (both of whom will be representing the Tennessee Volunteers along with yours truly) and Crimson Daddy over at 3SIB (who will be representing the Alabama Crimson Tide).

The way that the BlogPoll is supposed to work is that, during the season, ballots are due on Wednesday of each week. Each of us pollsters have been strongly encouraged, however, to post our preliminary poll a few days before (ideally on Monday) to allow all of you out there in the blogosphere to comment on our vote, tell us what freakin’ morons we are, and generally try to convince us to change our minds. In my case bribes work best and no reasonable offer will be turned away.

I do consider it a real privilege to participate — especially considering what an incompetent blowhard I am — and therefore will be trying my best to vote free from bias, and will try to be serious in my selections. That said, I am always willing to listen to differing perspectives and thoughts from either of you out there that actually read this rag.

As a general rule, preseason polls are — in the words of former Vice President John Nance Garner when describing his post as second-in-command — “not worth a bucket of warm piss.“ This is largely due to the fact that such polls are based on speculation, hearsay, rumors, prognostications, and other unreliable and flimsy information. Given the fact that I am a lawyer (or “evidence manipulation specialist” as my friend Bryan Grantham refers to it) I feel right at home with the idea of trying to make an argument without a single shred of support.

Bearing that in mind, here it is:

(Preliminary) Preseason BlogPoll Ballot

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Georgia	25
2	Ohio State	24
3	Southern Cal	23
4	LSU	22
5	Florida	21
6	Clemson	20
7	Oklahoma	19
8	Auburn	18
9	Kansas	17
10	Penn State	16
11	Texas	15
12	Missouri	14
13	Tennessee	13
14	Wisconsin	12
15	Oregon	11
16	Illinois	10
17	Colorado	9
18	Alabama	8
19	Arizona State	7
20	Wake Forest	6
21	Boise State	5
22	Florida State	4
23	Michigan	3
24	West Virginia	2
25	South Florida	1

Others Considered: South Carolina, Virginia Tech, Rutgers

Tell me I’m a moron — I’ll probably agree…

– Go Figure …

About the Author: "Lawvol" -- I'm just a guy living in North Carolina who has an unnatural fascination with the color orange. Just because I'm a Tennessee alum and die-hard Volunteer fan doesn't mean that I can't poke a little fun at the Big Orange and anybody else for that matter. Feel free to complain all you want. >> Read more from this author

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Tags: Alabama Crimson Tide, Blogosphere, Football, Gate 21, SEC, Tennessee Volunteers

5 Responses to “Lunacy Prevails: Gate 21 Joins the 2008 College Football BlogPoll”

crimsondaddy

says:

14 August 2008 at 11:27 am

Kansas at #9 is bold, but heck, they were there and higher last year.

And someone’s not too keen on West Virginia, but overall, it looks good to me.

I know that was the validation you’ve been waiting on.

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lawvol

says:

14 August 2008 at 11:44 am

You know me, I’m all about having others tell me I’m pretty…

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hooper

says:

14 August 2008 at 10:59 pm

Congrats on being a part of the process.

I find it interesting that you didn’t even consider BYU, given the love they’re getting everywhere else.

Just curious: is this a guess at how good the teams are right now, how good they’ll be throughout the season, how good their record will be at the end of the season, or how high their potential is? (Or some other kind of guess?)

Reply

lawvol

says:

15 August 2008 at 12:58 pm

You raise a good question Hooper.

My thought process on this first poll (as if I really had one that required anything other than a map of the US and a dartboard) was, more or less, to take into account the following:

1) Who has the best shot of winning all their games;
2) How difficult is their upcoming schedule; and
3) Overall strength versus anybody else in the nation.

Thus, I suppose this poll is a bit biased toward teams that hail from what I perceive to be “stronger” conferences. In reality, this poll is essentially my “preseason, post-season poll” (i.e. where I think teams will finish the season).

Once we get underway with the season, I will go more on what a team has done so far. On this first poll, however, I don’t really think there is a really good way to determine much of anything other than “who is most popular at the moment,” hence my John Nance Gardner comment.

You do raise a good point about BYU, however, and I am going to give them a look before I submit my final ballot — I’ll update here if I change it.

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Throwbacks

says:

20 June 2009 at 7:43 am

It’s not often I find a really good football article online, most are the same ole’ thing just rehashed.
Thanks for posting something I could really sit down and read.

Dave

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