Here’s my ballot for this week’s CBS Sports College Football BlogPoll hosted by—as you might imagine—CBS Sports.

Week 10

Through 01 November 2008

With the “power” teams making their claims with increasing volume, the BCS committee is already exploring the option of entering the witness protection program.  It’s looking like 2007 all over again.  Nonetheless, here is my preliminary BlogPoll Top 25 for this week.  Most of these should be fairly obvious.  Either way, here’s my ballot:

My Ballot for the Week

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	1
2	Texas Tech	4
3	Penn State	–
4	Oklahoma	–
5	Florida	3
6	Southern Cal	1
7	Texas	6
8	Missouri	2
9	Utah	–
10	Oklahoma State	3
11	TCU	1
12	Boise State	1
13	Ohio State	1
14	LSU	1
15	Ball State	1
16	Brigham Young	3
17	North Carolina	3
18	Georgia	11
19	Pittsburgh	5
20	California	6
	Georgia Tech	5
22	Michigan State	4
23	Northwestern	3
24	Minnesota	7
25	Maryland	–

Dropped Out: Oregon (#18), Florida State (#21), Tulsa (#22), South Florida (#23).

Explanations after the jump…

Comments, Explanations, and Excuses

Here are the high-points of the week’s changes:

Texas Tech (2) & Southern Cal (6):

I bumped the Texas Tech Red Raiders four spots, past the idle Penn State Nittany Lions (3) and the Oklahoma Sooners (4) who hammered the Nebraska Cornhuskers (NR), into the No. 2 spot for one simple reason—they earned it and impressed the hell out of me in their victory over the Texas Longhorns (7).  In fact, I almost moved the Red Raiders into first place above the Alabama Crimson Tide (1).  Texas Tech is for real, is aggressive, and solid across the board.

I know, however, that some folks from the left coast will be upset that I dropped the Southern Cal Trojans one spot—elevating the Florida Gators (5) right past them—despite the Trojans decimating the Washington Huskies (NR).  The reason for this is two fold:

1. First, the Gators—admittedly to my dismay—completely manhandled the Georgia Bulldogs (18), beating them at every position and setting the stage fro a showdown against Alabama in the SEC Championship Game.  Florida may well be the best team in the SEC at present.
2. Second, it has become abundantly clear to me that the Pac-10 is anything but strong as a conference this year.  In reality, there is on very good team (Southern Cal) and two above average teams—the California Golden Bears (20) and Arizona Wildcats (NR); the rest are bad to awful.  Thus—in my humble opinion—beating a hapless Washington Huskies (NR) team which is both winless and coachless by 1,000 points simply isn’t as deserving of accolades as downing the Dawgs 49-10.

Utah (9) & Boise State (12):

Both of these teams played schools from New Mexico.  There is a reason few people fear playing schools from the “Land of Enchantment”—it’s because they are not very good.  It’s a big deal to me—you play nobody, you go nowhere.

I personally think both of these teams are highly overrated due to their weak schedules, but am trying not to be such a haughty and arrogant “Ess-Eee-See!!” fan. Thus, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt at present, but that only goes so far.

Sorry…

Returners & First Timers:

This week sees the return of four previously ranked schools to my ballot: the Cal Golden Bears (20), the Michigan State Spartans (22), the Northwestern Wildcats (23) and the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (21) who returns on the heels of its 31-28 besting of Florida State (NR) who was No. 21 in my ballot last week.

“Now Departing at Gate 21…”:

There was a four-team exodus from my ballot this week as the Oregon Ducks, Florida State Seminoles, Tulsa Golden Hurricane, and South Florida Bulls all cleared out of town and headed for the hills—this is the third departure for Oregon this year.

On the Bubble for Next Week:

Looking ahead to next week, if they keep up their winning ways the South Carolina Gamecocks (NR), Air Force Falcons (NR), Kansas Jayhawks (NR), West Virginia Mountaineers (NR), and Kentucky Wildcats (NR) all look set to jump into my Top 25 at any time.

The Rest of the BlogPoll

Having taken the time to consider my feeble attempt at ranking the powers in college football, feel free to try and convince me that I am wrong — which is part of the way the BlogPoll is supposed to work.  I promise that I will consider all comments.

As for the rest of the BlogPoll, well, you can check out how other bloggers voted and how your team fared across the blogosphere over at MGOBlog, and view the BlogPoll Top 25 results each week over at CBS Sports.

– 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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