It's time for the weekly BlogPoll again! As a refresher, each week, hundreds of bloggers (both on SB Nation and elsewhere) vote on what they think to be the top 25 for the week. Different bloggers use different criteria to determine how teams get ranked, so you can get some peculiar responses. One thing is clear though. Since bloggers often aren't as hard-pressed for word counts and filing deadlines, unlike traditional media, they generally have the flexibility to follow more games around their conference and the country each week.
So each week, we here at Streaking the Lawn partake in the voting process. Each week, we start by ranking Virginia as No. 1, then we put teams above us based on who we think could beat us and by how much. What you end up with is a long list of teams ahead of us and great debate on why Oklahoma would beat us by 45 whereas LSU would cover with 47.
Just kidding. This week, Tiki and I submitted our independent Top 25, and then we tally up the points and rank the teams based on points earned. Sometimes there's a tie, in which case the team who was more consistent would the higher spot -- i.e., if Team A and Team B both earned 27 points, and Team A was ranked 10th by me (16 points) and 15th by Tiki (11 points), but Team B was ranked 13th by me (13 points) and 12th by Tiki (14 points), then Team B would be ranked higher, since I figure we both agree that Team B is "somewhere around there" whereas there's debate as to Team A's value. Got it? Great. And yes, I know you don't care. So on with the poll:
Streaking the Lawn Ballot - Week 5
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide |
 1 |
| 2 | LSU Tigers |
1 |
| 3 | Oklahoma Sooners |
 -2 |
| 4 | Boise St. Broncos | -- |
| 5 | Wisconsin Badgers |
1 |
| 6 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys |
4 |
| 7 | Stanford Cardinal |
-2 |
| 8 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -- |
| 9 | Oregon Ducks |
2 |
| 10 | Florida Gators |
5 |
| 11 | South Carolina Gamecocks |
1 |
| 12 | Virginia Tech Hokies |
2 |
| 13 | Texas A&M Aggies |
-4 |
| 14 | Baylor Bears |
3 |
| 15 | South Florida Bulls |
3 |
| 16 | Texas Longhorns |
3 |
| 17 | Arkansas Razorbacks |
-4 |
| 18 | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets |
3 |
| 19 | Michigan St. Spartans |
4 |
| 20 | Clemson Tigers |
4 |
| 21 | Michigan Wolverines |
-1 |
| 22 | West Virginia Mountaineers |
-6 |
| 23 | TCU Horned Frogs |
-1 |
| 24 | Arizona St. Sun Devils | -- |
| 25 | Florida St. Seminoles |
-18 |
|
Dropouts: USC Trojans Also receiving votes: Illinois Fighting Illini, Houston Cougars |
||
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings
Plenty of movement in this week's rankings. Here's what happened. LSU and Alabama each had good wins over ranked teams, where as Oklahoma just had a meh win over an unranked Mizzou. Both Tiki and I dropped them down on the rankings. Florida State was the big loser after falling to Clemson a week after they were competitive but losers against Oklahoma.
Here's my question. Why didn't Tiki rank Clemson? After a double-digit win over then-No. 21 Auburn and another win over then-No. 11 FSU (based on ESPN rankings), Clemson still fails to crack Tiki's Top 25, while Georgia Tech, who has had plenty of huge wins but none against ranked teams, comes in 18th on his ballot (19th on mine). I had Clemson up at No. 14, but getting a goose egg from Tiki hurts their place.
Arizona State checks in at No. 24 on our ballot, and they can thank Tiki for that for ranking them 22nd. They didn't crack my T25 because my gut hasn't been impressed. Relatedly, my gut oftentimes leads me astray, as evidenced by my poor performance in our weekly pick'em, and as further evidenced by my affinity for cheesecake.
I think it's relatively clear for all the other teams why we bumped them up or down, but did we miss anything here? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.