Blogpoll -- Week 14 Draft

It's Blogpoll time again, and here is the draft of my final ballot for the regular season.

As expected, the Alabama Crimson Tide is on top with their somewhat unexpected domination of the Florida Gators in the SEC championship game.  I am prepared now to accept the apologia of all those who scoffed at me for keeping them on top in spite of the close game with Auburn.

The Texas Longhorns also manage to win the Big 12 title and joins Alabama in the BCS championship, but it was nothing like the Alabama game.  Nebraska really came to play in this one, and nearly threw the BCS into chaos by upsetting the Longhorns.

For those of you wondering if Texas may be overtaken by either Cincinnati or TCU, it is apparent from the numbers in my calculation that could not have happened unless Texas lost.  The difference between UC and Texas was quite substantial, although the difference between the Bearcats and TCU is very small.

More after the jump.

My ballot is as follows:

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Texas
3	Cincinnati	1
4	TCU	1
5	Boise State	1
6	Oregon	1
7	Florida	4
8	Ohio State
9	Georgia Tech	1
10	Iowa	1
11	Virginia Tech
12	Miami (Florida)	2
13	Brigham Young	2
14	Houston	2
15	Penn State	2
16	Stanford	2
17	West Virginia	8
18	Pittsburgh	5
19	LSU	1
20	North Carolina	2
21	Oklahoma State	3
22	Arizona
23	Nebraska	2
24	Oregon State	8
25	Northwestern
Last week's ballot

Observations

• Interestingly, what got the Gators dropped so much was strenght of schedule and points scored against BCS teams.  On the one hand, the latter would seem an unfair measurement against the tougher defenses of the SEC, but SoS counts for more and will normally overcome that.  I find it ironic that the Gator offense is what ultimately helped undo them, as well as their weaker schedule
  
  This should be a lesson.  If you are going to contend for the national title, play tough teams, because if you do, you might just survive that loss.  But play a weak schedule, and you will drop like a stone.
• Man, LSU and Pittsburgh were close.  What ultimately decided that one was LSU's less impressive record against winning teams.
• Oh, how the mighty have fallen.  Southern Cal is out of my poll altogether.
• Boise State was not even close, so all you Boise lovers can fuggetaboutit.  Great season by the Broncos, though.  As consolation, there is a really big gap between Boise and Oregon, the biggest gap in the top ten.
• The Georgia Bulldogs almost reached the top 25 with their big win over Georgia Tech.  Almost.

Comments welcome and appreciated.