Top 25 and a closer look at the Big Ten

This week's ballot...

1.    Alabama
2.    Oklahoma
3.    Louisiana State
4.    Missouri
5.    Texas
6.    Southern Cal
7.    Penn State
8.    Ohio State
9.    Auburn
10.    Georgia
11.    Brigham Young
12.    Florida
13.    Texas Tech
14.    Kansas
15.    South Florida
16.    Utah
17.    Fresno State
18.    Vanderbilt
19.    Wisconsin
20.    Boise State
21.    Michigan State
22.    Connecticut
23.    Virginia Tech
24.    Illinois
25.    Oregon

Dropped out: Wake Forest, South Carolina, TCU
New: Oregon, Connecticut, Virginia Tech

    Thoughts....
    * Yep, Alabama at the top. They've blasted Clemson, Arkansas and now Georgia away from home, which made this an easy choice for me. A ragged second half aside, anyone who watched Saturday's game at Georgia knows this was a thoroughly dominant performance.
    * Penn State shoots up to 7, USC drops just to 6 on my ballot, higher than many have the Trojans, but I couldn't justify going lower on an aberration that was admittedly embarrassing. I still have Ohio State 8th, which is high compared with many ballots.
    * After Utah at 16, you can throw a dart at a board for the remaining spots, with decent arguments for about 20 teams for the remaining nine spots. Oregon and Virginia Tech are back in, with UConn making its first appearance. The next teams for me are Maryland, Cal and Oklahoma State, but Maryland has a troubling loss to Middle Tennessee, Cal has a blowout loss at Maryland disguised by the final score, and here are Oklahoma State's opponents to date: Washington State, Houston, Missouri State, Troy. The next four weeks will tell us all we need to know about the Cowboys.
    * I don't think the Big Ten is great this season, yet I have five Big Ten teams in my top 25. Let me explain what may look like a contradiction. I don't think the Big Ten has any truly great teams, considering Ohio State's struggles (although with Wells back and Pryor improving, there's still time for the Buckeyes). Penn State may be that team, we'll see how they do in night games at Wisconsin and Ohio State. But the Big Ten is still easily the third-best league this season, behind the SEC and Big 12. And there are no creampuffs this year. Indiana may be the worst team. I just saw the Hoosiers. They aren't bad. In recent years, there were usually a couple teams (IU and Illinois several times, Minnesota last season) that were straight-up doormats. No more. It's a solid, competitive league in 2008. But the praise stops there, especially in light of Wisconsin's meltdown in Ann Arbor.
    * I've been introduced to an interesting Web site that tracks all 65 AP voters and rates their performance. Check it out here. Hopefully I can earn "Bad Voter of the Week" some day. I learned that, while some may consider my ranking of MSU at No. 21 as high (homer alert! homer alert!), Eric Page of the Quad City Times has the Spartans at No. 17. Craig James has MSU at No. 20. Fifteen other voters ranked the Spartans, including Herb Gould of the Chicago Sun-Times (23), John Heuser of the Ann Arbor News (23) and Kirk Herbstreit (24). Anyway, like I said, the bottom of this poll is a mess, but having seen the Spartans up close every week, I've seen significant improvements since the opener (despite some troubling defensive mistakes against IU). They belong in the 20s (they're officially 27th) and won't have a chance for a major leap until Ohio State visits on Oct. 18.

Comments

[Ben Green]

Joe, you have MSU at No. 21 yet you say, "Indiana may be the worst team. I just saw the Hoosiers. They aren't bad."

Um...ok...a 13 point win...closer than the score indicates, (holding not called and IU scores the TD instead of rendering a safety)...against (possibly) the worst team in the Big 10 is enough to vault the Spartans to No. 21?

Am I missing something?

[DCSpartan]

Love pollspeak.com. Hey Joe, you actually soliciting votes for "bad voter of the week?" You might get some votes from Oklahoma for not placing them at #1. Their fans are nuts. Anyway, I can see the case for having us anywhere from 17 to 40. It's too early in the season to really care too much at this point; so much can happen. And I'd rather see Sparty ranked at the END of this year rather than at some point in the middle.

[Stone]

Joe,

Be a hero and move to have 1 pre-season AP poll, and NO other poll until the first week of October.

That would make the ranking system a lot more respectable. Right now does any somewhat informed fan use them as any more than a guide?

[xwing]

i don't understand why you put psu only one spot ahead of osu. osu has looked pretty average in most of their wins and has a loss and psu has blown out every team they have played. i don't think msu deserves to be ranked until they beat iowa. 5-1 with the qualtiy of opponents they have played deserves a top 25 ranking. the only real quality win i would give them so far would be notre dame. florida atlantic, eastern michigan, and indiana look pretty average...

[sdp00]

MSU has had two bad defensive games; Cal and IU. Cal is looking pretty good on the computer rankings. IU was jacked up and MSU was a little flat after the big ND win.

I thought that Hoyer played well against IU. Our receivers had some pretty bad drops. All in all the offense seems reasonably solid at this point.

MSU can go as far as the defense takes us. Remember the OSU game in 2007? Twice in the first quarter we have OSU pinned way back. Twice we give up too many plays and let OSU drive the length of the field. Field position lost.....

[Joe Rexrode]

Stone: I agree with you.
Xwing: "Deserves to be ranked" is none of my concern. Look at the other candidates. Oregon's back in after losing at home to Boise. I watched UConn win at Louisville on Friday, and I simply couldn't rank that team ahead of MSU. They aren't better. I'm saying MSU is the 21st best team right now.
Ben Green: See above. With TCU, South Carolina and Wake dropping off my ballot, Virginia Tech and Oregon creeping back in, it was simply a matter of putting those teams in order. The IU win wasn't a "vaulting point," although it's still a road win over a decent team. That was my point. The Big Ten isn't great, but it doesn't have any dogs this season. Hope that makes sense.

[Some guy who went to MSU]

I'm still amazed you're willing to do this to yourself each week, Joe. Keep up the good work!

[michael]

Ben,

2 points on the holding call reversing the touchdown:

If the guy doesn't hold it's a sack which is a safety.

The refs blew the call before that which would have led to a safety.

Point being MSU got the 2 points they deserved and Indiana doesn't get another touchdown.

The other thing you're missing is that I'm guessing Joe is trying to say is Indiana is not the typical last place team in the Big 10. So beating them at home means a little bit more then in years past.

[Michael Motta]

Joe, I agree with your basic analysis of the Big Ten that there aren't any bad teams this year. I think the parity is great for the conference.

Regarding beating IU in Bloomington, with the exceptions this year of Syracuse, Virginia, and Washington State, beating any BCS conference school in its own joint is not to be underrated. How in the heck did those three schools get so bad? All of them, particularly Syracuse, have fine athletic traditions, including decent success in football. It's one thing to be bad the way Iowa was bad last year, or the way MSU was bad a couple of years ago, but these three schools are bad as in last year's Gophers would have beaten them and they would have losing records in the Sun Belt Conference!

[wasabiGREEN]

forget iu. its all about iowa. nothing else matters now. good teams focus on the now. show us and beat a good, physical team similar to us.

[Mitchqs]

I agree Wasabi, The focus is now on Iowa, and they will come to East Lansing hungry this week after losing to North Western. They probably still think they are better than us because of their fluke come back last year.

This is home coming week and I hope that Coach Dantonio can get the boys as amped as they were last year for home coming.

I will make a quick comment on the IU game though. FLUKE plays made that game close. Something wasn't right with Otis Wiley Saturday, and our receivers were out their playing beach volley ball instead of catching. I still can't figure out why Mark Dell tipped that ball in the air like that?

Anyway, Spartans clear your heads and focus on Iowa. WE need a good solid win to keep the momentum alive, close games to inferior opponents feels too much like a loss, we don't need any more of those. DEFENSE, please get pressure on that Quarter Back please!

[Psyc]

Looking forward to Iowa, I like alot of the things I am seeing from our Spartans. Since I believe the D just had a handful of rough plays vs IU and the recievers will start making more plays (not just catching balls they should) the #1 thing I would like to see is a little rest for Ringer! Back him down to a lazy 30 carries a game. Let one of the backups take 10-12 of those hard shots that come early in the 2nd and 3rd Qs, and usually result in 2 yards or less.

One question Joe: Why so hard on Florida and kind to USC? Is it because Florida was at home or are you still upset with Teddy Dupay?

[DCSpartan]

In Joe's defense, Florida lost at home to a team that hadn't won an SEC game in two years and hadn't been to a bowl game since 2003. USC lost on the road to a team that went to and won three straight bowl games. So I think UF should be more penalized. I know our game against IU looked ugly, but when you come away with the W, especially on the road, and in a week when even USC, UF, UGA, etc., are all losing, it's a good week.

[Psyc]

DcSpartan,
I agree Oregon State is better that Ole Miss, however USC has lost 3 of 4 games at OSU! By the way in 06 Ole Miss won 2 SEC games and OSU had no bowl game in 05.

On a Spartan note, I love the "how former Spartans fared" segments on Mondays! Saves me about 45 minutes of searching throughout the week.

[Don]

The polls will take care of themselves. Just win baby. If they take care of business during the next 3 weeks, they will be ranked high.

[Stan]

Joe

Greatly appreciate your willingness to give us insight into how the polling system works, etc ...

Also, love your poll and couldn't agree more (USC maybe a little high just for argument sake ... haha). Love your placement of FL, Auburn, GA, and OSU ....

[NMichSpartan]

We can be ranked out of the top 25 until New Years day as long as we keep winning. All of us fans know that we do underdog well, but top dog not so much.

Anyone know how Brandon Long is doing and if Davis-Clark is ready to play?

BTW, regarding the drops: rusty receivers because we run the ball so much.

[Coach D]

We are determined to win only this game but the remaining games as well. Bowl get us further not polls! Go Spartans.

[Duffy Perles]

How former Spartans fared: I just saw Eric Smith got a one-game suspension/$50,000 fine for his hit on Boldin in the NYJ/AZ game.

[bearsboy]

I doubt Oregon State is better than Ole Miss. Oregon State beat USC at HOME. Ole Miss beat UF on the ROAD, at arguably one of the top three hardest stadiums in college football for visting temas to win. Plus, Ole Miss probably goes to a bowl, year in and year out playing in the much weaker Pac-10 than S.E.C.

[ChuckfromSt.Johns]

I loved the BTW from NMichSpartan.

This picture flashed in front of my eyes:
The receiver goes back to the sideline after he drops the ball...
Coach asks: What happened?
Receiver says: Hands are rusty coach, 'cause we run the ball too much...
Coach: Whaaaaaaat!?!?!?!?!

LSJ Headline: Mystery at Spartan Stadium... Tight end injured, becomes wide receiver during game at Spartan Stadium Saturday. Having difficulty walking. Trainers still searching for several cans of WD40 that have disappeared.......

[Pollspeak]

Hi Joe,

No hard feelings, but you were just named Bad Voter of the Week after all.

[wonderbread]

So, how do you put Kansas ahead of USF?