Now in its fourth year, the Blog Poll is a weekly effort of dozens of college football-centric Web sites representing a wide array of schools under the oversight of founder/manager/guru Brian Cook at MGoBlog, and now appears on CBS Sportsline. It’s an effort to provide a more rigorous check on the mainstream polls that actually, like, count toward the mythical championship, and enthusiastically shines a light on its voters' biases. But mainly, it’s fun.

Oh man, if I thought last week was nasty, imagine the quasi-hell that Alabama fans are about to make my Thanksgiving for dropping the Tide all the way to No. 6. But I don't see that I have any choice here:

One of the dissenting comments last week, when Bama was fourth, didn't like the idea that it was "OK to lose," and any undefeated team should be ranked ahead of any comparable one-loss team. That seems like the conventional wisdom. But obviously that's not true in every case: Practically nobody outside of some rigid, lunatic fringe that I'm not even aware of ranks Utah ahead of every one-loss team, or Boise State, or Ball State, though none of those teams have lost. I don't, either, because those teams' schedules don't compare to teams playing the highest level of competition.

Frankly, as of this moment, Alabama's doesn't either. Look at the winning percentage of the Tide's opponents to date: 46.4 percent is an atrocious number compared to the competition here, the worst in the SEC and one of the worst major conference numbers in the country; USC's opponents have a significantly better mark even with Washington and Washington State on the schedule (the Huskies' and Cougars' combined 1-20 mark against I-A competition is rivaled by Bama opponents Tulane and Western Kentucky, which are 2-17). Clemson's collapse means 'Bama has no major non-conference wins, and only two -- Georgia and Ole Miss (the Rebels replacing LSU after last week's win in Baton Rouge) -- over appreciably good competition. There is almost no practical difference here between Alabama's resumé and Utah's -- the strengths of schedule (according to Jeff Sagarin) and margins of victory are nearly identical, and the Utes' three/four best wins might be slightly better than Alabama's. So it's either raise Utah or drop the Tide; I chose the latter.

I'm sure there will be a lot of responses along the lines of "Any undefeated team in the SEC rabble rabble rabble" and probably some guns fired into the air, and that's true: When Alabama completes an undefeated season by beating Florida in the SEC Championship, they'll earn more than enough value from that win to move up. For now, blame Clemson, Arkansas, Tennessee, LSU and Mississippi State for failing to live up to their end of the deal.

In other sure-to-please news, Texas does indeed remain ahead of Oklahoma for reasons that have nothing to do with having beaten Oklahoma (though that doesn't hurt): The Longhorns have faced a slightly tougher schedule -- their opponents have the highest collective winning percentage of any schedule in the nation -- and their three/four best wins are the tiniest sliver of a hair better than Oklahoma's. This time next week, though, if the Sooners beat Oklahoma State, expect the corresponding boost in strength of schedule and quality wins to push OU in front.

ACC Row is splitting up a bit, as Georgia Tech, Boston College and Florida State relegate Miami, Wake Forest and Maryland, respectively, to the also-ran bin, also home now to North Carolina after the Tar Heels' weird collapse against N.C. State. The Jackets, Eagles and Noles are clearly ahead of the pack at the moment, so I can't wait to see how that gets screwed up beyond belief on this final weekend.