Mon Sep 28, 2009 7:45 pm EDT
It is September, and earnest poll-gazing is premature, to say the least. But a month into the season, is it too much to ask the AP, coaches and Harris polls reflect the slightest shred of common sense?
• LSU is No. 4. Because ... ? The Tigers are not only playing mediocre football right now, going to the wire to beat Washington and Mississippi State on either end of ho-hum wins over Vanderbilt and Louisiana-Lafayette, but they don't even have that much inertia in their favor: This was an 8-5 team that had to stage a frantic comeback against Troy to fend off a full-fledged, four-game November slide last year, had a losing conference record and didn't even make it into the final top 25. This year, the Tiger offense currently ranks 105th nationally and needed an interception return, a punt return and a goal line stand to get out of Starkville unscathed.
How does a statistically average team with no particularly impressive wins to offset two extremely sketchy ones, coming off a thoroughly mediocre season, land in everyone's top five? Is anyone paying attention?
• Oklahoma is No. 8. Because ... ? Those are some impressive wins over Idaho State and, uh, Tulsa. But until further notice (i.e. this Saturday's game at Miami), the Sooners should be defined mainly right now by their loss to BYU; they rank at least 10 positions ahead of the Cougars in all three polls, and I can't think of any persuasive argument based on anything that's happened on the field that they should be even one spot ahead.
• The coaches rank Oklahoma State ahead of Houston. Obviously they weren't very impressed by the Cougars' win against Texas Tech, nor the Cougars' win at -- Who was that again? Oh, right -- Oklahoma State. Tulsa: That's where ya make yer move, kids.
• The coaches and Harris polls rank Penn State ahead of Iowa. One-loss Penn State, which has beaten Akron, Syracuse and Temple in State College, is No. 13 in the coaches' ballots; undefeated Iowa, which has beaten Penn State in State College, is No. 17. They're No. 12 and No. 14, respectively, in the Harris Poll.
• The coaches and Harris rank Cal ahead of Oregon. The coaches and/or the SIDs filling out their ballots clearly do not care about the results of actual games. These people determine two-thirds of the final BCS standings, folks.
• All three polls rank Ole Miss ahead of South Carolina. The demons of inertia strike again. Carolina not only thoroughly outplayed Ole Miss in a convincing win last Thursday, but also has two other wins (over N.C. State and Florida Atlantic) better than either of the Rebels' two victories (over Memphis and Southeast Louisiana). Hell, I'd take the Gamecocks' last-second loss at Georgia over beating Memphis and Southeast Louisiana, too, but I've always been too interested in obscure details like "quality of opponents." The 3-1 Gamecocks don't appear in any of the polls.
• Kansas State has two points in the Harris Poll. Somebody is either very good buddies with Bill Snyder or very impressed with the 2-2 Wildcats' victories over I-AA UMass and Tennessee Tech.
Okay, so you had a bad week, filled the form a little hastily, misread a final score or two. There's always next week to turn things around. One ballot at a time, gentlemen. One ballot at a time.
Dr. Saturday is a college football blog edited by Matt Hinton. Email him tips and feedback.

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62 Comments
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LSU are the worst No. 4 team that I can remember (I may have selective memory on that one). What have they done on the field to justify being ranked ahead of Iowa or Houston?
It's a joke. Every voter should have their votes made public and pressure put on them to resign as voters if they're clearly clueless.
Even stuff like ranking Florida No.1 after week 1 made me angry - they beat an FCS team, while Alabama beat Virginia Tech - somehow Florida's victory was more impressive. That MGoBlog poll that you post every week is the only legitimate poll in college football.
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Really, outside of the Top 3, who should be #4? There's very little there at that point. Virginia Tech is my choice, and that's a little sketchy.
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Really, outside of the Top 3, who should be #4? There's very little there at that point. Virginia Tech is my choice, and that's a little sketchy.
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BTW...if you think VT is the best one loss team, then where is Oregon????
#6 VT - loss to #5 beat #9 and #19
#25 OR - loss to #5 beat #6 and #16.....hmmmmmm looks similar to VT but a bit better!!!
#8 OU - loss to #20 beat NO ONE!!!
#7 USC - loss to NO ONE beat #8 OSU
#9 OSU - Loss to #3 USC beat NO ONE!!!!
VT deserves to be ranked highly.....SO DOES OREGON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Coaches Poll is the joke of college football, period. Harris is almost as bad!
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BTW...if you think VT is the best one loss team, then where is Oregon????
#6 VT - loss to #5 beat #9 and #19
#25 OR - loss to #5 beat #6 and #16.....hmmmmmm looks similar to VT but a bit better!!!
#8 OU - loss to #20 beat NO ONE!!!
#7 USC - loss to NO ONE beat #8 OSU
#9 OSU - Loss to #3 USC beat NO ONE!!!!
VT deserves to be ranked highly.....SO DOES OREGON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Coaches Poll is the joke of college football, period. Harris is almost as bad!
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I don't see a legitimate reason as to why they are so much higher than the other unbeatens, other than the fact that they have a reputation as a football powerhouse?
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Fyi, #7 USC lost to unranked Washington. Mild upset, if you recall. Larger point is taken, though.
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Allowing the garbage touchdown does not a No. 4 team make, either, but we should counter that wrong idea with right ideas, not with other wrong ideas.
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To Oklahoma's credit, they've given up 14 points in 3 games. Even better than Florida's championship defense at the start of this year. We'll see if Miami can poke some holes in it.
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If either team beats GT this year, we'll talk.
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1. Alabama great resume and a very strong all around team
2. Texas Resume needs work, but not bad
3. UF Ut and UF are very close right now. very, very slight edge to Texas right now
4. Iowa say what you want but a convincing road win over Penn St and a convincing home win over Arizona put them here. I can look over a single aberration, if the body of work warrants it.
5. Virginia Tech. Tough, they have 2 very high quality wins in Nebraska and Miami, but both were at home so that diminishes them a bit. Lost to Alabama in Atlanta, but Bama is my #1 team so that loss can't hurt so much in the rankings. Especially since they hung tough for a good while.
6. LSU win over UW is still considered a good win as it was on the road, are currently undefeated. Good road test at Georgia this week
7. Georgia, win over South Carolina looks better now, wins over ASU and Arkansas are strong as well
8. USC very strong win on the road over Ohio st
9. Ohio St Lost at home, but followed that up with back to back shutout victories
10. Boise St. The Oregon we saw today was not the Oregon Bose played. That is not Boise's fault though
11. Cincinnatti Pike is the real deal at QB, nice win over Fresno St and a nice win in Corvallis
12. Houston. Road win over Okie St and home win over Texas Tech
13. TCU Nice road win @Clemson
14. Auburn blew out Mississippi St. beat West Virgnia, but still a tough team to get a handle on
15. South Carolina. Lost a close one to Georgia, but the win over NC State looks better, and of course the win over Ole Miss
16. Oregon. Dominating win over CAL, and a nice home win over Utah. Only loss is on the blue turf
17. Oklahoma Not much in the resume dept, but a talented team nontheless
18 CAL Got smoked on the road today, but has otherwise looked very, very strong. I expect a much better performance at home next week Road win @ Minnessota still counts as a quality win
19. Nebraska Has dominated bad opponents and lost a heartbreaker on the road in Blacksburgh
20. Michigan nice home win over Notre Dame, but I want to see you play on the road
21. Missouri not much in the way of a resume at all
22. Miami were beaten bad on the road today
23. Okie St nice home win over Georgia, but nothing else
24 Georgia Tech. Tough road loss at Miami, but have a couple of solid wins as weel
25. Stanford. Tough road loss @ Wake Forest, though the officiating was as much at fault. Dominating home win over UW
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