The Big Ten really took it on the ol' jaw this week, eh? Losses by Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa, Penn State and Purdue to BCS foes meant the worst hit to the Big Ten's credibility since bowl season 2011. However, Michigan State survived, and that's mostly what matters. Here's my BlogPoll ballot for this week, with analysis after the jump. If you have questions leave them in the comments, I can make changes up until tomorrow morning.
The Only Colors Ballot - Week 2
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 2 | LSU Tigers |
 4 |
| 3 | USC Trojans |
 -1 |
| 4 | Georgia Bulldogs |
1 |
| 5 | Oregon Ducks |
-2 |
| 6 | Oklahoma Sooners |
1 |
| 7 | West Virginia Mountaineers |
-3 |
| 8 | Michigan St. Spartans | -- |
| 9 | South Carolina Gamecocks | -- |
| 10 | Clemson Tigers | -- |
| 11 | Ohio St. Buckeyes |
2 |
| 12 | Florida St. Seminoles |
-1 |
| 13 | Kansas St. Wildcats |
3 |
| 14 | Texas Longhorns |
4 |
| 15 | TCU Horned Frogs |
2 |
| 16 | Louisville Cardinals |
3 |
| 17 | Virginia Tech Hokies |
4 |
| 18 | UCLA Bruins | NEW |
| 19 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish |
1 |
| 20 | Arizona Wildcats | NEW |
| 21 | Tennessee Volunteers |
2 |
| 22 | Florida Gators | NEW |
| 23 | Northwestern Wildcats | NEW |
| 24 | Stanford Cardinal | NEW |
| 25 | BYU Cougars | NEW |
| Dropouts: Nebraska Cornhuskers, Wisconsin Badgers, Oklahoma St. Cowboys, Boise St. Broncos, Michigan Wolverines, Ohio Bobcats | ||
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "
1-5: This area of the poll will continue to be fluid with the exception that 'Bama is the clear #1 right now. LSU had the best win out of these 5 this week, so they get the jump.
6-11: Teams with at least one solid win that I have some sort of reservation about. This is 6-11 because I feel Ohio State is in this same tier, but couldn't fit them nicely into that quintet.
12: Florida State, because I still don't trust the Seminoles. Oklahoma State also beat Savannah State by 50+, and look how that turned out for the Cowboys.
13-17: 2-0 teams that are risers (Kansas St., Louisville), perennial powerhouses that I have doubts about (Texas because of the past couple years, Virginia Tech because of their shaky week 1 performance), and one team that I have no idea what to do with yet (TCU).
18-20 Notre Dame based on one good win and an OT victory against Purdue, plus the Pac-12 teams that scored the two biggest upsets. I ranked UCLA above Arizona because UCLA didn't almost lose to Toledo in Week 1.
21-25 Your guess is as good as mine. The only thing I know for sure is that Tennessee and Florida both deserve spots in the BlogPoll, and so does Northwestern (wins against Syracuse and Vanderbilt in consecutive weeks are a lot better than most teams in this poll). If you have a good case for why any team should be at 24 and 25 besides Stanford and BYU I'd love to hear it, because I feel that I may be overlooking a few teams.
Teams Leaving: Out of the six teams on the list, the only ones I had trouble with leaving off were Nebraska (good win over Southern Miss, and a 6 point loss on the road) and Ohio (didn't really do anything wrong, but that Penn State win looks worse now than it did a week ago). All the others I feel fine with -- Wisconsin's only win is by 5 points over a 1-AA team, Michigan's only win is by 6 points against a Mountain West squad, Oklahoma State only has a blowout against possibly the worst team in 1-AA, and Boise State doesn't have a win yet (though I have a feeling they'll make a reappearance midway through the season -- there's just too many teams that have done more as of now).
Thoughts?