The Dawg-gone Blog

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Monday, October 06, 2008

If you're not reading Get the Picture (what the hell are you thinking?), the Good Senator has created the Mumme Poll which is a poll to combat voter bias. The method behind the madness is that by not ranking the teams and instead just listing your top twelve teams (and designating five of those teams as the best five) you should be able to get an idea of how the teams should be ranked based on popular vote.

Anyways, I figured I'd post my ballot each week when I submitted it to show 1) that I'm not scared to list my ballot and 2) to get feedback on my ballot from you guys. So, my inaugural Mumme Poll ballot looked like this, with comments included:

Bold = Top Five

Oklahoma

Alabama

LSU

Missouri

Penn State

Texas
Georgia
USC
Texas Tech
Vandy
BYU
Ohio State

Alabama stayed in my top five even though Texas made quite the impressive showing against Colorado. It's hard to argue for either of those teams to NOT be in the Top 5, but winning ugly to me is still winning. I think the Red River Shootout is going to prove whether or not Texas is for real. Also what hurts Texas is the fact that they have yet to be tested until the game with Oklahoma. If they totally sh*t the bed against the Sooners, they might fall out of my good graces all together.

Also, is there a more dangerous team in the land than Penn State? Sure a 20-6 showing against Purdue is nothing amazing, but to hold the pass-happy Boilermakers to under 7 points is pretty impressive to me. Penn State's got a good offense and a very fast defense. I'm excited to see them this upcoming weekend against Wisconsin at night (even though I HATE Wisconsin).

As far as the others go, it's one of those, "you didn't lose, so I didn't kick you out" kinds of deals. Missouri is awfully impressive and their pass defense looks better than it did against Illinois, which is a good sign of improvement. I think they're cruising for a Big XII Championship appearance against the winner of the Red River Shootout.

It's tough to say anything further about LSU since they're on a bye this week. I think they're a very dangerous team, but I definitely see a stumble or two upcoming. Their only real test so far was against an Auburn team with NO identity and I honestly think a team with a better offense might give them fits. That's why I'll be glued to the TV for their showdown with the Gators. LSU's OFFENSE versus Florida's DEFENSE might be the best matchup in college football this week. In order for LSU to be legit, they have to 1) score more than 24 on the Gators and 2) beat Florida with whatever score comes out of my first point. If LSU wins 10-7, either Florida's defense is way better than we thought, LSU's offense has not found its niche, or both. For me, I think LSU has the edge because the Gators should not be able to stop LSU's D-line. Man, they're mean.

As far as the rest of the poll goes, I've only kept BYU in there because nobody seems to be able to beat them. I still don't find them to be OVERLY impressive (remember, they're one football toss over the shoulder away from possibly losing to Washington), but they are good. I think a BYU/Utah game should produce some fun highlights, but we won't know anything about that until WAY farther down the road. By that time, I expect BYU and Utah to be battling for a BCS spot, with the winner getting one...unfortunately.

The Dawgs have to do a lot this weekend for me to keep them in my top 12. I hate to say it, but a weak showing against UT will drop them out for me. We've got to dominate them to even show we can do something with the talent we have on that team.

Oh and I was THIS close to putting Vanderbilt over Florida. You know what, now that I think about it, I'm making the change. Vandy gets the spot over Florida because they are undefeated. Vandy has faced three middle-of-the-road SEC teams and have won all three, while coming from behind. This team has a ton of fight in them. Florida has faced two decent ones and one bottom dweller and their record is 2-1 (*editor's note, I had forgotten about Florida's win over UT in the original e-mail, so I changed it here). I think Vandy beats Florida this past Saturday if they weren't playing Auburn and I'm of the mindset that they have two good options at QB and a VERY fast defense. To me, if Vandy and Florida play on a neutral field, Florida might edge them out, but Vandy's ability to get after the QB and Florida's inability to protect Tebow makes me think that Vandy has a legitimate shot. So they get my vote over the Gators at the very last moment.

Finally, Ohio State sneaks in after going to Madison and beating the Badgers at night. I think Pryor's inexperience at QB will bite the Bucks sometime this season, but right now, he's giving them the spark that they need. I think this OSU team with #2 at QB is much more dangerous than the efficient machine that was the Buckeyes last year.

Ok that's it for me.

Time Breakdown:

Ballot -- 5 minutes
E-mail explaining ballot -- 15 minutes

Well, there you have it. Agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments section below.

Until next time kids.

Be safe.

Labels: College Football, Mumme Poll, UGA Football

Journalistic integrity compromised at 6:36 PM.

1 comments

1 Comments:

Anonymous said...

You mentioned that Texas hasn't been tested yet; just who has Oklahoma been tested by? At least Tx beat a decent Colorado team.

11:19 AM