Road Wins
Alabama, Penn State and Georgia all went on the road and won big time games. PSU and and Alabama are jumping back above the Sooners because beating tOSU and Tennessee is much more impressive than beating K State. Also if I was an Oklahoma fan I’de be a little worried about my defense giving up 30+ the last 3 weeks.
Oklahoma State
They went toe to toe with Texas and aren’t dropping a lick in this poll.
Florida State
The ‘Noles came back from a 0-10 deficit to beat the banged up Hokies by 10. They are 6-1 and this ranking may be too high since VT played their backup QBs, but this game was a real confidence booster. I think this is the game where they turn the corner and say, “we can contend for the ACC again.”
Virginia
They are 5-3, but on a 4 game winning streak and an entirely different team than the one that got manhandled by Duke and USC. The Hoos are playing tough defense and found a running game in the name of Cedric Peerman. The spark that got it all going was Al Groh throwing Peter Lalich off the team and replacing him with Marc Verica.
West Virginia
Noel Devine is just one of those athletic freaks. He is averaging 7.2 yards a carry and has helped WVU to turn their season around. Maybe the ‘Eers were piling on Bill Stewart a little too soon.
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| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | – |
| 2 | Alabama |  2 |
| 3 | Penn State | – |
| 4 | Oklahoma |  2 |
| 5 | Florida | – |
| 6 | Georgia | 2 |
| 7 | Southern Cal | 1 |
| 8 | Texas Tech | 2 |
| 9 | Oklahoma State | – |
| 10 | TCU | 2 |
| 11 | Utah | 3 |
| 12 | Missouri | 7 |
| 13 | Ohio State | 6 |
| 14 | LSU | 3 |
| 15 | Florida State | 11 |
| 16 | Michigan State | 9 |
| 17 | Minnesota | 1 |
| 18 | Boise State | 5 |
| 19 | Virginia | 7 |
| 20 | West Virginia | 6 |
| 21 | Maryland | 5 |
| 22 | North Carolina | 4 |
| 23 | Ball State | – |
| 24 | Tulsa | 2 |
| 25 | Connecticut | 1 |
I encourage you to leave any ranking beefs in the comments and they will be taken into consideration when I submit my final ballot.
1Simon on Oct 27, 2008 at 12:15 pm:
Where’s Michigan?
2cgb on Oct 27, 2008 at 12:39 pm:
It was definitely a tough decision to leave UM out. If only it was top 75 instead of top 25 I would have been able to include them.
3macdad on Oct 28, 2008 at 9:41 pm:
They need to win out just to be bowl eligible. Considering the raping from powerhouse Toledo, they might have some trouble with Ohio State and most likely Minnesota. Looks like their 33-season bowl streak is history.
4cgb on Oct 29, 2008 at 7:51 am:
Yeah I don’t think they will come close to winning out. Winning @Purdue and home against Northwestern (on talent alone) will be as good as they can do.