And now, the end is near, and so we face the final rankings. With the exception of the always entertaining Army-Navy game, the college football regular season is over, the bowl games are all set, and there is nothing more to do but decide our final Top 25, and vote on a Heisman Trophy winner (to be announced on Thursday – it’s looking like a close one).
It will come as a surprise to precisely no-one that our rankings agree with the BCS’ assertion that Notre Dame and Alabama are the top two teams in the country, and deserve to square off in the national championship game. The Irish have been solid all season, while the Tide only slipped up against Johnny Manziel a week after their most intense victory in years. Beyond the top two, there are other similarities between the polls…
Like the BCS, the poll (generally) agrees that Florida and Oregon make up the top four (but are too close for it to be definitive) with K State, Stanford and a bevy of SEC teams completing the top ten. Even in the lower reaches there is a fair amount of agreement – NIU would still have qualified for a BCS bowl using our rankings, while fellow non-AQ schools BoiseState, San JoseState and UtahState make the final 25.
But it wouldn’t be the NFLUK poll if there wasn’t some level of disagreement with the notoriously questionable BCS rankings. Nebraska may have held on to 16th in the BCS, but in our poll they dropped like a stone to 23rd. Conversely, Big East champions Louisville only rose to 21st in the BCS poll but make it to 17th in our poll.
The BCS shows no love to Vanderbilt, but an SEC team with eight wins must mean something so they end up 20th with us. Similarly, I struggle to give credit to a Big Ten team with four losses; Michigan end up 25th in our poll, 18th in the BCS (though they only end up 39th in my personal poll).
1 (1) Notre Dame Fighting Irish – 124 (4 – Statto00, chris caulfield, Dolphin_Akie, ipickthiswhiterose)
2 (3) Alabama Crimson Tide – 119 (1 – dailywaffle)
3 (2) Florida Gators – 111
4 (5) Oregon Ducks – 110
5 (4) Ohio State Buckeyes – 107
6 (6) Georgia Bulldogs – 96
7 (7) Kansas State Wildcats – 95
8 (10) Texas A&M Aggies – 89
9 (8) Stanford Cardinal – 87
10 (9) LSU Tigers – 84
11 (11) South Carolina Gamecocks – 76
12 (12) Oklahoma Sooners – 70
13 (13) Florida State Seminoles – 65
14 (15) Clemson Tigers – 60
15 (16) Oregon State Beavers – 56
16 (18) Northern Illinois Huskies – 48
17 (NE) Louisville Cardinals – 37
18 (17) UCLA Bruins – 30
19 (21) Boise State Broncos – 29
20 (24) Vanderbilt Commodores – 24
21 (25) Utah State Aggies – 22
22 (22) Northwestern Wildcats – 20
23 (14) Nebraska Cornhuskers – 13
24 (NE) San Jose State Spartans – 11
25 (NE) Michigan Wolverines – 7
Dropped out of Rankings: Texas (19), Kent State (20), Rutgers (23).
Also receiving votes: MississippiState 6, Rutgers 6, Texas 6, Baylor 4, Cincinnati 3, Kent State 3, Tulsa 3, Penn State 2, Wisconsin 2.
As always, the week’s votes can be seen in full here, and you can discuss the week’s rankings on the NFLUK Forum (where positions may change due to late voters).
Thorpe's Sporting Thoughts 