BLOGPOLL WHA-WHAT! Week Eight
We're back again people, Blogpolling for America here and just one day after the BCS Standings were debuted over on ESPN. If you'd like feel free to compare ITB's fantastically unique poll with the BCS Rankings. Warning there are differences but that's because they are wrong and I am right. There was a lot going on this weekend; I even stayed up to digest every minute of Pac-12 match up I was most looking forward to, the Arizona State-Oregon game.
In The Bleachers Ballot - Week 8
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | LSU Tigers | -- |
| 2 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 3 | Oklahoma Sooners | -- |
| 4 | Wisconsin Badgers | -- |
| 5 | Boise St. Broncos | -- |
| 6 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys | -- |
| 7 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 8 | Stanford Cardinal | -- |
| 9 | Clemson Tigers | -- |
| 10 | Arkansas Razorbacks |  1 |
| 11 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 3 |
| 12 | West Virginia Mountaineers | 3 |
| 13 | Virginia Tech Hokies | 6 |
| 14 | Houston Cougars |  -1 |
| 15 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | 3 |
| 16 | Kansas St. Wildcats | 5 |
| 17 | Texas A&M Aggies | 7 |
| 18 | Washington Huskies | 2 |
| 19 | Michigan St. Spartans | -- |
| 20 | SMU Mustangs | 2 |
| 21 | Georgia Bulldogs | 4 |
| 22 | Arizona St. Sun Devils | -5 |
| 23 | Auburn Tigers | -- |
| 24 | Illinois Fighting Illini | -8 |
| 25 | Michigan Wolverines | -15 |
| Dropouts: Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, Wake Forest Demon Deacons | ||
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings ยป
As usual we'll talk about the uppers and downers of the poll as they happened this weekend after the jump!
Moving Out: Just two teams moving out this weekend; both are black and gold and both are in the ACC. We say adios to Wake Forest and Georgia Tech. Wake was an easy choice hanging out at 23 a week ago and losing handily to Virginia Tech. Georgia Tech is going to draw a few gripes as they only absorbed their first loss of the season but for me the Jackets were a clear "peace out" case. It wasn't just that they lost to a mediocre at best Virginia team it is that their passing offense has appeared to decline on a near weekly basis since the win over North Carolina. Oh and hats off to Virginia's defense, they shut down the pitch and forced Tevin Washington to beat them on his own and he couldn't do it. 
Moving In: Replacing Tech and Wake we've got Auburn and Michigan State. Two teams that started out the season in our poll. Auburn's defense has looked much improved the last two weeks, making Sakerlina one dimensional then watching Stephen Garcia implode and this week shutting down Florida's lateral attack and their inexperienced quarterbacks. Sure the Tigers still have issues in the back end and the straight ahead run hurts them but they've earned their way towards some respectibility.
Sparty gets a nod and a reentry to the poll after handling a Michigan squad. Were they dirty? A little but a team that's a little over-aggressive doesn't bother me nearly as much as one that can be called soft, like the Michigan team they beat who we will get to later. This defense looks to be legit and we'll find out how legit this weekend against Wisconsin.Moving On Down: Illinois, Arizona State and Michigan are the big movers down this weekend. Illinois couldn't get their offense going until late against an Ohio State defense that was able to last longer this week than they could the week before against a more physical Nebraska team. The Sun Devils put up a hell of a fight against Oregon but fell short so they go down. Ultimately there were two pivotal moments in this game that went against Erickson's team; a tough roughing the passer call that led to points a few plays later AND a hell of a play on an ASU recovered fumble that was negated by a ref with a quick whistle.
Ah, Michigan. My colleague over at Crystal Ball Run Aaron Torres seems to have had the Wolverines pegged correctly. I thought this team was different but Saturday showed they are not. They're the same team that is cute and skates through early but then when a team roughs them up a little they fold like cheap lawn chairs. No physicality. No plan on offense besides "let Shoelace do stuff" and all in all it was just bad football. Borges has to go back to the drawing board.
Moving On Up: We've got some mini-movers and some mega-movers here. On the mini-movers track we have Arkansas, Notre Dame, West Virginia, Nebraska, Washington and SMU. Slight bumps thanks to all the carnage happening around them. The mega-moves of Virginia Tech, Kansas State, Texas A&M and Georgia. The Hokies beat a quality Wake Forest squad in solid fashion and they earned the boost on the strength of me becoming a believer in David Wilson.
Kansas State finally got some real respect from this guy after surviving and advancing against Texas Tech this weekend. The Red Raiders are not an easy out and K-State, though it took all night, finally got away with a W. Texas A&M beat the wheels off of a Baylor team that had their minds set on handing the Aggies another second half collapse. aTm didn't let the doubt get this this weekend. Now for the Dawgs. They survived against Vanderbilt, a game that was close to putting most teams to sleep.
