25 Football Teams that are not the Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Really, who cares? None of the teams on the following list wears a block R on their helmets or sings "On the Banks of the Old Raritan" after their games, but since I have religiously filled out the fifteen previous BlogPoll ballots this season, here is my sixteenth.

As always, you can click on the thumbnail on the upper right to check out the scribbled logic behind these rankings.

See you in April for the Scarlet-White Game!

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama
2	Boise State	3
3	Texas	1
4	Florida	2
5	TCU	1
6	Ohio State	1
7	Iowa	2
8	Cincinnati	5
9	Penn State	1
10	Pittsburgh	2
11	Virginia
12	Brigham Young	3
13	Oregon	5
14	Georgia Tech	3
15	Utah	4
16	Nebraska	5
17	LSU	3
18	Wisconsin	6
19	Mississippi
20	Miami (Florida)	4
21	Central Michigan	2
22	Southern Cal
23	Texas Tech
24	Navy
25	Oregon State	7
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Virginia Tech (#13), West Virginia (#17), Oklahoma State (#20), Stanford (#22), Houston (#25).

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Update 11 January 2010:

OK, maybe I need to start proofreading. #11 on this final list should probably have been the 10-3 Virginia Tech Hokies and not the 3-9 Virginia Cavaliers. Though I love Charlottesville and I'm sure there was a least one Cavalier fan who was thrilled to see his team's name in a position high on the "Others Receiving Votes" list because of my carelessness, I'm sorry. Thanks to Brian Cook for singling out this error in the "Wack Ballot Watchdog" section of his Postseason Blogpoll wrapup earlier this afternoon.

25 Football Teams for whom I have never cheered

Here's my last pre-bowl BlogPoll ballot of 2009. As always, you can review my half-assed rough-draft rationalizations for these choices by clicking on the thumbnail illustration to your right.

There was some anticipation on my part of being able to add the one team that I do care about, the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, to this ballot again after their victory over the West Virginia Mountaineers yesterday, but . . . well, you know.

So here's a list of 25 football teams I don't really care about.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	2
2	Texas	1
3	Cincinnati	1
4	TCU	1
5	Boise State	1
6	Florida	4
7	Ohio State
8	Oregon
9	Iowa
10	Penn State
11	Georgia Tech	1
12	Pittsburgh	1
13	Virginia Tech
14	LSU	1
15	Brigham Young	1
16	Miami (Florida)	1
17	West Virginia	4
18	Oregon State	4
19	Utah	3
20	Oklahoma State	4
21	Nebraska	2
22	Stanford
23	Central Michigan	2
24	Wisconsin
25	Houston	6
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Southern Cal (#18), California (#20).

The Steve Kragthorpe and Charlie Weis Memorial BlogPoll Ballot

As always, you can click on the thumbnail to your right to read my scribbled notes for this week's ballot. It's strange to see all the green highlighting disappear with the second losses dealt out to Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech this week in their annual rivalry games. It's hard to imagine which is stranger at this late point in the season, to have zero one-loss teams, or to have six undefeated teams. Both feel like they could be unprecedented (though those who enjoy that sort of trivial research will be sure to tell me which seasons provided precedents), and the combination looks and feels extremely unique.
I, like any good Yankee ("Yankee" as in northerner, not as in pinstriped indentured bat-wielding servant of the Steinbrenner family) was hoping for anarchy in the South this weekend, but Alabama and Florida and Texas continued on their boring path toward a National Championship game that could have been scheduled by preseason pollsters back in August. A Horned Frog vs Bearcat matchup for the great crystal football tchotchke is looking pretty unlikely at this point and the chances for any other major surprises are fading.

Here are my picks for this week.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Texas
2	Florida	1
3	Alabama	1
4	Cincinnati	1
5	TCU	1
6	Boise State
7	Ohio State	2
8	Oregon	2
9	Iowa	2
10	Penn State	2
11	Pittsburgh	4
12	Georgia Tech	4
13	Virginia Tech	1
14	Oregon State	2
15	LSU	4
16	Brigham Young	2
17	Miami (Florida)	4
18	Southern Cal	4
19	Houston	6
20	California	3
21	West Virginia
22	Utah	7
23	Nebraska
24	Oklahoma State	11
25	Central Michigan
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Mississippi (#17), Clemson (#20), Temple (#24).

I was sorry to see Temple fall to the Bobcats of Ohio; they were the only surprise team that I was pleased to add to my ballot every week.