2011 SJ.com football poll -- FINAL POLL finally posted!!!

College Football 2011: The dirty — no, filthy good — South


By I SHOULD COCO
Slow as molasses

Time for a longtime Midwestern college football fan to make a confession: The SEC is the best conference in the land.

Now, this won’t come as a surprise to anyone who lives south of the Mason-Dixon line. And most of this year’s SportsJournalists.com college football poll voters agree, as eight SEC teams made our preseason Top 25.

But for those of us who grew up with the wing-T, power-I and other forms of dynamic Big 10 offense, it’s taken us a while to warm up to the Southern style of Saturday football.

See, the Big 10 (and at the time, the Big Eight) had power football teams. It had tough defense. It had cold, late-November FOOTBALL WEATHER.

The SEC? Just a bunch of two-first-named, Joe Namath wannabe QBs slinging the ball all over the field, under sunny skies. And coaches in funny sportscoats and hats (as opposed to the rumpled warm-up suit look preferred by Bo and Woody. Let alone the white pants of Hayden Fry).

Even as the SEC -- and Pac-10, for that matter -- piled up bowl victories over the Big 10, we Midwesterns couldn’t be swayed. After all, those bowl games were played on “their” turf! Our hard-working football players were distracted by all that nice weather and pretty girls on the beach. And ... hey, look, it’s wrestling season!

So while the rest of the country realized how tough the SEC was from top to almost-bottom (sorry, Vandy fans), Midwesterners cursed the bias of CBS broadcasters and the BCS bowl selection process that seemed to guarantee the South a spot in the title game.

I was (more or less) part of that charade until last season, as this cable TV-less football fan had the limited choice of Notre Dame games against the service academies/MAC schools, or the SEC game of the week. Choosing the latter opened my eyes to the great football talent on display, which week in and week out provided wild, tightly-played SEC games in a variety of styles.

What finally won me over was the Iron Bowl, as Auburn's Cam-Utility and the Coastliners (hi, Sam Mills 51! ) overcame Alabama’s great opening surge to keep its national championship drive alive.

This year should be no different, particularly in the SEC West, where five of the six teams are ranked heading into the season. Anyone who can run that gauntlet -- plus survive the likes of South Carolina, Georgia or Florida in the SEC title game -- deserves the chance to show it’s the best college football team.

Even us snowblinded Midwesterners can see that this season.

TRIVIA TIME!
Let’s try something new this year: a trivia question, with the answer revealed sometime soon after this poll is posted. If nothing else, it will generate a few more clicks on this thread ... and, oh yeah, test our knowledge of college football. At least when the question is about that subject. Such as the following:

Most BCS conference schools schedule seven home games every season. A few have eight this year, providing an extra boost in revenue. And a few have six, mainly due to neutral-site games or the nine-game league schedules of the Big 12 and Pac-12.

However, two of the 68 BCS schools play only five home games this season. Name them.

I guess it’s also time to name the top teams in our preseason poll, as selected by SportsJournalists.com voters:


SportsJournalists.com COLLEGE FOOTBALL POLL
PRESEASON — 8/23/10
RK. TEAM (1st) PTS End of last season
1. Oklahoma (17) 726 6
2. Alabama (7) 704 10
3. Oregon (3) 682 3
4. Louisiana St. (1) 651 9
5. Boise St. (1) 605 7
6. Stanford 578 4
7. Florida St. 568 17
8. Oklahoma St. 487 13
9. Texas A&M 469 19
10. Wisconsin 464 8
11. Nebraska 445 20
12. South Carolina 430 22
13. Virginia Tech 401 14
14. Arkansas 354 12
15. Texas Christian 342 2
16. Michigan St. 245 15
17. Ohio St. 242 5
18. Notre Dame 227 —
19. Missouri 161 18
20. Georgia 158 —
21. Mississippi St. 145 16
22. Auburn (1) 138 1
23. Florida 100 —
24. Southern Cal 75 —
25. West Virginia 74 —

Also receiving votes: Arizona St. 63, Texas 48, Penn St. 41, Michigan 20, Utah 20, Maryland 14, Nevada 14, Air Force 9, Central Florida 9, Miami (Fla.) 7, Oregon St. 6, Pittsburgh 6, Houston 4, Iowa 4, Northwestern 3, South Florida 3, Illinois 2, San Diego St. 2, Hawaii 1, Northern Illinois 1, Southern Methodist 1, Toledo 1.

The SportsJournalists.com college football poll committee: I Should Coco (tabulator), slappy4428, CarltonBanks, Mile High, ChrisMaza, McNuggetsMan, Matt Stephens, ejhayes737, TrooperBari, Huggy, Della9250, dparker85, three bags full, Inky Wretch, Piotr Rasputin, Layman, Hank Scorpio, KY Sportswriter, bydesign77, Starman, rmanfredi, dixiehack, Madhavok, Oz, Joe Schmoe, Mystery Meat II, beanpole, Precious Roy, Suicide Squeezer, The S.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- PRESEASON POLL IN

I get down to Auburn and I see Della is still in the poll

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- PRESEASON POLL IN

You know it.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- PRESEASON POLL IN

Yep, exactly the same powerful team without Cam Newton.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- PRESEASON POLL IN

I understand why you gave them the No. 1 vote, but really?

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- PRESEASON POLL IN

Yeah, Della's opening top 25 is the same as AP's final Top 25

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- PRESEASON POLL IN

Good thing Della doesn't have a vote in the AP poll, because he'd get laughed out of the room with that one.


That's just failed logic to vote Auburn No. 1.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- PRESEASON POLL IN

There's a method to his madness, folks ... which is more than I can say for my blindfolded dart throwing.

Remember, this is America. Anyone can grow up to be President!

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- PRESEASON POLL IN

My main two rules in voting.

1. My preseason 25 is my final 25 because once the preseason starts, it's about the results. Not who will be there are the end.

2. There is one exception to the first rule. If I'm going to have a poll for a sport where there is no playoff to determine the champion, the defending champion gets to stay No. 1 until they lose.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- PRESEASON POLL IN

I disagree with Della's reasoning, but it's funny that no matter where -- or if -- he put Auburn in the poll, it wouldn't have mattered for our purposes. Even had Auburn not been on that ballot, they'd still be No. 22. Closer to Florida than Mississippi State, but no real effect.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- PRESEASON POLL IN

I have nothing to add, just need to be able to pull this thread up quicker...

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- PRESEASON POLL IN

I do have something to add, now that I'm thinking about it ...

Because the NFL has no games on Labor Day weekend, the college games are spread out a bit.

There are two Sunday games (Marshall at West Virginia, SMU at Texas A&M) and one Monday night game (what's left of the Miami roster at Maryland).

Since only a few people have Maryland in their poll, it would be great to get most of the week one ballots on Monday.

But technically, the deadline for week one ballots is noon CDT Tuesday, Sept. 6. Thanks, ESPN!