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

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- EIGHT BALLOTS STILL AWOL

There's one excused absence ...

Is this the tropical storm that's still hanging around the south?

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- EIGHT BALLOTS STILL AWOL

Yep.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- FIVE BALLOTS STILL AWOL

OK ... all but five voters are in. I'll take a break and post whatever results I have around 2 p.m. PDT.

If you've been PM'd about a missing ballot, and haven't sent it via PM yet, you can still sneak it in.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- FIVE BALLOTS STILL AWOL

Baby you can buy my car ... and pay me back later

By I SHOULD COCO
Celozzi-Ettleson detailer

Attention all message board posters! Tired of driving that rusted out gas guzzler? Need a hot car for the cool months of fall and winter?

Well, at Auto Direct Superstore of Columbus, we’ve got the ride for you!

If you act today, we can offer you one of the following vehicles for no money down, no interest and no payments for ... oh, as long as you want to wait. We call it the Terrelle Pryor financing plan.

So in honor of the first weekend of the college football season, here’s this week’s specials. But act fast -- with financing like this, these babies are flying off the lot!

• 2011 Ford F-150 (Alabama): An established name like this doesn’t have down years, it just reloads. It’s got plenty of hauling power for a good-sized bandwagon. Heisman winners and top-round draft picks come and go, but the rock solid defense remains. The Crimson Tide will show JoePa and company who is the true “Linebacker U” this weekend.

• 2005 Toyota Camry (Nebraska): Always a safe choice that can coast through a smooth nonconference schedule. The fuel-injected engine of Taylor Martinez and Rex Burkhead has a few miles on it, but should run smoothly until it collides in early October with ...

• 2006 Dodge Ram 1500 (Wisconsin): Who needs a Hemi when you’ve got a backfield loaded with James White and Monte Ball? The Badgers aren’t the most innovative machine around, but their usual design of a dominant run game and stout defense has been improved by the addition of former N.C. State QB Russell Wilson.

• 2011 Honda Civic Hybrid (Oregon): This car achieved great things last fall, running clean and fast until it ran into a brick wall known as Nick Fairley. A questionable mechanic from Texas tried to fine-tune this vehicle, but it still sputtered against another SEC defense. Should run better once it gets to the cooler climate of Eugene.



• 1971 Ford Pinto (Georgia): In case you were wondering what those new Bulldog unis were modeled after, it was this fine piece of machinery. Porous defense, lack of offense, gas tanks that can explode upon impact ... none of it matters, because this weekend’s drubbing “wasn’t an SEC game.” Fail.

• 2008 Chevy Malibu (Notre Dame): We'd show you this car, but the engine’s flooded. And it’s standing as a national franchise is sinking, too.

What’s that? You want to pay us in cash? Hold on, need to get the dealership manager ...

(over the obnoxiously loud intercom): Paul Dee, please report to the sales office!

TRIVIA TIME
OK, so last week’s trivia question went over like a lead zeppelin. I’m a stubborn bastard.

For those who forgot, last week I asked for the two out of 68 BCS schools that play only five home games this season.

joe schmoe knew one of the schools, Colorado. And the other is the pride of the Palouse, Washington State, which will have only three games left in Pullman after a showdown with UNLV this weekend. (One of the Cougs’ “home” games is in Seattle, against Oregon State. Plenty of good seats available, Pacific Northwest football fans).

This week’s question is easier: Michigan and Notre Dame have played 38 times since 1887. Only one of those meetings was somewhere besides Ann Arbor and South Bend. Where was it played?

And last but not least, here’s this week’s poll, as selected by SportsJournalists.com voters:


SportsJournalists.com COLLEGE FOOTBALL POLL
WEEK ONE — 9/06/11
RK. TEAM (1st) PTS Last week
1. Oklahoma (16) 679 1
2. Alabama (7) 659 2
3. Louisiana St. (3) 648 4
4. Boise St. (1) 599 5
5. Stanford 559 6
6. Florida St. 554 7
7. Texas A&M 491 9
8. Wisconsin 486 10
9. Oklahoma St. 449 8
10. Nebraska 430 11
11. Oregon 403 3
12. Virginia Tech 402 13
13. South Carolina 381 12
14. Arkansas 355 14
15. Ohio St. 275 17
16. Michigan St. 242 16
17. Mississippi St. 194 21
18. Missouri 186 19
19. Florida 171 23
20. Auburn (1) 121 22
21. West Virginia 108 25
22. Southern Cal 95 24
23. Arizona St. 91 —
24. Baylor 72 —
25. Penn St. 67 —

Also receiving votes: Texas Christian 65, Texas 60, Michigan 34, South Florida 34, Maryland 32, Georgia 23, Brigham Young 18, Air Force 17, Houston 16, Northwestern 12, Iowa 10, Central Florida 9, Miami (Fla.) 9, Notre Dame 9, Pittsburgh 9, Utah 8, Hawaii 5, Georgia Tech 3, Illinois 3, Toledo 2, Virginia 2, Nevada 1, Syracuse 1, Tennessee 1.

The SportsJournalists.com college football poll committee: I Should Coco (tabulator), slappy4428, Mile High, ChrisMaza, McNuggetsMan, Matt Stephens, ejhayes737, TrooperBari, Huggy, Della9250, dparker85, Inky Wretch, Piotr Rasputin, Layman, Hank Scorpio, KY Sportswriter, bydesign77, Dragon Steamboat, rmanfredi, dixiehack, Madhavok, Oz, Joe Schmoe, Mystery Meat II, beanpole, Precious Roy, Suicide Squeezer, The S. Not voting: CarltonBanks, three bags full, Starman, crusoes, Tommy Dreamer.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- WEEK ONE posted on PAGE 2

I know the answer to that trivia question, but I'll let it hang awhile to give others a chance.

Nice story, coco.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- WEEK ONE posted on PAGE 2

It can't be in Ypsilanti. There's never been any college football played in Ypsilanti. Ever.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- WEEK ONE posted on PAGE 2

Auburn, rewarding Della's faith with its desperate rally to beat Utah State. Obviously, LSU's dominance of Oregon was not a superior effort to that.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- WEEK ONE posted on PAGE 2

Agreed. I can see keeping Auburn No. 1 in the preseason. I don't think it's right. But to keep them No. 1 after a week of CURRENT results is just wrong.



And slappy, you're right. It's not Ypsilanti. It's a little further away and a LONG time ago.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- WEEK ONE posted on PAGE 2

I will say it again. If there is no playoff system to determine the national champion and the poll is to determine said champ, I feel that the defending champion gets to be No. 1 until they lose. You don't have to like it. But I have been consistent in voting that way in this poll from Day 1.

As soon, or if, Auburn loses, they will be ranked accordingly to everyone else. And I did put LSU No. 2.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- WEEK ONE posted on PAGE 2

Slappy assured me you know college football, but that's plain absurd. So after the BCS title game, Auburn's plane crashes, and a bunch of redshirts and walk-ons carry Auburn's No. 1 ranking into the opener against Utah State. Losing Cam Newton and Nick Fairley wasn't that much less cataclysmic. You're allowed to use your knowledge of college football to know that an Oklahoma team with Jones and Broyles still there was going to be better than an Auburn team without Newton.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- WEEK ONE posted on PAGE 2

I assured you of no such thing... Auburn getting a vote at No. 1 is asinine.
Based on Saturday, it shouldn't even receive votes. Great thing about being the imperial poobah with the poll is the ability to veto a ballot based on its lack of impartiality or logic.

And while we had power in Slappyland all weekend, we also got rain. In fact, 10.49 inches in my little burg on Monday, according to the Fox6 weather watcher here. For the record, CNN and Fox did not do story after story after story on how the Mulberry Fork of the Black Warrior River was nearly lapping over its banks.

 

Re: 2011 SportsJournalists.com football poll -- WEEK ONE posted on PAGE 2

Auburn still getting a No. 1 vote? Aye yae yae