The first bit about the polls is a quick note and not really worthy of its own post, but all I have to say is do voters really pay attention!! Let me rephrase that do the Coaches poll voters pay attention.
There are two particularly odd voting patterns, first involves Texas and Oklahoma. Texas defeated Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl and then 3 weeks later lose to Texas Tech on the road on a last second play and some voters put Oklahoma behind Texas, quite bizzare.
The similar thing happened between TCU and BYU. TCU smoked BYU at home 32-7 and three weeks later went on the road and lost to #10 Utah on a last second score and voters dropped TCU behind BYU. This is why these SID polls, errr coaches poll are a bunch of garbage, honestly how could a TCU team who dominated BYU less then a month drop behind after losing to a top 10 team on a last minute drive. Enough of that but there is more venting coming below.
ESPN is trying to cause a bro haha within the non-BCS ranks, in this article. The article talks about Utah, Boise State, and Ball State all of who are undefeated from a non automatic qualifying conference (a mouth full there). Not sure what the author, Mark Schlabach is really trying to prove here. Below are some quotes that are way out there in my opinion
The Tar Heels and Panthers have done more to deserve a BCS berth than Ball State, Boise State or Utah.
Are you really sure there Mark? I will keep the focus toward the Utes since the Mountain West is the main topic here. North Carolina does have the 63rd best schedule compared to the Utes at 98, according to Phil Steele. However SOS is not the biggest factor in this, because shouldn't record take into account of who you beat. North Carolina's best wins are over a then ranked #24 U Conn who lost to Rutgers, squeaked by Temple, and played Hofstra. The other 'quality' win is a good win over Georgia Tech at home, who was ranked #20 when the played.
If you look at Utah so, far they have defeated Oregon State who beat then number one USC while on a short week, and could win the Pac-10 and be in the Rose Bowl. Then beat then #12 TCU who had the nations number one defense, also the Utes beat an 8-2 Air Force team, and if they beat BYU they will have beaten three teams who are ranked or were ranked in the year. Those wins are more then what North Carolina or Pitt has done this year, and if all things being equalr Utah may not go undefeated in those leagues but I am pretty confident they could go 11-1 or 10-2 in leauge play, and if those two were in the MWC they would struggle to finish in the top three. I could be biased but look at what happened to Georgia who squeaked by Kentucky who is unranked and they get the benefit for beating a team from a BCS league, albeit a bad team. Then the Utes squeak by TCU who was #12 at the time and its not a good win because TCU is from the MWC.
The Utes have gotten a ton of mileage from their 25-23 upset of Michigan in the not-so-Big House in their Aug. 30 opener.
I would like to know who really thought the Michigan was an upset, and who was praising the Utes for beating a Micigan team people knew who would be bad, maybe not 3 wins bad but bad.
This next quote is down right pathetic, and again I claim this ESPN writer just wants the shock effect.
The Razorbacks, sitting at the bottom of the SEC West, are probably good enough to beat Ball State, Boise State and Utah, too.
Now this is just down right arrogance, stupidity, or a reaction line. If Mr. Schlabach did any research he would have noticed that Wyoming probably the worst team in the MWC went to Tennessee and defeated the Vols just last week. Arkansas right now is at 4-6 with their best win over Tulsa, and their wins are against an Auburn team that is inept on offense, and then Louisiana-Monroe, and Western Illinois. Most of the other points can actually be made in an argument, but this last one is plain out crazy and just way out there and has very little validity in that comment.
Another blogger has a similar right up to this over at BlockU a very good read on this same topic but it is about an article written over at SI.com.