The first draft of the 2012 preseason SB Nation BlogPoll is out, and this year along myself voting is Chris. This current ballot is our rough draft and probably will change before the final one is due out tomorrow. I realize that Nevada is probably too high (my fault) and that there is no Fresno State.
Utah and Boise State are also a bit high, and USC makes the top spot due to myself putting them first and Chris having them second. There normally will be more reasoning behind my voting philosophy and reasoning, but I am in a hurry. I am big on strength of schedule early on, so if a team plays a FCS opponent they are likely out of my side of the poll, so Utah and others will be gone from me regardless, and the Michigan/Alabama winner could move up.
Chris: My voting philosophy is a little different for Week 1 than it is for the rest of the season: Week 1 we really don't know anything outside of what the teams did last year and what the media has reported in scrimmage. Alabama is my No. 1 simply because they won the National Championship last year. This will change or stay stagnant depending on what happens this week.
Typically my voting will depend mainly on SOS and margin of victory (MOV). There is another factor involved however: maturity of play (or MOP). What I call MOP is how the team plays overall in that game. For example, lets say BSU beats Michigan State by 20, however both teams were so horribly sloppy that the game was really a mess statistically. Michigan State would drop much worse than Boise State would rise. This is due to the teams being so messy that I couldn't justify raising BSU extremely because they were *that much better.* Though as somewhat of a bias, here's my conference rankings: 1. SEC, 2. Pac12, 3. Big12, 4. B1G, 5. ACC, 6. MWC, 7. Big East, 8. CUSA, 9. MAC, 10. Sun Belt, 1,000,0001. WAC
Most of you know that I am a scientist, but I have not developed any special algorithm (yet) to determine my rankings, just SOS, MOV and MOP.
Here is our draft, so feel free to post suggestions or comments and they will be taken into consideration for our final ballot.
Mountain West Connection Ballot - Week 1
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | USC Trojans | -- |
| 2 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 3 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 4 | LSU Tigers | -- |
| 5 | Oklahoma Sooners | -- |
| 6 | Michigan Wolverines | -- |
| 7 | Georgia Bulldogs | -- |
| 8 | South Carolina Gamecocks | -- |
| 9 | Wisconsin Badgers | -- |
| 10 | West Virginia Mountaineers | -- |
| 11 | Michigan St. Spartans | -- |
| 12 | Clemson Tigers | -- |
| 13 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -- |
| 14 | TCU Horned Frogs | -- |
| 15 | Florida St. Seminoles | -- |
| 16 | Boise St. Broncos | -- |
| 17 | Utah Utes | -- |
| 18 | Louisville Cardinals | -- |
| 19 | Stanford Cardinal | -- |
| 20 | Oklahoma St. Cowboys | -- |
| 21 | Nevada Wolf Pack | -- |
| 22 | Virginia Tech Hokies | -- |
| 23 | Kansas St. Wildcats | -- |
| 24 | Baylor Bears | -- |
| 25 | Auburn Tigers | -- |
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "
After the jump is how Chris and I voted.
For more Mountain West Connection Follow @JeremyMauss
