Brian Cook

Rank	Team	PPB	Delta
1	Alabama (50)	24.2	--
2	Florida (43)	23.8	--
3	Texas (4)	23.0	--
4	LSU	19.9	3
5	Virginia Tech	19.8	--
6	Boise State	19.7	2
7	Cincinnati	18.5	1
8	Southern Cal	18.2	--
9	Miami (Florida)	15.5	6
10	TCU	15.3	--
11	Ohio State	15.0	1
12	Iowa	14.4	1
13	Oregon	11.4	3
14	Auburn	10.3	9
15	Penn State	9.0	3
16	Oklahoma State	8.7	2
17	Kansas	8.0	2
18	Nebraska	5.7	3
19	Georgia Tech	5.4	7
20	Missouri	5.1	6
21	Brigham Young	5.0	1
22	South Florida	4.9	4
23	Mississippi	4.4	2
24	Wisconsin	3.9	2
25	Oklahoma	3.7	14

Votes by blog here , votes by team here .

After a terribly exciting week in which the BlogPoll anointed a new #1 and generally demonstrated itself to be totally awesome relative to the actual polls that comprise the BCS, it's a bit of of a return to normalcy. This will be the theme of the rest of the year as games keep rolling in and your wiggle room to do something interesting evaporates.

This week the big movers are Miami (That Miami), which squeezed by Oklahoma and re-established its top-ten bonafides after the Virginia Tech embarrassment of a week ago, Auburn, which got a not-as-close-as-it-looked victory at Tennessee and has finally exorcised the stink of last year to pollsters, Georgia Tech, which won at Mississippi State, and Missouri, which did absolutely nothing but watched the back end of the poll implode whilst enjoying cheeseburgers.

Oklahoma is the most obvious faller but don't forget about poor Houston, which went from the top ten penthouse to gone after losing to UTEP by lots. Don't ask how or why. It just is. Georgia and Michigan also dropped out.

Justify Your Existence

Alabama, #3 everywhere else, is a tentative #1 here. They've got six first place votes total across the AP and Coaches' polls. Our one-week skepticism of LSU has been battered back into shape by Les Miles's ability to inexplicably pull his team out of the fire, but other major differences of opinion:

WE LIKE

• Alabama, obviously.
• Miami is #9 here, #11 in both other polls.
• Auburn is #13 here compared to #17 AP and #19 Coaches.
• GT is #19 here, #23/#22 elsewhere.

WE DON'T LIKE

• Oklahoma is #19 to the AP and #21 to the Coaches but is just barely hanging on to the last spot here.
• OSU (#11) meets considerably more skepticism here than in the other polls, where they're 8 and 9.
• Ole Miss is #23 here, #20 in the AP, and #16(!!!) in the Coaches' poll.

LOL WUT

• The coaches still have Penn State above Iowa.

Wack Ballot Watchdog

Oddities:

• I know we're getting to the point in the season where pure head-to-head isn't necessarily the best or only way to rank teams, but it seems hard to defend placing Oregon eight spots in front of a team (Boise State) that housed them on the opening weekend and has not lost, as Buckeye Commentary does.
• Two voters are still inexplicably going for Cal . I guess the Maryland win looks better this week, but come on.
• If you think #12 is low for Florida , you haven't seen anything yet: Tomahawk Nation puts UF #20, down 15 after a bye week and behind Michigan(!?).
• The Auburner allmost scales those same heights by placing LSU #20 .
• Arizona just picked up a nice win in Corvallis, but, um: BHGP ranks them #6 . It wasn't that nice.

And an omissions: where is South Carolina? Surely wins over NC State and Ole Miss plus a narrow, narrow loss to UGA is worth poll entry over Kansas or whoever.

Now on to the extracurriculars. First up are the teams which spur the most and least disagreement between voters as measured by standard deviation. Note that the standard deviation charts halt at #25 when looking for the lowest, otherwise teams that everyone agreed were terrible (say, Eastern Michigan) would all be at the top.

Most Disagreement

No one knows much about the Big 12. Here is a rant on that subject from War Blog Eagle that might explain things :

You’ll notice there are only two Big 12 teams in the ballot above. This is because the Big 12 is a joke.

Herewith, a comprehensive list of the entire conference’s nonconference victories to date, recalling that we have now entered the sixth week of the season: [long list of junk with Georgia, Wake Forest and Illinois the only BCS opponents therein] [Further list of B12 nonconference matchups that were not wins.]

Of course, here’s the catch: they lost every one of those games. Take the actual contenders for the top 25 in the Big 12–Texas, Oklahoma, Okie St., Texas Tech, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri–and they’re a combined 1-5 against legitimate nonconference opponents. (Southern Miss lost that designation when it slipped up against UAB, by the way.) 1-5 .

But I’m supposed to rank Kansas anyway, right, because they’re 4-0 and they’re Kansas? I’m supposed to rank Oklahoma anyway, because they’ve beaten Tulsa and Idaho St. and they’re Oklahoma?

Some people say yes. Others say not. Result: Big 12 mania atop this metric.

Ballot Math

First up are "Mr. Bold" and "Mr. Numb Existence." The former goes to the voter with the ballot most divergent from the poll at large. The number you see is the average difference between a person's opinion of a team and the poll's opinion.

Mr. Bold

#	Blog	Team		Avg Error
1	Tomahawk Nation	Florida State		6.17
2	Saurian Sagacity	Florida		5.81
3	SimonOnSports	Connecticut		5.53
4	The Tortilla Retort	Texas Tech		4.24
5	Black Heart Gold Pants	Iowa		4.10

Perhaps on the strength of that wack #20 vote for Florida, Tomahawk Nation eases into possession of Mr. Bold . Many, many weird votes, including: Miami #2, Iowa #3, South Carolina #10, Houston still #14, Texas #16, Michigan #19, the aforementioned Florida #20, and Ohio State #25. From your ballot to God's ears, TN.

Mr. Numb Existence

#	Blog	Team		Avg Error
1	Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician	Syracuse		1.40
2	The Only Colors	Michigan State		1.53
3	The Wolverine Blog	Michigan		1.56
4	Third Saturday in Blogtober	Alabama		1.60
5	Buffs.tv	Colorado		1.61

Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician 's long coverage of Syracuse athletics has finally netted it something of value: the week five, 2009, Mr. Numb Existence award. Next up: the International Bowl ?

Next we have the Coulter/Kos Award and the Straight Bangin' Award , which are again different sides of the same coin. The CKA and SBA go to the blogs with the highest and lowest bias rating, respectively. Bias rating is calculated by subtracting the blogger's vote for his own team from the poll-wide average. A high number indicates you are shameless homer. A low number indicates that you suffer from an abusive relationship with your football team.

The Coulter/Kos Award

#	Blog	Team		Bias
1	Big Red Network	Nebraska		11.33
2	Husker Mike's Blasphemy	Nebraska		8.33
3	Black Heart Gold Pants	Iowa		7.60
4	Braves and Birds	Georgia		7.25
5	Subway Domer	Notre Dame		6.93

Foul power of the CK Award update(!): Iowa managed to escape the true overpowering wrath of the double-headed god of bias, but only just. A Ricky Stanzi pick-six brought Arkansas State within ten and then the Red Wolves—why is it that teams that change their name from something offensively Indian, in this case the "Indians," always explicitly put red in their nicknames afterwards?—then drove for a sphincter-tightening touchdown to make it 24-21. They could not close the deal, perhaps because the CK Award was splitting its steely gaze between Nebraska (Nebraska blogs finished 1-2 last week with another Husker blogger in the #4 spot) and the Hawkeyes, who only finished third in last week's balloting but were thrust into the spotlight because of a Nebraska bye.

But they did easily beat the spread, bringing the CK Award to 6-0 on the season against Vegas and 5-1 straight up, with an undefeated Big Ten team's three point escape against a Sunbelt team the lone loss. Wrath and woe.

We'll never find out if the CK Award stores up hatred for later since Nebraska blogs take 1-2 again this week. That #4 guy must have got wise. Nebraska travels to Missouri to open Big 12 play; that line opened as a pick-em but has moved to Nebraska –3.

Oh, right: congratulations to the Big Red Network for pulling this in for a second consecutive week.

The Straight Bangin' Award

#	Blog	Team		Bias
1	Saurian Sagacity	Florida		-4.78
2	Tilting at WindMills	Oklahoma		-3.68
3	Gobbler Country	Virginia Tech		-1.78
4	Dawg Sports	Georgia		-1.75
5	Hey Jenny Slater	Georgia		-1.75

Saurian Sagacity, a dedicated resume-ranking blog that takes an extra dim view of cupcakin' it, often ends up here early in the season when their team of choice spends lots of its time cupcakin' it. And here they are, dropping Florida down to #7 after a bye week.

SIDE NOTE : they have Alabama and Auburn 1-2 at this juncture, which would make for a Football Armageddon to end all Football Armageddons. The entire state would devolve. The loser would have to leave. They'd pile them up in two square miles in the northwest corner of the State and build a big fence around it.

Swing is the total change in each ballot from last week to this week (obviously voters who didn't submit a ballot last week are not included). A high number means you are easily distracted by shiny things. A low number means that you're damn sure you're right no matter what reality says.

Mr. Manic-Depressive

#	Blog	Team		Swing
1	Saurian Sagacity	Florida		220
2	Black Heart Gold Pants	Iowa		182
3	Dr. Saturday	Southern Miss		176
4	Tomahawk Nation	Florida State		164
5	The Joe Cribbs Car Wash	Auburn		156

Wheeee! This award is still the realm of the dedicated resume-ranker, with the aforementioned Saurian Sagacity racking up 220 points worth of changes and easily outdistancing the pack. Auburn, Miami, Penn State, Michigan, and previous #2 Houston all see double-digit shifts and the only team to remain in the same spot is Alabama. That is tossing your ballot away and starting anew.

Mr. Stubborn

#	Blog	Team		Swing
1	Clone Chronicles	Iowa State		60
2	Hey Jenny Slater	Georgia		60
3	Yet Another N.C. State Sports Blog	North Carolina State		62
4	Buffs.tv	Colorado		66
5	The Nittany Line	Penn State		66

On the other side of the ledger, this week we have a tie for Mr. Stubborn . Both ballots actually see a fair share of movement—60 is a big winning number here—but most of the ups and downs are in lockstep; no major shifts. Also Clone Chronicles still has Oklahoma #11, which what?