College Football Final Regular Season Poll

But first, a very cool graphic showing how individual voters in the coaches' poll voted. Tressel has gotten a fair amount of criticism for abstaining from the vote, but I think that was absolutely the right thing for him to do. It is a conflict of interest and there was no need for him to provide bulletin board material for Florida in the title game if he had voted Michigan for #2, or for Michigan in future years if he had voted Florida #2. Also it raises the point that the coaches (or their assistants or family members who sometimes fill out the ballots) voting at all in a poll that is 1/3 of the BCS formula is weird. I can't think of another sport were coaches' votes could help determine a champion (or at least who plays for the title).

My poll:

1) Ohio St. (12-0) - They are the unanimous #1, with the exception of one "interesting" vote of someone in the Harris poll who had Florida #1. They have clearly been the best team throughout the season. They real discussion is for who is #2.

2) Michigan (11-1) - It's true that Michigan's schedule isn't quite as tough as Florida's, but I think Michigan is the team that has played the 2nd best over the course of the season. There loss was to a better team than Florida's, they performed better against average foes, and they did better against the only common opponent (Vanderbilt).

3) Florida (12-1) - Besides the above, I have a hard time voting a team that can't make 25% of it's field goals and is one of the most penalized teams in the country any higher. It's no doubt though that they've played well against a tough schedule.

4) Louisville (11-1) - I think they belong in the discussion for who's #2. They played very well against average teams. However, they only played two top 25 teams. One of those was a lost at Rutgers (which was on a game winning field goal in a game that meant everything to Rutgers), and the other was a contest against West Virginia that they could have easily lost if West Virginia had held on to the ball better.

5) LSU (10-2) - They were they victim of the worse home/away scheduling break down I've ever seen. Going 2 for 4 on the road against Tennessee, Arkansas, Auburn, and Florida, as well as stomping most of the lesser teams they played earns them this spot.

6) USC (10-2) - They were impressive in some games, nearly unstoppable in others. I'm putting them six because they won a strong conference and played what is likely the toughest non-conference schedule of any team this season (Arkansas, Nebraska, Notre Dame).

7) Oklahoma (11-2) - I didn't think they were a top 10 team even 2 weeks ago, and it's likely they're not one of the top 10 teams talent-wise. However, they are getting better as the season goes along and other teams have fallen apart. They're below USC and LSU because they have fewer quality wins.

8) Boise St. (12-0) - Of course it's hard to say how good they are, but they get some benefit of the doubt since they're undefeated and they did beat Oregon St. and … umm, Hawaii.

9) Wisconsin (11-1) - They managed to miss Ohio St. in their schedule, that along with a downright embarrassing non-conference schedule left them with a very weak schedule. They only played one ranked team (Michigan) and lost. However, they did beat all the mid and low-level Big 10 teams, and someone has to be #9.

10) Auburn (10-2) - They basically had the opposite home/away break than LSU, and they took advantage of it to beat both LSU and Florida at home. That would have got them much higher if they had not also been stomped by both Arkansas and Georgia at home (the loss to Georgia really hurts them in my eyes).



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