Blogpoll, Take 1.

Brian of mgoblog was kind enough to invite me to join the Blogpoll, a poll in which the members are not professional journalists or college head coaches (or student managers), but actually do watch more than one college football game a week. Per Blogpoll protocol, I am posting my initial draft of my first preseason Blogpoll ballot. My ballot must be finalized by Wednesday (10 a.m., I think), so any input before then is appreciated and will be considered.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Southern Cal	25
2	Texas	24
3	Michigan	23
4	Florida	22
5	Georgia	21
6	Virginia Tech	20
7	Tennessee	19
8	Oklahoma	18
9	West Virginia	17
10	Ohio State	16
11	Louisville	15
12	California	14
13	Auburn	13
14	Penn State	12
15	LSU	11
16	Nebraska	10
17	Florida State	9
18	South Carolina	8
19	Texas A&M	7
20	Wisconsin	6
21	Miami (Florida)	5
22	Notre Dame	4
23	Missouri	3
24	Boston College	2
25	UCLA	1

Dropped Out:

A few thoughts on what I came up with here:

• As someone who doesn't necessarily devour preseason football mags, my emphasis is on the known. My top three teams return experienced, high-quality quarterbacks. Teams 4 through 8 are led by coaches with long histories of success. Pretty conservative here.
• I'm a Mack Brown apologist. If it's so easy to win at Texas, how come no UT coach between Darrell Royal and Brown managed to do so with any consistency? Now that Colt McCoy has played a full season, who can beat the Longhorns? Against all conventional wisdom, I may move the 'Horns up to #1.
• I have LSU rated way low compared to most preseason polls. Les Miles just seems a bit erratic, a bit like Zooker and Johnelle, and they lost Jamarcus Russell. While I wouldn't be shocked to see LSU in the top 10 and in the SEC championship, I would be much more surprised to see the Tigers in the BCS title game that I would be to see them in 3rd or 4th place in the SEC West.
• As I noted earlier, I don't quite get the fascination with Wisconsin. Yes, the Badgers lost only once last season, but they lost a productive, experienced quarterback and the league's best offensive lineman. UW will be fine, but I will be surprised if they don't lose three games in the regular season.
• The last 5 of the poll are tough to pick, particularly with no actual games to consider. The hideous trend in non-conference scheduling may make it tough to make sense of things until mid-October.

Again, your thoughts are welcome and encouraged.