The World According to Oatney

My college football rankings this week

After one of the most unusual weekends in college football that I can remember for quite awhile, here are the votes I have submitted for this week's IRA-CF college football poll.

1 Ohio State
2 Auburn
3 Southern Cal
4 West Virginia
5 Florida
6 Michigan
7 Texas
8 Louisville
9 Georgia
10 LSU
11 Virginia Tech
12 Notre Dame
13 Oregon
14 Iowa
15 Tennessee
16 TCU
17 Oklahoma
18 Florida St.
19 Clemson
20 Arizona St.
20 Boston College
22 California
23 Penn State
24 Boise State
25 Texas Tech

To say this Saturday was a heartbreaker for a whole lot of good teams would be an understatement. Michigan didn't beat Notre Dame-they picked the Irish apart at nearly every aspect of the game and left the college football world with all kinds of questions. Was Notre Dame over-rated at the beginning of the season? Is Brady Quinn still a high first round draft choice (his Heisman talk is finished). Most importantly, is Charlie Weis partly at fault for refusing to delegate coaching authority or listen to constructive criticism?

Tennessee's loss to Florida was disappointing, but the offense looked impressive enough that the Vols only lost by a measly point, and that was the result of a Florida comeback late in the game. Perhaps running the ball up the middle is not Tennessee's best option, but the Vols have a history of being obsessed with that strategy.

Once again, Ohio State remains atop the college football world but look out for Michigan. If the Wolverines continue to play the way they did against Notre Dame, the Third Saturday in November could take on the kind of epic proportions that it did back in the 1970's and early 80's.

This coming week should clear up a lot of questions like the very simple "who is as good as we think they are."

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 9:28 PM