BHGPoll Week Four: Smart People

Black Heart Gold Pants Ballot - Week 4

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Stanford Cardinal	--
2	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	1
3	Oregon Ducks	13
4	Alabama Crimson Tide	-2
5	Florida Gators	4
6	Texas Longhorns	6
7	Florida St. Seminoles	6
8	Kansas St. Wildcats	3
9	Oregon St. Beavers	--
10	Iowa St. Cyclones	-5
11	South Carolina Gamecocks	-5
12	Georgia Bulldogs	-4
13	LSU Tigers	-6
14	Texas Tech Red Raiders	1
15	TCU Horned Frogs	2
16	Cincinnati Bearcats	9
17	Ohio St. Buckeyes	-7
18	West Virginia Mountaineers	6
19	Arizona St. Sun Devils	3
20	Ohio Bobcats	--
21	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	--
22	Michigan St. Spartans	--
23	Texas A&M Aggies	--
24	Louisville Cardinals	-10
25	Arizona Wildcats	-21
Dropouts: UCLA Bruins, Oklahoma Sooners, Clemson Tigers, Oklahoma St. Cowboys

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "

Yes, that's Stanford and Notre Dame at the top. Stanford is a no-brainer at this point; the three teams they have defeated are a combined 9-0 in other games, and their win over Southern Cal is one of the best wins of the season-to-date. Notre Dame hops into second (and bumps Alabama down to fourth) for many of the same reasons. Both teams beat Michigan, and in turn reduced the value of those wins. ND's schedule in other games (Michigan State, Purdue, and Navy) is a lot better than Alabama's (Western Kentucky, Arkansas, and Florida Atlantic), and that outweighs the Tide's complete dominance of those patsies.

Oregon makes the big move into the top 3 after pummeling previously-undefeated Arizona 49-0. It's the best win of the season, at least by Blogpoll standards, and it overcame the Ducks' otherwise lackluster schedule that had kept them down to date.

The poll doesn't buy LSU to date. They've played Washington (#57), Auburn (#91), North Texas (#96), and Idaho (#123) to date, and struggled far more than anyone would have thought against Auburn this week. How they're second or third in any poll where Stanford, Oregon, Notre Dame, or Florida are available is beyond me, and can only be chalked up to poll apathy.

BHGPoll Games of the Week:

#6 Texas at #26 Oklahoma State -- Oklahoma State opened this year's poll at #1 and immediately fell completely out with a loss to Arizona. They're on the outside looking in now, but only for continuity's sake; they obviously can't be ahead of Arizona with the same record as the Wildcats, so they sit 26th. Texas keeps climbing up the poll, with an average-at-best schedule strength but total dominance against it.

#14 Texas Tech at #10 Iowa State -- You saw this coming in August, didn't you? ISU took a hit this week because of Iowa's loss; forget the game being their Super Bowl, because it's not even the Clones' best win of the season right now. Tech's played cupcakes, but it's destroyed them. Interesting matchup of styles, as most games ISU will play this year will be.

#9 Oregon State at #25 Arizona -- Oregon State's an interesting team right now, just because they have only played two games and won both, first against a team that was supposed to be good and wasn't (Wisconsin) and then a team that was supposed to struggle and hasn't (UCLA). They fall ninth, but I fully expect them to be all over the Blogpoll ballots and move quite a bit in our poll in weeks to come. Arizona got smacked last week, but they've played one of the toughest schedules in the nation to date and lived to tell the tale.

BHGPoll Game of the Weak:

#116 Houston vs. #103 Rice -- Houston has hit the bottom, going 0-3 to start the year including a loss to Texas State and a blowout loss to UCLA. Rice beat Kansas and took Marshall to overtime last week, but they're probably going to be without their do-everything quarterback Taylor McHargue, who left last week's game with a shoulder injury after lunging for the winning score...and ending up at the 2. The winner gets the Bayou Bucket. The loser will probably vomit in it.

Iowa in the Poll:

More like IOWA IN THE LOL AM I RIGHT?

*crickets*

They're #68.