Mumme Poll Ballot: Week 10

Alabama won, but won ugly. Florida's offense was back to looking awful. Texas still hasn't beaten anyone. Tech needed overtime to get past Wake. Iowa, Penn State and Oregon all lost. This week took a lot more thought to put my top 12 together.

So here's what I did: I picked out 20 teams that I thought were pretty solid. Then I went through and thought, if this was a round-robin tournament, who would I be eliminating first? I went through that process over and over and came up with my rankings that way.

The result wasn't particularly surprising. My top teams look much like the BCS standings. My mid-level teams look a bit different. What that tells me is that we should be pretty solid on who the best teams are, but the funny thing is, outside of Alabama, none of those top teams have really posted more than one impressive win.

So where does that leave us? Well, once again we're doing a whole lot of assuming...

THE TOP FIVE

1.) Alabama. The offense is still struggling, but Alabama has the luxury of a running game that's good enough to keep them in games until Greg McElroy can make a play. They're not winning pretty, but they're winning, and that W over LSU was the most impressive of the week among the top teams.

2.) Texas. Man, the Big XII is a joke. I think there's a good chance that Texas is pretty solid, but how do we know? Regardless, the Colt McCoy-Jordan Shipley combo is fun to watch.

3.) Florida. It's easy to see the struggling offense and call this an overrated team, and in truth, you'd probably be right. But the reason they're so overrated is because people are paying too much attention to Timmy Tebow and the offense and not nearly enough to that defense which is just absurdly good. They've kept the opposition out of the end zone in five of nine games. Wow.

4.) TCU. I'm hopeful that the Horned Frogs get their shot against a real opponent in a bowl game (i.e. not a second-tier Big Ten or ACC team) because I think there's a chance this team might legitimately be at the same level as those top three. The defense is very, very good and the offense behind Andy Dalton is better than they get credit for. Utah's on tap this weekend, which should be one of the best games of the week.

5.) Cincinnati. The computers actually have Cincy at No. 3, well ahead of Texas (who is No. 5). If they played head to head and you made me put money down, I'd still take Texas though, which is why I have Cincy at 5. But it's not by much.

THE NEXT SEVEN

6.) Georgia Tech. The Yellow Jackets were lucky to escape against Wake Forest, but if I'm going to continue to give Alabama and Florida credit for close wins, I have to do the same for Tech. They'll close out the ACC with an easy win over Duke this week, but I'll be interested to see what happens in a rematch in the title game with Clemson after the Tigers came awfully close to knocking Tech off earlier this season.

7.) Boise State. Louisiana Tech isn't a big win, but it's good to see the Broncos travel a long way and still lay the wood. But now that I don't have to give them as many bonus points for that Oregon win, I feel a little more comfortable with them out of the top five.

8.) LSU. They lost, but the pollsters didn't seem to care much, and the computers didn't care at all. Neither do I. The Tigers have hung tough in every big game this year, but it's pretty clear they don't have the offense to put a good opponent away. This is sort of the line of demarcation between great and pretty good.

9.) Miami. The overtime loss to Clemson seems more reasonable each week and their only other defeat was a road game against a decent Virginia Tech team amid a stretch of four straight games against ranked opponents. And let's not forget how they dominated Georgia Tech. Right now I'd call Miami the most underrated team in the top 25.

10.) Oregon. I know, I know, they got spanked by a smart-kid school. But Stanford is solid, so it's hardly an embarrassing loss, and it was a classic trap game scenario. The pollsters gave up on the Ducks after the game (14 Harris, 16 Coaches) but the computers still like 'em at No. 10. So do I.

11.) Pittsburgh. Meh. They've played no one, but they close out with three straight against Notre Dame, West Virginia and Cincinnati. I see virtually no way they go 3-0, but for now, Pitt's better than the other teams vying for this spot.

12.) Houston. This was just a gut call. They keep narrowly escaping, and that loss at UTEP might go down as the worst of the season by a top team. But they still have the win over Okie State and Case Keenum is legit, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. But really, there could be any of about six or seven different teams in these last two spots.

LAST TEAMS OUT

13.) Iowa. The loss to Northwestern was almost inevitable, wasn't it? You can only get by by the skin of your teeth so many times before it catches up to you.

14.) USC. That offense is downright bad, and the defense isn't half as good as it was a year ago. They'll have trouble against any team that can put points on the board.

15.) Ohio State. Hey, they beat a lousy Penn State team and will now probably get to lose another BCS game!

16.) Arizona. I think this might be the team to watch, but I'm far from convinced yet. But with dates against Cal, Oregon, Arizona State and USC the rest of the way, there's still plenty of time for the Wildcats to make their case.

So, what are you guys thinking?

* And if you haven't voted yet... GET TO IT!