When I saw the lousy job pollsters did with their voting this week I remembered a conversation on ESPN Friday that centered on how bad Miami looked and that they were too high as the 10th-11th-ranked team in the country. Then Saturday happened and voila, Miami is 6th in one poll, 7th in the other. The lesson of course is that it is not how bad you look as long as you win.
Which leads me to how "crazy" Saturday was supposed to have been with so many top 25 and specifically top 10 teams losing. But for me Saturday was just a correction in which overrated teams that were highly ranked because of won-loss records based more on bad opponents than quality of team in question were shown to be fakers. But again they were frauds based on faulty evaluation. LSU came into the season with a question mark due to the incredible amount of talent that left the program after last season. They then open the season with wins over TCU, UAB, Kent State and Auburn. Not bad. More significantly the team's once pedestrian--and I am being kind--offense looked recharged and downright good. So the pundits started to project a typically strong Tiger defense with a good offense....World Beater. Then the team went on the road (they did beat TCU on a neutral field) and dropped two games to teams that are not even ranked at the moment. LSU is lucky to be ranked 13th and that is based more on reputation than results.
Then again, someone has to be ranked. UCLA? They were undefeated and top ten but again were they worthy? Yes they beat Nebraska on the road but that was two weeks after Wyoming scorched the Huskers for 602y. The other Bruin wins? Nevada, New Mexico State, Utah and Cal. Those teams are a combined 8-20.
There is more of this and while weekends like this past one do punish programs for being over-ranked--hello Florida and Georgia--they do not come soon enough to properly affect the BCS rankings. But there is plenty of football to be played and I will not get too upset....yet.
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