KK&C Top 20 Logo 

September 30, 2008

The Trojans go down hard. Georgia gets spanked between the hedges. And Wisconsin’s brought back down to earth. This week made for some radical shifts in our KK&C Top 20. With ten first place votes, Oklahoma is the new #1 team, followed by Missouri, LSU, Alabama, and Texas. USC falls from the top position to #7. BYU cracks the top ten at #9. Wake Forest and Clemson got booted out. Vandy and Oklahoma State took their places.

The Sooners’ margin over Missouri would have been more if PaulB had put OU anywhere on his list. Nice snub. CharlieJ delivers the line of the year so far in his comment on Kansas coach Mark Mangino. (Seriously. A blog can never have too many lines about Mangino. Or too many pictures. Check out the big guy here and here and here.) Janie slid her poll in under my office door on Sunday to make sure my spam filter didn’t grab it. MarkH is still in Cambodia and even battling the flu but still managed to get his poll in while TedS and KevinW have apparently decided to get on with their lives.

Something to watch: LarryT has promised to host the KK&C Top 20 pollsters post season party if Texas wins another game 52-10. We’re holding you to it, Larry! And no Wal-Mart meat trays!

1. Oklahoma (10 – 1st place votes, 295 total votes) “Up here ‘Sooner’ than expected.” CharlieJ (Thanks, Skip); “No other way around it. The Sooners are back!” LarryT; “Play somebody!” MarkD; “With two weeks to prepare, they did not look overwhelming.” MarkH; “Setting up nicely for their annual January swoon.” JimG; “Only team in their way is Texas.” SteveF; “Chase or Colt will make their secondary look awful.” PaulD.

2. Missouri (1, 287) “I think they can outscore anybody.” PaulD; “Season is about to begin.” BillyW; “Tigers D about to be exposed.” CharlieJ.

3. LSU (3, 286) “Bayou Bengals barely getting by.” MarkH; “They’ll be tested the next three weeks at Florida, at South Carolina, and Georgia.” LarryT; “Still a mystery, but I cannot lower them.” PaulD; “Still undefeated defending champion.” BillyW.

4. Alabama (280) “Is there a new sheriff in the SEC?” MarkH; “Gave the Dawgs a pounding.” JanieR; “If they can just stay out of trouble. We all know Saban is a maverick.” LarryT; “They seem to have it all.” PaulD.  

5. Texas (1, 258) (Hooper voted UT #1 “SEC chokes! Hook ‘em!”) “Right where they belong…beneath OU.” JanieR; “52-10! 52-10! 52-10!” JimG; “Impressive win in Boulder will illicit positive comments from this Aggie.” CharlieJ; “Winner of Texas-OU plays for national championship.” SteveF;  “Still waiting on competition.” PaulD;  ”Too bad they don’t play Arkansas every year.” BillyW.

6. Penn St. (221) “Joe Pa is senile, he can’t remember his wife’s name, but he still knows football.” MarkH; “GreatGrandPA Joe has his lions in a row for one more run.” JanieR; “Not sure they will keep everything going.” BillyW;  ”We are!…not as good as people think we are!” CharlieJ.

7. USC (210) “Fulfilled their annual disappointment against an inferior team.” JimG; “To the 14 who voted them #1 last week, ‘I told you so!’” LarryT;  “Still recovering from Thursday.” MarkR; “HaHaHaHaHaHaHaHa!!! Thank you, Oregon State!!!” JanieR; “They’re still good.” DavidB; “Trojans could still beat most of the teams ranked ahead of them.” MarkH; “One bad night. Still a great team.” AaronG.

8. Texas Tech (201) “Who have they beaten that makes them worthy of advancing in this poll?” JimG; “Looked better this week than they have all year.” BillyW; “Enjoy it…this is as high as you go.” CharlieJ.

9. BYU (180)“Who is Brigham Young? And what is he doing in the Top Ten?” LarryT; “Bronco Mendenhall…what a name for a football coach.” JimG; “Will go undefeated and get creamed in the BCS.” CharlieJ.

10. Georgia (173) “Black jerseys match their eyes after Alabama spanking” SteveF; “Final score was closer than this blowout deserved.” MarkD; “They did lose to a Top Ten team.” BillyW.

11. Florida (167) “Wow…no one saw that Tebow run coming.” CharlieJ; “I love watching Urban Meyer lose.” JimG; “Second best team in Florida behind the Tampa Bay Rays.” MarkH; “Couldn’t take too much delight in Gators’ loss. We (Tennessee) have enough problems of our own.” SteveF; “I am so very let down. Ole Miss and Houston Nutt?” JennG; “Not as strong as I thought.” AaronG (understatement of the week); “Not sure what happened to them.” BillyW.

12. South Florida (139)

13. Auburn (127) “Vols quarterback is worst in 30 years!” SteveF; “Tennessee just doesn’t have the heart this year.” JennG; “Almost a negative margin of victory.” MarkD.

14. Ohio St. (116) “Big 10 ain’t what it used to be.” MarkH; “Don’t dismiss them now that they’re at full strength.” CharlieJ; “New QB and return of Beanie make Buckeyes worthy of another look.” MarkD.

15. Utah (99) “Waiting for the shoe to drop.” MarkD; “Too bad they’re not in a real conference.” BillyW.

16. Kansas (76) “Mangino is hungry for Big 12 competition.” CharlieJ (so far the greatest line of the year. Thanks, Charlie); “Could start having trouble.” BillyW; “Highest ranked basketball school this week.” MarkH.

17. Wisconsin (65) “The ‘W’ on their helmets stands for ‘What? Michigan best us?’” MarkH.

18. Boise St. (51) “Will they have a conference challenge?” BillyW.

19. Vanderbilt (43) “Best college team in Tennessee.” SteveF; “Are they really undefeated?” BillyW; “Vandy brainiacs have mastered the science of football.” MarkH; “OK, I guess so.” CharlieJ.

20. Oklahoma St. (28) “This one is for Ron Frost!” JennG; “Spoiler alert.” JanieR; “Both OU & OSU in the top 20? A new NBA franchise? Next they’ll want to secede from the Union.” DavidB; “Probably not better than their peers, but undefeated. Rank them ’til they lose.” MarkD; “Here comes the sleeper!” PaulD; “I will never put the OSU Cowgirls in my poll.” MarkR.

Also receiving votes: TCU (12) (all on the strength of PaulB’s #9 ranking.); Virginia Tech (9) “Coach was beaming after win in Lincoln.” CharlieJ (Skip!) “Got lucky at Memorial Stadium.” DanM; Wake Forest (7); Oregon (7) “Go Ducks!” MarkR; Florida St. (7); Fresno St. (6); Kentucky (2); Clemson (2); Nebraska (1); UConn (1) “Undefeated at this point in the season deserves a vote.” MarkD.

editor’s note: I received TedS and RichardA’s polls too late. Ted’s got trapped by my spam filter. Richard’s just plain late. Too bad. Ted voted Oregon State #1 (“my new favorite team”) and USC #20 (“I just wanted to see what it’s like to see USC at #20”). And Richard’s #1 vote for Texas was followed by, “Just like Paul, ‘I must be out of my mind to talk like this.'” 

Peace,

Allan