Mumme Poll Ballot

I am a plank holder of The Mumme Poll having participated last year and being among the 30 survivors to make it to the end of the season.

Here is my ballot for this weeks trial run:

• Top Five
  
• Alabama
• Florida
• Texas
• Virginia Tech
• LSU

• Next Seven
  
• Miami
• Boise State
• Cincinnati
• Southern Cal
• Iowa
• Oregon
• Stanford

After the first three teams in my top five I had to just pick two from among several close contenders. I had trouble selecting the 12th team and ended up rewarding Stanford for four convincing wins against decent teams. I also considered Auburn, South Florida, Ohio State and Wisconsin. The winner of Ohio State and Wisconsin will probably crack my Top 12 next week. I looked at but was not convinced by the schedule strength of Notre Dame, Missouri and Kansas. I may have shown too much love for the Pac 10, but Oregon has solved their issues since the opening loss to Boise State and I have a lot of respect for the job Jim Harbaugh is doing at Stanford.

One thing is for certain... though we have played five games now, there still isn't enough information to legitimately draw distinctions between so many teams among the nation's best 20 or 25. Ranking them in any particular order at this point is just silly. I know that LSU's offense may look like it should disqualify them from the top 5, but they are undefeated with 3 SEC wins and a win on the road at Washington. Their defense is fast, fast, fast and will keep them in most if not all of their games. If they beat Florida, they belong, if they don't, they will slip. More proof that rankings after 5 weeks is still a fool's challenge.


So what do you think? Am I just as confused as the Coaches Poll voters