2013 SJ College Football Poll: FINAL POLL POSTED!!!

Re: 2013 SJ College Football Poll: NEW Week 14 poll NOW POSTED (Page 14)

I know it's not "Hang on Sloopy." I don't normally post my ballot, but it's the end of the regular season (Army-Navy withstanding), so why not.

1. Florida State
2. Auburn
3. Alabama
4. Baylor
5. Stanford
6. Michigan State
7. Ohio State
8. South Carolina
9. Clemson
10. Oklahoma
11. Oklahoma State
12. Missouri
13. Oregon
14. Louisiana State
15. Arizona State
16. UCLA
17. Central Florida
18. Louisville
19. Wisconsin
20. Texas A&M
21. Georgia
22. Texas
23. Northern Illinois
24. Fresno State
25. Iowa

 

Re: 2013 SJ College Football Poll: NEW Week 14 poll NOW POSTED (Page 14)

Couldn't get in last night to send this, but apparently it's working this morning, so...

1. Florida State (13-0)
2. Auburn (12-1)
3. Alabama (11-1)
4. Michigan State (12-1)
5. Baylor (11-1)
6. Ohio State (12-1)
7. Stanford (11-2)
8. Missouri (11-2)
9. Oklahoma (10-2)
10. South Carolina (10-2)
11. Oregon (10-2)
12. Clemson (10-2)
13. LSU (9-3)
14. Oklahoma State (10-2)
15. UCF (11-1)
16. Louisville (11-1)
17. Arizona State (10-3)
18. UCLA (9-3)
19. Wisconsin (9-3)
20. Fresno State (11-1)
21. Texas A&M (8-4)
22. Northern Illinois (12-1)
23. Duke (10-3)
24. Cincinnati (9-3)
25. Georgia (8-4)

 

Re: 2013 SJ College Football Poll: NEW Week 14 poll NOW POSTED (Page 14)

1] Florida State (1)
2] Auburn (2)
3] Michigan State (7)
4] Alabama (4)
5] Ohio State (3)
6] Baylor (10)
7] Missouri (6)
8] Stanford [8]
9] South Carolina (9)
10] Clemson (11)
11] Oregon (12)
12] Oklahoma (21 — May have had them too low?)
13] Oklahoma State (5)
14] LSU (16)
15] Arizona State (15)
16] UCF (17)
17] Wisconsin (15)
18] Louisville (19)
19] UCLA (20)
20] Fresno State (22)
21] Texas A&M (23)
22] Duke (18)
23] Notre Dame (24)
24] Northern Illinois (14)
25] Georgia (25)

 

Re: 2013 SJ College Football Poll: NEW Week 14 poll NOW POSTED (Page 14)

1. Florida St. [1]
2. Auburn [3]
3. Alabama [4]
4. Michigan St. [7]
5. Ohio St. [2]
6. Baylor [8]
7. Stanford [9]
8. South Carolina [10]
9. Missouri [5]
10. Clemson [11]
11. Oregon [12]
12. Oklahoma [20]
13. Oklahoma St. [6]
14. UCF [14]
15. Louisville [15]
16. Arizona St. [13]
17. LSU [17]
18. Wisconsin [18]
19. UCLA [19]
20. Texas A&M [22]
21. Duke [21]
22. Northern Illinois [16]
23. Fresno State [24]
24. Georgia [25]
25. Notre Dame [NR]

OUT: Texas [23]

 

Re: 2013 SJ College Football Poll: Will be updated TUESDAY A.M. ... see Page 14

A quick update:

1. The SportsJournalists.com web site was down for six hours or so on Sunday afternoon/evening, and that prevented quite a few votes from coming through. I'm extending the deadline; the final regular-season poll (and story) will be posted Tuesday morning.

Thanks to all who sent ballots already, and to those who didn't/couldn't, check your PMs. You've got another day (more or less).

2. For those who've asked, yes, we DO HAVE a post-BCS championship poll. The game is Monday night, Jan. 6, and I need the ballots by NOON Central time on Tuesday, Jan. 7.

 

Re: 2013 SJ College Football Poll: Will be updated TUESDAY A.M. ... see Page 14

1. FSU
2. Auburn
3. Alabama
4. Michigan State
5. Ohio State
6. Baylor
7. South Carolina
8. Missouri
9. Stanford
10. Clemson
11. Oregon
12. Oklahoma
13. Oklahoma State
14. UCF
15. Louisville
16. LSU
17. Arizona State
18. UCLA
19. Wisconsin
20. Iowa
21. Northern Illinois
22. Fresno State
23. Georgia
24. Texas A&M
25. Duke

 

Re: 2013 SJ College Football Poll: Will be updated TUESDAY A.M. ... see Page 14



Cygnus, bringer of balance

By I SHOULD COCO
Addicted to that Rush

As we look back at the 2013 season — and its final weekend in particular — it was reassuring to see an old-fashioned key to victory emerge amid all the spread offenses, specialized defenses and BCS scenarios:

Running the ball, and stopping the run, still matter in college football.

Now, the method of doing both may have changed a bit over time, and that’s a good thing. Even I would get board watching the same ol’ wishbone offenses and five-man defensive fronts clash every week for decades on end.

(although I do enjoy seeing it once a year, every year, in the final regular season game ... next weekend’s Army-Navy clash in Philadelphia. But I’ve written enough about that already)

Anyway, this year’s BCS championship matchup was set as Auburn tore up Missouri behind its spread-offense option attack (and its huge offensive line), and Michigan State’s touted defense stopped Braxton Miller and Carlos Hyde just long enough to deal Ohio State its first defeat.

Try as they might to achieve Arena Football in the NFL, it will never happen in college football. As long as the most direct way to score is a dive play through a huge hole in the defense, the running attack will be part of college game day.

The sport needn’t be splintered into sorry hemispheres of pass-happy and ground only offenses. Sparty, bringer of balance, has the SEC and Big 10 united in a single, perfect, sphere.

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​

I wanted my final column of the year to highlight my favorite Rush album. But no one wanted to see the album cover with Dionysus putting his full moon on display, so the photo above is from the Hemispheres tour.

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​

Finally, a few words about tallying up the ballots each week.

First and foremost, I’m grateful to everyone who has been part of these polls for the past four seasons, and thankful to slappy for passing the baton to me.

With kids (and a wife) who go off to school each Monday morning, and my second-shift newspaper job, I’ve had the time to enter the votes while enjoying “the music of the spheres.” The math nerd in me has grown to enjoy seeing the patterns in the rankings of individual voters, and the battles for position among closely-ranked teams each week ... even if our poll really doesn’t mean anything outside the realm of SportsJournalists.com.

I’ve also learned how to deal with the occasional errors. The easiest, of course, is when voters who don’t number their picks (they just list school names) have more than 25 teams. Cut from the bottom ... just like my evenings on the copy desk.

It gets a little trickier when ballots have a team listed twice, or come up a team or two short. At first I tried to contact people every time this happened, but eventually I learned to count doubled-up teams the first time they’re mentioned. And when the ballot is short of 25, the next leading vote-getter not listed on the ballot gets the extra spot.

That’s probably not how the AP or coaches polls do it, but it’s worked well enough here.

“And the trees are all kept equal by hatchet, ax, and saw.”

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​

It took all 15 weeks of the college football season, but we finally have a unanimous No. 1 team (and No. 2 team, as it were). There were a handful of people who voted Michigan State above Alabama, but basically everyone agrees on who the top nine teams are heading into the bowl season.

Here's the rest of this week's poll ... and remember, we'll do this one more time, after the BCS championship game:

SportsJournalists.com COLLEGE FOOTBALL POLL
WEEK FIFTEEN POLL — 12/10/13
RK. TEAM (1st) PTS PREVIOUS
1. Florida St. (24) 600 1
2. Auburn 576 3
3. Alabama 548 4
4. Michigan St. 524 7
5. Baylor 486 10
6. Stanford 478 8
7. Ohio St. 464 2
8. South Carolina 420 9
9. Missouri 409 5

10. Oklahoma 369 18
11. Oregon 361 11
12. Clemson 333 12t
13. Oklahoma St. 297 6
14. Louisiana St. 283 15
15. Central Florida 267 16
16. Louisville 244 17
17. Arizona St. 219 12t
18. UCLA 199 19
19. Wisconsin 169 21

20. Fresno St. 129 22
21. Texas A&M 100 23
22. Northern Illinois 98 14
23. Duke 72 20
24. Georgia 40 25
25. Notre Dame 21 —
(tie) Southern Cal 21 —

Also receiving votes: Iowa 13, Bowling Green 11, Rice 11, Miami 10, Cincinnati 8, Ball St. 7, Texas 6, Minnesota 2, Virginia Tech 2, Washington 2, Vanderbilt 1.

The SportsJournalists.com college football poll committee: I Should Coco (tabulator), Oz, Della9250, Huggy, Mile High, KYSportswriter, Rumpleforeskin, Songbird, Layman, Suicide Squeezer, slappy4428, dragonzo3, SportsHack1818, Starman, ScottWColeman, Donnie, in his element, Inky_Wretch, Mizzougrad96, TheWritingWaffle, Dragon Steamboat, the_lorax, McNuggets Man, Madhavok, albert77. Not voting: dparker85, Versatile, Tommy Dreamer.

 

Re: 2013 SJ College Football Poll: UPDATED; Week 15 poll is on PAGE 14!

passing the baton... running that through the Dooleyfish translator, you come up with "found some sucker to take over because I grew tired of my creation..."
But you've done a great job with it...

 

Re: 2013 SJ College Football Poll: NEED FINAL BALLOT on TUESDAY MORNING

REMINDER:

All you 2013 SportsJournalists.com voters, I need your ballots tonight or tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. We'll get the final poll posted sometime Tuesday afternoon.

Enjoy the game tonight.

 

Re: 2013 SJ College Football Poll: NEED BALLOTS by TUESDAY MORNING

Great job again, Coco, and Thanks!

1, Florida State
2, Auburn
3, Sparty
4, Central Florida
5, Oklahoma
6, Alabama
7, LSU
8, Clemson
9, Ohio State
10, Missouri
11, South Carolina
12, Stanford
13, Oregon
14, Baylor
15, Louisville
16, UCLA
17, A&M
18, Notre Dame
19, USC
20, Oklahoma State
21, Wisconsin
22, Washington
23, Duke
24, Nebraska
25, Vanderbilt

 

Re: 2013 SJ College Football Poll: NEED BALLOTS by TUESDAY MORNING

FINAL POLL:

1. Florida State 14-0
2. Michigan State 13-1
3. Auburn 12-2
4. Missouri 12-2
5. Oklahoma 11-2
6. Alabama 12-2
7. South Carolina 11-2
8. Oregon 11-2
9. Clemson 11-2
10. UCF 12-1
11. Ohio State 12-2
12. Stanford 11-3
13. LSU 10-3
14. Louisville 12-1
15. Baylor 11-2
16. UCLA 10-3
17. Oklahoma State 10-3
18. Texas A&M 9-4
19. Notre Dame 9-4
20. Southern Cal 10-4
21. Washington 9-4
22. Wisconsin 9-4
23. Nebraska 9-3
24. Fresno State 11-2
25. Vanderbilt 9-4

 

Re: 2013 SJ College Football Poll: NEED BALLOTS by TUESDAY MORNING



It's all too much

By I SHOULD COCO
Lame Duck Pollster

It’s tough to sum up the final season of the BCS supercomputers — let alone the entire BCS era — without pointing something out: The 2013 college football season was the blueprint of how the Bowl Championship Series SHOULD work.

First and foremost, we had a consensus national champion in Florida State, the only unbeaten team among 125 FBS schools. The Seminoles earned their crystal football by scoring 21 fourth-quarter points in a thrilling 34-31 win over Auburn last night.

Not only did Florida State end the SEC’s run of seven consecutive national titles, the Seminoles also ended a week of great BCS bowl games. Every single one of them — the Rose, Fiesta, Sugar, Orange and what we lovingly call the Big Enchilada Bowl — were competitive, entertaining games between teams which had great seasons and deserved to be there.

So as we leave a much-debated and much-hated system in the dust, appreciate the years it was right. When it produced national championship matchups like this year’s, or another classic in the Rose Bowl, Texas’ win over USC a few years back.

(although I think only Burnt Hamburger can get away with calling it the “Vince Young end zone.”)

Next year brings a four-team playoff and, if possible, an even more-hyped championship game played one January week later on the Endless Self Promotion Network. It SHOULD be better than the BCS in picking a champ, and probably will produce more nail-biters between power conference heavyweights.

Two other changes I foresee for next season:

• The rest of the bowl games will feel even more like meaningless exhibition games (if that’s possible). Let’s face it, more than half of the BCS conferences have zero chance of placing a team in the four-team playoff. Even up-and-comers like Central Florida, which proved it had a stellar team in a convincing Fiesta Bowl win this year, won’t sniff the semifinals regardless of whether or not they’re unbeaten.

I’m convinced this is the reason Chris Petersen finally left Boise State, because their previously ultra-slim chance at playing for a national title each season is officially D.O.A. in 2014.

There are now officially two levels of FBS schools: teams from the SEC, Big 12, Pac-12, Big 10 and ACC, who comprise the candidates for the four-team playoff, and the remainder of the leagues, who provide cannon fodder for the first group and cable TV programming for the rest of us.

• A lessening of the importance of football polls. Anyone remember the teams who finished No. 1 in the final regular-season college basketball polls? Right.

So where does that leave the SportsJournalists.com college football poll? I suppose we’ll pick that discussion up in the summer, as we consider whether or not to do this again in 2014. At the very least I believe this should be the final end-of-season poll on this website (and the slim “turnout” of the tally below backs that decision).

The regular season poll is fun to do, usually provokes debate and on extremely rare occasions inspires a decent poll column. That alone may be enough to continue, provided we have enough SportsJournalists.comers willing to send ballots each week. We had some weeks where that was an issue in 2013.

Anyway ... here’s our final poll, with a tight battle for No. 2 honors. You'll also notice the preseason numbers in the third column ... we were as inaccurate as usual, with three of our final top 5 not ranked to start the season. In fact, Auburn and Missouri didn't receive a single vote in our preseason poll.

Thanks as always to all of you for participating.

SportsJournalists.com COLLEGE FOOTBALL POLL
FINAL 2013 POLL — 1/7/14
RK. TEAM (1st) PTS PREVIOUS PRESEASON
1. Florida St. (16) 400 1 10
2. Michigan St. 378 4 —
3. Auburn 369 2 —
4. Missouri 325 9 —
5. South Carolina 323 8 6
6. Oklahoma 320 10 14

7. Alabama 287 3 1
8. Clemson 281 12 8
9. Central Florida 276 15 —
10. Oregon 263 11 3
11. Stanford 240 6 4
12. Ohio St. 228 7 2
13. Baylor 213 5 —
14. Louisiana St. 202 14 12
15. Louisville 200 16 9

16. UCLA 160 18 21
17. Oklahoma St. 142 13 15
18. Texas A&M 121 21 7

19. Southern Cal 80 25t 24
20. Arizona St. 77 17 —
21. Wisconsin 70 19 23
22. Notre Dame 62 25t 13
23. Duke 41 23 —
24. Washington 35 — —
25. Vanderbilt 32 — —

Also receiving votes: Nebraska 27, Fresno St. 21, Northern Illinois 15, Georgia 4, Texas Tech 4, Navy 2, East Carolina 1, North Dakota St. 1.

The SportsJournalists.com college football poll committee: I Should Coco (tabulator), Oz, Della9250, Huggy, Mile High, KYSportswriter, Rumpleforeskin, Songbird, slappy4428, dragonzo3, SportsHack1818, Starman, TheWritingWaffle, the_lorax, McNuggets Man, albert77. Not voting: everybody else.