Top 25 vote shakeup....

The Big Ten has tried desperately to make that choice.

And Notre Dame keeps telling them to go away.

And the Pac-10 wouldn't be as much of an issue if they consistently produced 4-5 Top 20 teams every year.

But they don't.

So they get it doubly easy.

Cakewalk regular season . . . AND no conference title game.

I have no problem with the latter . . . unless it is combined with the former.

 

18 Pac-10 teams in final top AP top 25 the past six years, that's three a year. If that makes for a cakewalk league schedule, then so be it.

Since 2002, USC's toughest games have been in-conference, not OOC, a fact repeated this year again (wins by 36 at Arkansas, the SEC west leader, beats Nebraska by 18. Last 3 league wins by combined 19 points).

This argument goes round-and-round. Both leagues are good, but they seldom play head-to-head or in bowls. What works for the Pac-10 doesn't work for the SEC, and vice-versa.

 

Because Auburn's better than Arkansas.

 

Seventeen points at Auburn says the Tigers aren't. Sorry, but games aren't played on paper. You have to deal with facts at some point.

 

Polls say they are.

 

Whitlock also has Miami ranked in his top 25. Polls are never perfect.

 

My question for Whitlock or any of the writers who are voting: Why is there a need to have a team ranked ahead of a team it beat? In the case of Arkansas...if they weren't good enough to be Top 10 before beating No. 2 Auburn, they're surely not that good instantly. For Arkansas or whomever, shouldn't they have to work their way up the poll like everyone else? Why should they get an instant jump? They're a good team and they dang sure handed it to Auburn. That doesn't, however, make them a No. 7 (or No. 15 even) team. Now, if you just missed watching Arkansas for 3-4 weeks and were suddenly in awe of McFadden, Mustain and company, that's fine. I'll let you off the hook for apparently missing their wonderfulness. Otherwise, jumping them to No. 7 is pretty ridiculous.

 

USC 50, Arkansas 14.

 

Arkansas 27, Auburn 10, at Auburn. Works both ways.

 

Arkansas might be that good, and USC might be the worst of the unbeatens. It's all a crapshoot.