The AL Poll: Post Week 5

The AP Poll is released at 1pm on Sundays during the college football season and is a detriment to CFB society. The glaring issue with the poll is that it is flawed to ball watchers everywhere, the release time of updated rankings are the top piece of evidence in this claim. It is impossible for the

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What is the story about?

The AP Poll is released at 1pm on Sundays during the college football season and is a detriment to CFB society. The glaring issue with the poll is that it is flawed to ball watchers everywhere, the release time of updated rankings are the top piece of evidence in this claim. It is impossible for the voters to have enough time to fully digest the nearly 30 games from the weekend that must be taken into consideration. To save everyone from the horror show that is the AP Poll, I have very bravely taken it amongst

myself to give you a more accurate take otherwise known as the Andrew Lotz Poll or AL Poll. I would love to hear your own thoughts in the comments below.

My credentials:

1) I watched either live or condensed game replays for every team that is ranked or has been removed. While I hope you comment with how wrong I am, my process is a definite step in the right direction that major polls should take into consideration.

2) I humbly can say that I am hardly wrong when it comes to these issues.

The SEC Conundrum:

The most challenging part of making this week’s poll was deciding how the middle of the pack SEC teams should fall in the rankings as the LSU vs Ole Miss game remains the hardest read for me out of the field. I believe LSU and Texas will decide the 3rd playoff spot for the SEC as I don’t think either are better than Georgia or Alabama currently. However, because of the loss in Oxford, the Tigers cannot be ranked higher than the Rebels currently. The same logic applies to the rest of the conference as the Gators must be ranked higher than the Rebels, Mizzou must be over Florida, and Mississippi St must be over Mizzou. My power ranking of these teams would be completely different, but a poll cannot mix in predictions. This was a thought I struggled with over the last week as I mistakenly put LSU above Ole Miss in last week’s poll. I have righted my wrong this week as LSU falls to number 11 behind the rest of the SEC schools that are in serious competition for a spot in the CFP, despite the fact that I believe they are either the 3rd of 4th best team in the conference.

The Mid 12:

I have said since early in the season that the Big 12 getting 2 teams into the CFP would be a travesty and this weekend was just the proof I needed. Utah is clearly the best team from a film perspective and there is a major drop off after the Utes. Each team has their own flaws, but the consistent factor for almost every Big12 team in the ranking is that they have yet to put together all 3 phases in a serious match up (besides Utah). The second most impressive win in the conference is a home win for Texas Tech against a Houston squad that simply got tired up front, turned the ball over too much, and let Tech walk away with a win after being up 10-0. None of these teams are good enough to place 4th (except maybe Utah) in either the Big10 or SEC yet there is a chance that 2 of them get in the playoff (lunacy). BYU, Houston, and Tech are near mirror images of each other as all of them need to be able to control the line of scrimmage to win because none of them have a serious downfield passing attack. Oklahoma St is the biggest question mark as they are the only team that has proved they can score consistently enough to beat anyone, but are they good enough to control a game up front if they needed to (they couldn’t against Tulsa). I will be rooting for Utah to win out and someone to surprise Tech one week so that there is no option for 2 of these teams to get in, but only time will tell.

G6:

My top 2 G6 teams each (NDSU & Boise St) each won convincingly on Saturday as Tulsa has officially been ended at the hands of Neal Brown and the UNT Mean Green. The more polls I make, I am convinced the G6 needs its own poll and possibly its own playoff. I’m sure CFB fans everywhere will hate that take, but there is no way to justify putting any of these teams in the top 25 nationally. Last year’s playoff games is all the proof you need that this is a completely different level of football and once again this year is no different as no G6 team will have a shot at winning a playoff game. Instead of messing around like one might make the top 25 currently, I have decided to include the top 5 G6 teams below.