Alligator Army Ballot - Week 1
| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alabama Crimson Tide | -- |
| 2 | Stanford Cardinal | -- |
| 3 | Oklahoma Sooners | -- |
| 4 | Oregon Ducks | -- |
| 5 | Florida St. Seminoles | -- |
| 6 | Wisconsin Badgers | -- |
| 7 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -- |
| 8 | South Carolina Gamecocks | -- |
| 9 | Texas A&M Aggies | -- |
| 10 | LSU Tigers | -- |
| 11 | Arkansas Razorbacks | -- |
| 12 | Boise St. Broncos | -- |
| 13 | TCU Horned Frogs | -- |
| 14 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | -- |
| 15 | Michigan St. Spartans | -- |
| 16 | Virginia Tech Hokies | -- |
| 17 | USC Trojans | -- |
| 18 | Ohio St. Buckeyes | -- |
| 19 | Georgia Bulldogs | -- |
| 20 | Mississippi St. Bulldogs | -- |
| 21 | West Virginia Mountaineers | -- |
| 22 | Michigan Wolverines | -- |
| 23 | Florida Gators | -- |
| 24 | Central Florida Knights | -- |
| 25 | Penn St. Nittany Lions | -- |
The first BlogPoll of the 2011 season will be released at SBNation.com in a matter of hours, but let me run through my preseason ballot in the most expedient fashion possible.
- Alabama's on top because I think Alabama beats every other team more often than not if they played on a neutral field today. Yes, despite not really having a quarterback right this second.
- Stanford is second both because I don't trust Oklahoma's defense without Travis Lewis and because the Cardinal return a lot of the team that may have been the nation's best at the end of 2010. Stanford's problem: Those players are already more or less at their peak, while teams behind them could rise.
- Florida State, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and South Carolina are all really good teams with quarterback questions. But half of the teams in my poll are good teams with quarterback questions.
- I regret ranking LSU even that high. Without Jordan Jefferson and Russell Shepard, the Tigers will be rather hamstrung on offense.
- Boise State and TCU get bunched together partly because I don't know how good they will be and neither do you stop kidding yourself okay?
- Consider me a Notre Dame believer.
- Yeah, this USC team could beat a lot of teams on paper. So could Ohio State. I imagine neither team finishes in the top 15 of my final poll.
- After about No. 15, really, I decided I hate all of these teams and have no idea how good they are. But I do think Florida would beat UCF and lose to Michigan, so that helped.
- I completely blanked on Oklahoma State. It happens. Sorry, Pokes: You should be about No. 10.
What else did I get wrong? Let me know in the comments.