TAC College Football Rankings: Week 1

So we’re trying a new feature here at TAC. Since we noticed we have a lot of college football fans, we thought it might be fun to start our own rankings system. This way, we have an excuse to talk college football every week in a Catholic setting. B/c we thought of it this week, this ranking is coming out on Thursday but the others should be coming out on Mondays.

Here’s how it’ll work. People will send in their rankings and I’ll assign points to them (25 for 1st, 24 for 2nd, etc.) and then average out the points and rank the teams according to that. Then I will take that score along with the computer models and…just kidding. No computer models.

My hope is that it’ll build and we’ll get more people involved (and if you want to submit rankings, let me know-you don’t have to write for TAC). At the end of the year, we may even do a special bowl pick-em thing if it seems popular enough.

Rankings follow after the jump ?

There were four writers this week due to deadlines; next week we hope to have at least 5. The writers were myself, Tito, Jay Anderson, and Paul Zummo. This is what we came up with. Jay added in comments, so the comments are either from him (J) or me (M) and there’s one from Tito.

1. Alabama (2) – “Until someone knocks off the defending champs, they’re still #1.”(J)
2. Boise State (1) – “They have the best win of the young season. Until other teams prove themselves, they should be #1” (m)
3. Ohio State – “if Ohio State stays healthy they may have the team to beat at the end of the year.” (J)
4. TCU – “TCU might have had the best performance over a quality opponent in Week 1” (M)
5. Oregon – “72-0 (and shutting it down after the 3rd quarter or else they might have put up 100) is impressive regardless of whom one is playing.”(j)
6. Nebraska (1) – “The Huskers are back on top.  After destroying Arizona in the Holiday Bowl and many starters coming back, they stomped all over Western Kentucky and are now ready to face the vastly underrated Idaho Vandal” (Tito)
7. Texas – Not amazing in Week 1, but the way Oklahoma looked it’s hard to imagine many teams from the Big 12 beating Texas. (M)
8. Oklahoma – This ranking is achieved by recruiting success and reputation only. I’m just not impressed overall with the Sooners. They are the REAL perennial underachievers every year in both the regular season and their BCS appearances. For all the crap the Buckeyes take for their BCS bowl record (which is a solid 5-3, including a National Championship), it is the Sooners who have to be embarassed by their paltry 2-5 showing in BCS bowl games, including losing 4 straight (one of them to Boise State).(J)
9. Iowa – The Hawkeyes, if Stanzi stays healthy (a HUGE “if” after seeing him go down again on Saturday), are the biggest impediment between Ohio State and another run to the BCS Championship game.(J)
10. Florida – Fans have to be worried; Miami Ohio shouldn’t be threatening in the 4th quarter in the Swamp. If the problems aren’t fixed fast, Florida might not win the East and the SEC as a whole will be decided in the West. (m)
11. Miami (FL) (actually tied w/ Florida for 10) – Miami’s been threatening for a few years to return to prominence. An out-of conference game against the Buckeyes this week (In the “Game of the Year” of the Week this week) provides a starting point, but the real test comes in not dropping headscratching ACC games. (m)
12. Virginia Tech – Tech is not going to fall very far in my rankings after narrowly losing to my number 2 team, who had to score a last-minute touchdown to overcome the Hokies. After starting out excruciatingly slow on Monday night and falling behind 17-0, the boys from Blacksburg made an impressive and valiant recovery to take the lead against Boise State and hold it until late in the game. If they run the table the rest of the season (not unheard of), and if enough teams ahead of them lose (again, not unheard of), we could very well see a BCS championship rematch of the game we watched on Monday.(J)
13. Wisconsin – The Badgers never seem to get any of the hype, but they’re always in the thick of things at the end of the year. An impressive bowl victory over Miami has given them momentum going into this season. (J)
14. LSU – Yeah, they pulled out a squeaker against UNC’s second-string defense. But that second-string is a lot better than the first string of the cupcakes most teams faced this season. Until Miles started resting players, both the offense and defense looked improved from last year’s 9-4 squad that lost all close games. A challenging but not too rough start to the season gives LSU a chance to refine themselves before facing the big boys of the SEC. (M)
15. Utah – For some reason, everyone forget they beat Pittsburgh last Thursday by the time Saturday came around. Utah’s risen to the occasion almost every time they’ve faced a non-conference foe. (M)
16. Georgia Tech – Another underappreciated team that always seems to the last one standing among the wreckage that is the ACC over the last several years.(j)
17. BYU – Program is improving, but nothing to yet suggest they can contend with TCU in the MWC (m)
18. USC – Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater. Same dirty tactics, different theater. Lane Kiffin returns to the place where he learned how to cheat at the feet of the master, and where the student athletes major in creating new and inventive ways to cheat that no one else ever thought of before.(J)
19. Arkansas – Their offense is great, but defense is the key in the SEC. With two cupcakes the first two weeks, it’ll be a while before we see if the Razorbacks can make a run in a crowded SEC West.
20. Florida State (TIE w/Arkansas) – Jimbo Fisher has the Seminoles back on track. Unfortunately, in the coming years, we might have to get used to seeing 3 Florida teams sitting near the top of the rankings.(J)
21. Penn State – Joe Pa just keeps going and going. An impressive first game from his new freshman quarterback turns what looked like a question mark going into the season into an exclamation point going into this weekend’s game against the top-ranked Crimson Tide.(J)
22. Idaho (TIE w/Penn St). – Um…Tito ranked Idaho 8th. No one else ranked them. Talk to Tito.
23. Arizona – Tito loves him some PAC-10. Again, Tito ranked them 9th and no one else ranked them.
24. Georgia – With Florida appearing to stumble, the Bulldogs may have an opportunity to reclaim the East. However, AJ Green’s suspension is worrisome (M).
25. Fresno State (TIE w. Georgia) Tito ranked them 10th. Sure, beating Cincy after Brian Kelly spit on them is a good win…I guess. (m)

Others receiving votes: Auburn, Stanford, California, Arizona State, Texas A&M, West Virginia, Michigan, Air Force, Notre Dame, Nevada, Wyoming, UNC, and Pittsburgh. (And yes, Cal, Ariz St, Texas A&M, Air Force, Nevada, & Wyoming were voted for solely by Tito).

What we learned: Tito is a West coast homer. But it’s week 1, and there’s not much information to go on anyway so it’s all arbitrary. It’ll be interesting to see where we go with another week of action coming up tonight.

Debate in the combox!