As most of you are probably aware, SBNation conducts a Top 25 poll throughout the football season. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it creates a Top 25 on the basis of ballots submitted by participating team blogs within the network.
The poll -- updated to reflect preseason rankings -- is below:
Results for Week 1
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Rankings 2011
So what makes this year any different?
Well, for starters, Track 'Em Tigers will now be participating in the voting. Thanks to the kindness and last-minute efforts of Jay, WEA, and Andy Hutchins (the latter of which is coordinating the entire affair this year, we were able to get a Top 25 ballot submitted in time for inclusion in the Preseason edition.
For those interested, TET's Top 25 is available for viewing here:
1. Oregon Ducks
2. Oklahoma Sooners
3. Alabama Crimson Tide
4. LSU Tigers
5. Oklahoma State Cowboys
6. TCU Horned Frogs
7. Boise State Broncos
8. Arkansas Razorbacks
9. Stanford Cardinal
10. Wisconsin Badgers
11. Florida State Seminoles
12. Texas A&M Aggies
13. South Carolina Gamecocks
14. Notre Dame Fighting Irish
15. Nebraska Cornhuskers
16. Virgina Tech Hokies
17. Michigan State Spartans
18. Ohio State Buckeyes
19. Auburn Tigers
20. Mississippi State Bulldogs
21. Penn State Nittany Lions
22. West Virginia Mountaineers
23. Arizona State Sun Devils
24. Florida Gators
25. USC Trojans
Now there are likely some of you looking at this and silently reaffirming your belief that all preseason polls are worthless. There are others that might agree with it for the most part, but quibble over the placement of a few teams. Finally, there are those who would just like to throw a few rocks at the imbecile who put this together.
Well, we can't please everyone -- but we'd like to try.
Track 'Em Tigers has never had a shortage of opinions, although sometimes it's bit tough finding the right spark to really set the conversation off. Sometimes a front page piece providing an overview of a major issue in college football will fail to get five comments. Other times, you make ONE little crack on Neiko Thorpe's coverage, and you become keenly aware of just how many folks are keeping up with the comments.
None of this is to call anyone out; rather, it's meant to introduce a new weekly feature here on Track 'Em Tigers, one that should hopefully generate a lot of spirited discussion and debate. Who knows? We might even rope in a few of those friendly fans that whose shared love for the game almost excuses their tragically misaligned allegiances.
(Almost)
And with that, I'll turn this over to the commentariat here. Discuss, dissect, dispute, etc. Go nuts.
Nothing is carved in stone, and TET's weekly ballot will be no exception. If anyone has a convincing case regarding a team, a ranking, or some other consideration -- please, weigh in.
Starting with next week's entry, the ballot post will be accompanied by a rationale for most, if not every, team(s). You'll be getting more than just a list of teams with no rhyme or reason to it. So, while the contingent that really just wanted to throw rocks will have to settle for making do metaphorically...with any luck, we'll have one more feature to tide us over during those lean stretches between Saturdays.