College FB Top 25: Give the Voters a Break

I'm like every other college football fan when it comes to the national polls:

I've always got a bone to pick.

As I sit here, I cannot believe that the same coaches who've so praised Jim Grobe for his work at Wake Forest have failed to recognize his team's performance this season.

That sort of second-guessing goes on every week, as we climb on our soapboxes and blast the voters for failing to make the "right" calls.

Some of the selections are no doubt deserving of our criticism, but I think we often take it a step too far.

In coming up with my Top 25 for our Bleacher Report poll, I hit a wall after the first 10 teams. Who deserved the nod? USC?  Georgia?  Michigan? Was I ready to put one-loss Boise State that high after a solid win over Fresno State on Friday night?

And it only got worse from there.

If we had to rank the 12 SEC teams right now, only Nos. 1 and 12 would be obvious. It's a pretty tall order to incorporate that kind of parity into the national picture.

I decided that LSU, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky would be included in the Top 25 this week, with Auburn and South Carolina as close omissions.

That said, any fan who wanted to argue for the Tigers or the Gamecocks would be completely justified in doing so.

Of course, I could have included both South Carolina and Auburn, but it would have been at the expense of two deserving two-loss teams—including, in this case, a Wisconsin team coming off a very good win over Indiana.

The next order of business was to decide how much to punish USC, Florida, Virginia Tech, South Florida, and Virginia for their losses, and how to reward Georgia, Michigan, Boise State, Wake Forest, and UConn for their victories.

This left me with a top 25 that I can live with, even if it's not perfect. Perfection is impossible, given the state of the college football landscape.

In any event, I know I'm not alone in my struggles. And maybe that should be reason for pause.

Before we wail about the coaches' screwing our team or helping our rival, let's remember that we may not be able to do any better.

I have Wake Forest as No. 16 this week. The coaches have them as No. 28.

Maybe I'm biased; maybe they're ignorant.

Maybe both are true.  

Either way, this is the first week I've been relieved that my vote doesn't have a direct impact on who's ranked where.

I'll leave that up to the professionals.