EPIC CARNIVAL'S TOP 20+1 POLL: WEEK 12

by WCT, The Ship of Fools

Well, hello there! My name is WCT, and you may remember me from such posts as the "College Football Weekend Preview" and the "College Football Weekend Observations."

One More Dying Quail, who used to do this post, has had it up to here with the likes of you people, and has handed the reins over to me, so there are a couple of things we are going to do differently. First, as you may have already noticed, this weeks poll is entitled "Week 12." If you check last weeks poll, it is entitled "Week 10." His system of counting was incorrect. The week of the poll refers to the upcoming week, not the preceding week. So we corrected that. (I was kidding by the way, OMDQ still loves you and we love him.)

Also, the Carnies toil over their keyboards all day trying to come up with the snarkiest, pithiest, most sarcastic commentary they can for each entry, and for the last couple of weeks OMDQ robbed you of that brilliance. Well, I'm not going to deprive you of that any more. The comments will return starting this week. Think of it as me "bringing snarky back." I'm so ashamed of myself for writing that.

So without further ado, here is the Poll:

As per usual, there was a major shake-up this week, with Illinois pulling off the upset of previously #2 ranked Ohio State. LSU edged Oregon by the slimmest of margins to claim the top spot.

We had four new entries into the poll this week, with Tennessee, Cincinnati, Illinois, and Boise State supplanting Kentucky, Michigan, Auburn, and Connecticut. The pollsters obviously had Michigan and UConn on short leashes, as both teams dropped from the top 14 right out of the poll after losses.

Rank - Team - Points - Previous Rank - Commentary
1. LSU (3) - 123 - T2 - Look to have an easy track to the National Championship Game (Sterling)

2. Oregon (3) - 122 - 1 - With their remaining schedule they should cruise to the Title Game (WCT)

3. Oklahoma - 113 - 4 - They'll get help with how highly ranked the winner from the North will be for the Big XII Title game. Need to win impressively (Sterling)

4. Kansas - 102 - 5 - If they go undefeated, they SHOULD be in the title game (Sterling)

5. Missouri - 99 - 7 - What will the over/under be on November 24th? 80? (WCT)

6. WVU - 90 - 6 - I have never thought less of a team in the top 10. What a weak year (WCT)

7. Ohio State - 89 - T2 - I told you not to look past Illinois! (WCT)

8. Georgia - 88 - 9 - Right now, the hottest team in the SEC (Sterling)

9. Arizona State - 77 - 10 - (crickets...)

10. Virginia Tech - 69 - 12 - I feel better about these guys than many 1-loss teams, but that BC loss looks worse now (WCT)

11. Florida - 65 - 15 - Tebow = Heisman (Kyle)

12. USC - 55 - T16 - Insignificant in the PAC-10. Strange (Sterling)

13. Texas - 44 - T16 - Colt McCoy = Overrated (Kyle)

14. Virginia -41 - 20 - Yeah, I was wrong about that whole "losing to Miami" thing (WCT)

15. Clemson- 40- 19 - Hottest team in the ACC? (Sterling)

16. Boston College- 30 - 8 - Complete and utter fraud (WCT)

17. Hawaii - 30 - 18 - I will never raise them above 17. They don't belong in the BCS. Hopefully Boise State will make sure they don't make it in two weeks (BD)

18. Tennessee- 25 - NR - Somehow, they stopped Arkansas' running game (Kyle)

19. Cincinnati - 23 - NR - They beat WVU this weekend. Believe it (WCT)

20. Illinois - 23 - NR - Biggest win in Ron Zook era, easily (Kyle)

21. Boise State - 12 - NR - Two more weeks then this team rids us of Hawaii! (WCT)

Others Receiving Votes:
Kentucky 11, Michigan 8, Wisconsin 4, South Florida 3

Dropped From the Rankings:
Kentucky, Michigan, Auburn, Connecticut