Blogpoll Roundtable

The Blogpoll roundtables are back. This time Notre Dame blogger The House that Rock Built is asking questions about our preseason ballots. My answers are below. Check out his blog for links to what other bloggers had to say.

1. What's the biggest ripoff in this preseason poll? Either pick a team that's offensively over or underrated, or you can rag on a particular voter's bad pick (hey, we're all adults here, we can handle it).

Oklahoma. Unlike the Coaches, most blogpollers had time to adjust their ranking due to the Bomar mess. Yet, at 16, they are higher than I think they should be. I think they will struggle and probably are about five spots overranked.

2. What should a preseason poll measure? Specifically, should it be a predictor of end-of-season standing (meaning that a team's schedule should be taken into account when determining a ranking), or should it merely be a barometer of talent/hype/expectations?

I always look at it as a predictor of how the season will end. I think Notre Dame will win it all, hence their No. 1 ranking in my poll. I don’t think BC has the best talent and clearly doesn’t have the expectations, but I think that with our schedule we will finish in the Top 20. I learned right away that this poll stuff is clearly inexact.

3. What is your biggest stretch in your preseason ballot? That is to say, which team has the best chance of making you look like an idiot for overrating them?

Florida. I have them in the Top 5. Although the blogpollers placed them pretty high, there are many Gator fans who are worried about Urban Year 2. They clearly have question marks, and the Meyer-Leak combo didn’t look like a Top 5 team last year. If they lose to UGA, Tennessee, Florida State and South Carolina, I’ll be cleaning egg off my face and trying to get Orson and Stranko off the ledge.

4. What do you see as the biggest flaw in the polling system (both wire service and blogpolling)? Is polling an integral part of the great game of college football, or is it an outdated system that needs to be replaced? If you say the latter, enlighten us with your new plan.

The biggest flaw with any poll is that the voters cannot see all the games. It was a lesson I learned last season. I think Brian accounts for this bias with his poll better than the traditional polls, but the system is still flawed and outdated. My solution is not original: a 16-team playoff, Conference winners and a few at-large selected by a committee.

5. You're Scott Bakula, and you have the opportunity to "Quantum Leap" back in time and change any single moment in your team's history. It can be a play on the field, a hiring decision, or your school's founders deciding to build the campus in Northern Indiana, of all godforsaken places. What do you do?

I would go back to the 2004 Temple game and take Paul Peterson out before he broke his hand. I don’t know if he would have been enough to prevent the Syracuse debacle the next week, but I like to think he would have made a difference…

Rehashing the Syracuse game. Ugh. Thanks for ruining my day, House That Rock Built.