This is supposed to get easier as the season goes on. The cream rises to the top. The rest fall back. And most of the top 25 is pretty clearly defined. Not this year. Because, once you get into the mid teens, I don't really find a whole lot of teams worthy of the prestige of a top-25 ranking. And, since I actually, um, watch the games (unlike tose voters who actually count), I can't just rank teams because they have a big name. Among the teams that the mainstream pollsters rank that are nowhere on my ballot:

Penn State: They've lost their only two big games this year by multiple scores at home. Their best wins this year? Minnesota and Northwestern. Hardly top 25 material.

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I've had a request for a pregame thread, so here it is.  Talk about your predictions for the game, as well as any comments on whatever morning games are on today.

For the record, I've got Oregon by three touchdowns.  I just don't think Stanford's defense had the speed to keep up.

More photos » by Paul Sakuma - AP

Does Stanford have all the Luck on their side?

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Not having an opposing blog makes for a strange week.  The USC win, coupled with some of the favorable matchups that Jared talked about, has me feeling really good about the Stanford game this weekend.  Then I think about the last time I felt really good about a game.  We were playing on some field that wasn't green.

PANIC!

My feeling good about a game has not been kind to us in the past.  This has put me in major panic mode, and I think we need to humble ourselves to appease the Juju.

This thread is open to humbly discuss all of our reasons to panic for this game, as well as to shower Juju with compliments.

More photos » by Rick Bowmer - AP

How brilliant was he tonight?

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Can you say domination?  Oregon outplayed SC at every position on the football field, and, for all intents and purposes, USC's run at the top of the conference is dead.  Juju has once again blessed us, and its shaping up to be a magical season.

The place for your celebratory musings is here.  And an extra hour for drinking to boot.  Enjoy this one, because that was one of the finest performances ever by an Oregon football team.

Dearest Juju,

I'm sure you have been reading the disconcerting media coverage this week.  "News" outlets, such as SI and ESPN, have been making claims that Oregon's success this season has been the result of an outstanding defense, potent offense, or brilliant head coach.  I am very sure that it must be frustrating when you don't get the credit you deserve.

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The BlogPoll is about to reach critical mass.

Oregon lost to Boise State.  Fair and square.  To date, that has been the reasoning for the rankings of the two teams.  They've played head to head, Oregon lost, rank them behind Boise, right?  Many of the mainstream pollsters have a similar attitude, and it has brought about questions of whether the Ducks have the chance to pass Boise at all sans a Bronco loss.

But what if we do beat USC?

Because if that one loss had been to anyone besides Boise, this is a completely different argument.  Should USC be ranked behind Washington?  Houston behind UTEP?  At some point, the resume has to win out over the head-to-head.

We're about to reach that point with Oregon and Boise.  I'm not trying to be a homer here, but Boise has one really good win, by eleven points at home.  And they won't get another.  This is a team that, ultimately, will not have had to grind out a long string of games against quality competition.  That won't have faced a test on the road.  And I realize that it's not the fault of the Bronco players, but at some point you have to stop ignoring it.  Oregon's resume is already better than Boise's, and a win over the Trojans will make that undebateable (and a loss makes it all a moot point).

Am I the only one that finds it funky that if Oregon had lost to Purdue instead of Boise, we'd be in a better position to make a NC run than we are now?

Of course, a playoff would take care of all of this, now wouldn't it (and I realize that I flip-flop on that yearly).

But that's getting ahead of ourselves......

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Here's the new BlogPoll, and things are starting to sort themselves out a bit.  Those of you who were freaking out that I could have Florida in the teens?  I told you if they kept winning that things would take care of themsevles and, look out at no. 2.  Alabama clearly has the better resume at this point, but its hard to argue with the Gators being right back up there after taking care of business in Death Valley.

Virginia Tech (Miami, Nebraska) and Miami (Georgia Tech), are one loss ACC teams with good wins and losses against really good teams, enough so that the strength of their resumes put them above undefeateds Iowa, Cincinnati, and Boise State.  In the cases of Iowa (Penn St., Arizona, Michigan) and Cincinnati (Oregon State, Rutgers), they have multiple wins against good but not spectacular BCS teams, Iowa clearly the better resume of the two.  Boise falls a notch below because, while they have beaten a fantastic Oregon team, they have played St. Mary's Junior High for Girls in every game since.

Next up is Oregon and SC, both with similar resumes.  Oregon has looked a bit better against Cal and WSU, while Boise is a much better loss than Washington.  That explains Oregon above USC.

LSU checks in at 10th.  Losing to Florida isn't bad, and they have tow decent road wins at Washington and Georgia.  Texas is 11th because, other than a mediocre Texas Tech team, they also haven't played anyone.  And, with the way Oklahoma's resume looks so far, I'm not sure how much winning the Red River Shootout this weekend is going to help them.

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ATQ turned three this week.  On Oct. 4, to be exact.  And if you care to search through the archives, you can see all the spam for penis cream that made up the bulk of the comments back then......A far cry from the awesomeness that persists here now.

Thanks for three great years, eveyone.  Here's to many more.