More photos » by Mike Stone - AP

Thanks to the BCS, no 'major' team will have to endure this.

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One of the more intriguing side stories about the BCS Committee this year has been the public presence of the new director, Bill Hancock.  The BCS has obviously realized that they need some P.R. work, so they brought in a full-time director who appears bent on being the public advocate for the system.  He's even done a Q&A with Michael Rueckert of MWCConnection.com to try to rally support for the system.  And let's face it, the BCS needs this kind of advocacy.  With people like Doc Saturday unabashedly teeing off on the system for years, it does begin to wear down their credibility over time (and I'm being polite here).  But the one thing they can do to maintain credibility is so simple, yet seemingly so impossible:

Make bowl matchups that people want to see.

Moving past the NC game (only 2 teams can fit 2 slots; 3 undefeateds were getting omitted either way), it would have been a very simple matter to ask which games fans would have been excited to see.  The one game that had a resounding disapproval was TCU-Boise.  We saw that last year in the Poinsettia, for one.  For two, Boise State is almost certainly going to be getting a MWC invite this summer, and they already feel like conference opponents at this stage.  It's like they scheduled Penn State / Iowa for a BCS game.

But beyond the pending conference realignment, neither fan base has any interest in playing the other team.  Read their opinions; they're out there.  MWCConnection has had TCU fans commenting for a while.  OBNUG captures the Boise heartbeat like few blogs ever manage to do.  And both agree:

THEY DON'T WANT BOISE STATE VS. TCU.

And neither do the rest of us.  It's the Relegation Bowl - and not in the European Soccer sense.  Andy Staples had the best line of the night:

Welcome to Glendale, home of the Separate but Equal Bowl. Great work, @insidethebcs.

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More photos » by Ed Reinke - AP

11 days ago: Tennessee running back Montario Hardesty runs the ball during the second half of their NCAA college football game against Kentucky in Lexington, Ky., Saturday, Nov. 28, 2009. Hardesty ran for 179 yards and three touchdown in the 30-24 Tennessee overtime win. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

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In a refreshing turnaround from last year, UT gets an opportunity to prove themselves in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl, presumably against Virginia Tech.  It's official on the Bowl's website.

Use this thread to celebrate and discuss the rest of the bowl selections tonight!

I have already made several manual changes to the poll, based on knowledge of some computer biases that we want to knock out of the system over the offseason.  But fortunately, the computer already had TCU ranked above Texas, which saves me some grief.  Here is the draft, with discussion and numbers to follow.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	2
2	TCU
3	Texas	1
4	Boise State	1
5	Cincinnati	1
6	Florida	5
7	Georgia Tech	4
8	Oregon	1
9	Ohio State	2
10	Virginia Tech
11	Brigham Young	3
12	Iowa
13	Penn State	5
14	Miami (Florida)	1
15	Central Michigan	3
16	Pittsburgh	1
17	Nebraska	1
18	LSU	1
19	West Virginia	2
20	Wisconsin	5
21	Arizona
22	Oklahoma State	2
23	Oregon State	6
24	North Carolina	1
25	Utah	1
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Southern Cal (#22).

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Here is the final-ish poll ballot for the week.  The suggestions from the draft were incorporated but cast a second glance through and let me know.  I feel like I'm missing something, but I don't know what.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	TCU	2
3	Alabama
4	Texas	2
5	Boise State	1
6	Cincinnati	1
7	Ohio State	1
8	Penn State	7
9	Oregon	2
10	Virginia Tech
11	Georgia Tech	4
12	Iowa	1
13	Miami (Florida)	1
14	Brigham Young
15	Pittsburgh	6
16	Nebraska	1
17	Oregon State	1
18	Central Michigan
19	LSU	5
20	Oklahoma State	1
21	West Virginia
22	Southern Cal	3
23	North Carolina	5
24	Utah	2
25	Wisconsin
Last week's ballot

Dropped Out: Arizona (#20), Mississippi (#21), Clemson (#23).

Here is the draft for the week 13 BlogPoll.  As always, the draft is simply the computer ranking without any adjustments; manual tweaks may be applied prior to the final draft.  For this week, the W/L weight was increased to 30, and SOS decreased to 10.  This is a change that fits a pattern observed in the previous 2 to 3 weeks.  Explanations and the full chart are after the jump.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	TCU	2
3	Alabama
4	Texas	2
5	Boise State	1
6	Penn State	9
7	Cincinnati	2
8	Ohio State
9	Brigham Young	5
10	Virginia Tech
11	Georgia Tech	4
12	Iowa	1
13	Miami (Florida)	1
14	Oregon	3
15	Pittsburgh	6
16	Nebraska	1
17	Oregon State	1
18	Central Michigan
19	LSU	5
20	Oklahoma
21	Oklahoma State	2
22	West Virginia
23	Southern Cal	2
24	North Carolina	6
25	Utah	3
Last week's ballot

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This is a little late in coming up, as two games have already started.  I blame the tryptophan.  The slate of today's games follows after the jump, with games involving ranked teams in italics.

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While the rest of us* are slacking off and dreaming of tryptophan-induced comas tomorrow, the Ladies are going to be working hard to prove to Pat Summitt that she was right to return the team to their locker room.

The Lady Vols take on the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders in Murfreesboro tonight at 8 PM, EST.  Coverage is:

TV:  MyVLT-2

Audio:  Lady Vols Radio

Stats:  Blue Raiders Athletics

I'll likely be busy with final projects, but I do plan on listening and lurking.

* - 'the rest of us' naturally does not include moms (and others) who are preparing those turkey feasts.  Much appreciated.

This is the final(ish) ballot for us this week.  If anything's overly wonky, leave a note in the comments and I'll try to fix it before the deadline.  There are several changes since the draft, but I think I got the necessary ones.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Florida
2	Texas
3	Alabama
4	TCU
5	Cincinnati
6	Boise State
7	Georgia Tech
8	Ohio State
9	Pittsburgh
10	Virginia Tech	1
11	Oregon	1
12	Miami (Florida)	7
13	Iowa	1
14	Brigham Young
15	Penn State	2
16	Oregon State	6
17	Nebraska	4
18	North Carolina	7
19	Oklahoma State	1
20	Arizona	2
21	Mississippi
22	Utah
23	Clemson	1
24	LSU	8
25	Southern Cal
Last week's ballot

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Here is my ballot for the SEC Power Poll:

1. Florida Gators
2. Alabama Crimson Tide
3. Mississippi Rebels
4. LSU Tigers
5. Auburn Tigers
6. Tennessee Volunteers
7. South Carolina Gamecocks
8. Arkansas Razorbacks
9. Kentucky Wildcats
10. Georgia Bulldogs
11. Mississippi St. Bulldogs
12. Vanderbilt Commodores

Details follow:

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