SB Nation User Blog: royrules22

Vote for your CGB Top-25 for Week 10!

royrules22 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:53:19 -0000

I know not everyone's heart is in it this week, but let's see what happens.

You know the drill: Go here and vote for the top 25 teams for week 10.

The directions are listed on the voting page and it should be simple enough. Please let me know if you encounter any troubles. The results will be posted either on Tuesday or Wednesday. Blah blah blah blah

The previous week's results are located:
Preseason
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9

Let's aim to get more than a dozen ballots people!

CGB Top-25 Week 9 Results

royrules22 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:57:21 -0000

Fashionably late as always!

1	Florida (6)	1
2	Alabama (4)	1
3	Texas (2)	2
4	Oregon (3)	4
5	Cincinnati	2
6	Iowa	2
7	TCU	--
8	Boise State	1
9	LSU	1
10	Georgia Tech	1
11	Southern California	5
12	Penn State	--
13	Pittsburgh	2
14	Miami (Fla.)	2
15	Ohio State	4
16	Arizona	2
17	Houston	--
18	Virginia Tech	5
19	Utah	1
20	California	1
21	Oklahoma State	7
22	Notre Dame	1
23	Oklahoma	3
24	Brigham Young	6
25	Oregon State	2

Others receiving votes:
South Florida, Clemson, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas Tech, Central Michigan, Boston College, Stanford

Dropped out this week:
South Carolina, West Virginia, Central Michigan

Biggest Difference from AP Poll:
Oregon State +9, Arizona +5, Virginia Tech +4, Houston -4, Wisconsin -4, Oregon +3, Boise State -3, California +3, Oklahoma State -3, Notre Dame -3, Oklahoma -3

Biggest Difference from BCS Poll:
Wisconsin -7, Virginia Tech +5, Utah -5, Oregon +4, Miami (Fla.) +3

Oregon jumps to #4 on the back of their Trojan demolition (even gaining 3 #1 votes in the process) and naturally this higher than what the AP Poll and the BCS poll believe. In fact the CGB continues to be bullish on Pac-10 teams in general. In other news, Florida regains their #1 spot after Tebowing a hapless Georgia team in Jacksonville and USC falls out of the top-10 to #11. Virginia Tech falls five spots for losing to UNC while Miami gains two spots for losing in OT to Clemson (perhaps this explains the Clemson vote)! Oklahoma State suffers the biggest drop thanks to their loss to Texas while Cal continues it's march up the rankings again.

The Biggest Homer Award goes to...

... oskisunbear who voted for Cal as #14!

This award was presented to the user(s) who loved Cal the most out of everyone who voted this week

For the first time we have a homer that didn't vote for Cal at #1!

The OMG Cal Sux Award goes to...

... DougOLis who did not vote for Cal!

This award was presented to the user(s) who held a glass half-empty look at Cal

Really? Even ragnarok voted for Cal this time around. We're 6-2! Are Boston College and Stanfurd really better than Cal?

The Five Most Confusing Teams Were...

Virginia Tech
Oklahoma State
Brigham Young
Oregon State
Houston

Most people had the most trouble figuring out where these five teams belonged. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only.

And naturally two of the most confusing teams are the ones with high expectations that lost last week. BYU is just BYU.

The Five Least Confusing Teams Were...

Oklahoma
Florida
Alabama
Texas
Georgia Tech

Most people were generally on the same page when it came to these teams. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only otherwise all the crappy teams would top this list.

The three top three teams appear one after another on this list, but the curious one is Oklahoma.

The Five Most Divergent Voters Were...

royrules22
ragnarok
CruzinBears
Takimoto
Rated-R Superstar

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed most from the overall Top 25.

And as usua- wait what!? Surely my Oregon at #1 vote didn't do this (after all ragnraok and Beast Mode did the same). Oh you mean to tell me that my votes for Central Michigan, South Carolina and West Virginia did it? Well my defense is that this makes this poll authentic! True college football style! Putting USC at #15 didn't hurt either (the second lowest after Takimoto who put then in at #17). Ragnarok is second for his votes for Boston College (#25), Oregon St (#20) and other various oddities.

The Five Least Divergent Voters Were...

CaliforniaCMB
Thoroughbred
DougOLis
Berkelium97
atomsareenough

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed the least from the overall Top 25.

CaliforniaCMB could you have made a more depressing poll? Well other than the whole USC at #7 issue and not dropping VT further than 12.

Vote for your CGB Top-25 for Week 9!

royrules22 — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 06:33:14 -0000

You know the drill: Go here and vote for the top 25 teams for week 9.

The previous week's results are located:
Preseason
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8

Let's aim to get more than a dozen ballots people!

CGB Top-25 Week 8 Results

royrules22 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:31:20 -0000

Whoops! I forgot to do this yesterday...

1	Alabama (4)	--
2	Florida (3)	--
3	Cincinnati (2)	--
4	Iowa	2
5	Texas (3)	--
6	Southern California	2
7	TCU	4
8	Oregon	1
9	Boise State	2
10	LSU	--
11	Georgia Tech	1
12	Penn State	2
13	Virginia Tech	--
14	Oklahoma State	1
15	Pittsburgh	3
16	Miami (Fla.)	8
17	Houston	2
18	Arizona	5
19	Ohio State	2
20	Utah	--
21	California (1)	--
22	West Virginia	9
23	Notre Dame	3
24	Central Michigan	--
25	South Carolina	2

Others receiving votes:
Oklahoma, Oregon State, Mississippi, Clemson, Brigham Young, Wisconsin

Dropped out this week:
Oklahoma, Texas Tech, BYU

Biggest Difference from AP Poll:
California +7, Arizona +5, South Carolina -4, Central Michigan +3, Boise State -3, Iowa +3

Biggest Difference from BCS Poll:
Cincinnati +5, Utah -4, California +3, South Carolina -3

This might be the least number of "others receiving votes" we've had thus far. And you know what was shocking? This poll is almost identical to the BCS poll! Alabama's and Florida's lackluster victories did nothing to move them down but it did allow Cincinatti and Iowa to gain while Texas continues to be punished. USC fell for struggling against the Beavers while Boise fell for only beating Hawaii by about 50 points. The only major movements were Miami's fall after losing to a Clemson team that lost to Maryland, TCU's leap after pounding BYU (who fell out of the poll) and West Virginia's triumphant entrance to the poll. Arizona meanwhile continues it's rise up the polls but for some reason cannot break into the top half. And I stopped voting for Idaho.

The Biggest Homer Award goes to...

... Missing Barry who voted for Cal as #1!

This award was presented to the user(s) who loved Cal the most out of everyone who voted this week

It's not a surprise anymore is it?

The OMG Cal Sux Award goes to...

... Rated-R Superstar, Berkelium97, GBB4188, and ragnarok, all of whom did not vote for Cal!

This award was presented to the user(s) who held a glass half-empty look at Cal

Frankly speaking I can't would've done the same if I wasn't this much of a Cal homer and I only voted Cal in at 24. A not so stellar beatdown of WSU proves nothing. Let's get Arizona State.

The Five Most Confusing Teams Were...

Central Michigan
California
Notre Dame
Utah
West Virginia

Most people had the most trouble figuring out where these five teams belonged. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only.

Central Michigan because they're not a big team, Cal for the reasons stated above, Notre Dame and Utah because they haven't done much I'd say and they've lost a couple.

The Five Least Confusing Teams Were...

Alabama
Georgia Tech
Pittsburgh
LSU
Oregon

Most people were generally on the same page when it came to these teams. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only otherwise all the crappy teams would top this list.

Surprised at the lack of confusion with 'Bama and GT. Nearly everyone thinks they are one of the best (Bama) or near (GT).

The Five Most Divergent Voters Were...

GBB4188
BeastMode
MadBum
ragnarok
Takimoto

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed most from the overall Top 25.

Our resident Bruin fan wins it this time because of his vote for Iowa at #2 (along with BeastMode), Ohio State at #25, Wisconsin (!) at #23 and things like USC at #10 (the next lowest was by MadBum - nice name - at #9). BeastMode had Oregon at #5 and Texas at #9.

The Five Least Divergent Voters Were...

Berkelium97
Ohio Bear
CruzinBears
racsan
Rated-R Superstar

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed the least from the overall Top 25.

Berkelium's only really out there vote was for West Virginia at #24 which was tied for the 2nd lowest with MadBum (lowest was by Takimoto).

So there you have it. Results from what I think was the most boring Saturday of college football this season.

Vote for your CGB Top-25 for Week 8!

royrules22 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 03:19:36 -0000

You know the drill: Go here and vote for the top 25 teams for week 8.

The previous week's results are located:
Preseason
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7

Let's aim to get more than a dozen ballots people!

CAPTION CONTEST!

royrules22 — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:19:51 -0000

CAPTION CONTEST!

CGB Top-25 Week 7 Results

royrules22 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 02:32:43 -0000

1	Alabama (10)	--
2	Florida (1)	--
3	Cincinnati	3
4	Southern California	1
5	Texas	2
6	Iowa	3
7	Boise State	--
8	Miami (Fla.)	3
9	Oregon	1
10	LSU	2
11	TCU	2
12	Georgia Tech	9
13	Virginia Tech	9
14	Penn State	--
15	Oklahoma State	3
16	Brigham Young	4
17	Ohio State	9
18	Pittsburgh	7
19	Houston	8
20	Utah	11
21	California (1)	17
22	Texas Tech	16
23	Arizona	13
24	Central Michigan	13
25	Oklahoma	9

Others receiving votes:
Notre Dame, South Carolina, Kansas, Nebraska, Oregon State, West Virginia, South Florida, Wisconsin, Mississippi, Idaho, Auburn, Arkansas

Dropped out this week:
South Carolina, Wisconsin, Auburn, South Florida, Kansas, Nebraska

Biggest Difference from AP Poll:
California +12, Arizona +9, West Virginia -9, Central Michigan +7, South Carolina -4, Kansas -4

Biggest Difference from BCS Poll:
California +5, Texas Tech +4, USC +3, Boise State -3, TCU -3, West Virginia -3

So the general trend here seems to be that the top-15 doesn't change that much (unless there's a big loss there - see Virginia Tech and Ohio State) but the bottom 10 is in constant flux. From the change it looks like the bottom part literally switched with teams that weren't on the poll last week. As everyone who voted can attest to, the bottom half of this season's top-25 is a cluster-f**k.

In other news, Cal returns to the top-25 and receives its weekely first place vote. I wonder who that might be...? Other surprising fact (because the bottom 5-10 teams really don't deserve consideration) is that Cincinnati is the third best team. I wonder if they'll stay there now with Tony Pike out to injury. The only other thing I note is that West Virginia was almost glossed over by more than half of the voters (including yours truly). Maybe that is a mistake.

The Biggest Homer Award goes to...

... Missing Barry, who voted for Cal as #1!

This award was presented to the user(s) who loved Cal the most out of everyone who voted this week

Missing Barry is no longer missing as he returns triumphantly to vote Cal as the best team evar!

The OMG Cal Sux Award goes to...

... Rated-R Superstar, Takimoto, and ragnarok, all of whom did not vote for Cal!

This award was presented to the user(s) who held a glass half-empty look at Cal

Clearly Rated-R Superstar, Takimoto (aren't you a Duck fan?), and ragnarok don't see Cal's win at UCLA as all that impressive. At least not impressive enough for a paltry vote.

The Five Most Confusing Teams Were...

Oklahoma
Pittsburgh
Ohio State
Arizona
Penn State

Most people had the most trouble figuring out where these five teams belonged. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only.

Oklahoma is confusing because no one is sure whether to vote for Oklahoma seeing as how they are a 3 loss team or to ditch them. And even if they did vote for Oklahoma, no one knows where to place them. I'm guessing that the confusion for Pitt arises from the fact that most of the voters didn't watch them play.

The Five Least Confusing Teams Were...

Houston
Utah
Central Michigan
California
Texas Tech

Most people were generally on the same page when it came to these teams. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only otherwise all the crappy teams would top this list.

Houston and Utah as least confusing!? This whole list is useless because all teams are mighty confusing and these five just happens to be the least of them all. That's like saying Twist's lawyer skills is worse than his sanity; there's not much of a difference.

The Five Most Divergent Voters Were...

Missing Barry
royrules22
Rated-R Superstar
CaliforniaCMB
CruzinBears

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed most from the overall Top 25.

Ah Missing Barry. Your vote for Cal as #1 clearly propels you to the top of the list. But the most surprising this is seeing me at number 2 on this list! I guess my vote for Idaho at #24 and Cincinnati at #2 clearly wasn't normal. I will stand by Idaho until they defeat Boise State.

The Five Least Divergent Voters Were...

Ohio Bear
Takimoto
ragnarok
GBB4188
racsan

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed the least from the overall Top 25.

I'm stunned to see ragnarok on this list. You're becoming normal! Ohio Bear takes the prize with his ballot looking almost depressing a lot like the final result. The only big change is that he voted for South Carolina and West Virginia.

Concerning Cal's Defensive Woes Against UCLA

royrules22 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:21:23 -0000

I was thinking about Cal D’s performance on Saturday.

Many people thought that Cal’s defensive showing was terrible to attrocious and that Bob Gregory sucks. I disagree. I’m not saying that the defensive showing was good (because it clearly wasn’t) nor that Gregory is cleared of all blame but just that it wasn’t as bad as it looks.

Let’s look at the facts shall we?

1) UCLA had a kicker that was almost automatic from anywhere inside their 40
- This meant that if Cal was to hold UCLA to 0 points on the drive they’d have to stop the drive somewhere before the UCLA 40.

2) Cal’s ST woes (i.e. ALAMAAAARRR!!) gave UCLA a field position of somewhere around Cal’s 30-40yd line.
- This basically meant that UCLA had about 20-30 yds at the most to go before scoring.

3) Cal’s defensive personnel is less experienced (and arguably less talented) than last years’. Especially the LB corps.
- Mohammed looked good last year because the offenses were too worried about Pain Train and co to focus in on the Prophet.

4) Arguably the best player on the defense, Syd’Quan Thompson, was out for most of the game. His replacement was a RS Frosh Josh Hill (I’m counting Hagan as the other DB) whose experience is limited to getting abused by Oregon and USC.

5) UCLA got away with blatant holding on the Cal d-line. Hasaik was bear-hugging on Franklin’s 74yd run. Alualu was double-held on every down. Yet they were never called. This made the pass-rush almost non-existent.

So in short I think with what he had Gregory did an admirable job. Now he wasn’t perfect (10 MEN ON THE FIELD!?) and he could’ve been a bit more creative (such as the delayed blitz which worked when it was rarely run). But the fact is people were expecting too much out of the defense with the LB corps gone. If we had looked at it without our blue-and-gold glasses we’d have seen that the defense was going to have growing pains.

What do others think? Was Gregory playing it too safe? Or was it, given the circumstances, justifiable?

Vote for your CGB Top-25 for Week 7!

royrules22 — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 05:51:13 -0000

Posting it early this week. But all the games are done so have at it!

You know the drill: Go here and vote for the top 25 teams for week 7.

The previous week's results are located:
Preseason
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6

Hopefully with a Cal victory we'll get more people motivated to vote. And maybe Missing Barry will continue voting Cal #1!

CGB Top-25 Week 6 Results

royrules22 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:33:48 -0000

Uh whoops. I fell asleep after work yesterday so I didn't so this last night so here it is now.

1	Alabama (9)	--
2	Florida (4)	1
3	Texas	1
4	Virginia Tech	1
5	Southern California	1
6	Cincinnati	2
7	Boise State	--
8	Ohio State	2
9	Iowa	3
10	Oregon	1
11	Miami (Fla.)	2
12	LSU	8
13	TCU	--
14	Penn State	--
15	Nebraska	7
16	Oklahoma	1
17	Kansas	1
18	Oklahoma State	3
19	South Florida	--
20	Brigham Young	3
21	Georgia Tech	9
22	Auburn	6
23	Wisconsin	1
24	South Carolina	7
25	Pittsburgh	9

Others receiving votes:
Mississippi, Houston, Missouri, Arkansas, Notre Dame, Utah, West Virginia, Stanford, Tennessee, Michigan, Arizona, Central Michigan, Georgia, Idaho

Dropped out this week:
Georgia, Missouri, Mississippi

Biggest Difference from AP Poll:
Wisconsin +7, Utah -7, Auburn +5, Notre Dame -5, Oklahoma +4, Houston -4, Oregon +3

Florida overtakes Texas on top of their performance at Baton Rouge but it's not enough to overcome Nick Satan's Crimson Tide. But the biggest difference in the top-10 was LSU's fall after getting almost shut out against the Gators. Their spot is filled by Oregon and Iowa. In other crazy talk Wisconsin rises after their loss to Ohio State (!) and Auburn doesn't fall out of the top-25 despite getting thrashed by Arkansas (who by the way is unranked and is behind Auburn)! I also want to defend my vote for Idaho by pointing out that they are 5-1 (with that loss to USC killer UW) and a 5-1 deserves at least a pity vote. Hopefully they upset Boise.

The Biggest Homer Award goes to...

... NO ONE, because apparently everyone thinks Cal sucks!

This award was presented to the user(s) who loved Cal the most out of everyone who voted this week

It only took six weeks for this to happen (and this is my sad face -> :( )

The OMG Cal Sux Award goes to...

... EVERYONE, all of whom did not vote for Cal!

This award was presented to the user(s) who held a glass half-empty look at Cal

Well what else do you expect?

The Five Most Confusing Teams Were...

Wisconsin
Auburn
Oklahoma
Brigham Young
Oklahoma State

Most people had the most trouble figuring out where these five teams belonged. This list is limited to teams that are in the top-25 only.

I can see why Wisconsin and Auburn were confusing, you know considering the fact that they lost! And I guess people are confused as to whether or not Oklahoma is good since Bradford returns. Guess we'll know more this week.

The Five Least Confusing Teams Were...

Pittsburgh
South Carolina
Georgia Tech
Alabama
Florida

The Five Most Divergent Voters Were...

ragnarok
Maisbikkja
racsan
fuzzywuzzy
royrules22

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed most from the overall Top 25.

My Idaho vote must have helped for me make a showing! As for the others as to why they are on the list? The reasons really are just ticky-tacky. Turns out for most of the poll everyone voted almost the same. There were no true wacky votes (like Cal at #1). All the changes were as silly as ranking Ohio St over USC, voting in Idaho, etc.

The Five Least Divergent Voters Were...

GBB4188
Ohio Bear
Takimoto
CaliforniaCMB
BeastMode

This avard was given to the five voters whose poll differed the least from the overall Top 25.

Their votes mirror to a spooky degree the actual results.