College Football BlogPoll Rankings, Week 11: TCU Leapfrogs Boise State To Find Itself On Deck

Boise State just can't buy a break. Alabama loses, removing the primary one-loss threat to a potential title bid. But just as it looked like Virginia Tech might end up a respectable win after all, TCU took out a plasma torch on Utah and surged past them into the on-deck circle for the Hypothetical Blogger National Championship game. TCU's gap is now over a full point and the only way Boise State can make up ground is by hammering Nevada as badly as TCU hammered Utah—it will be impossible to top it.

Elsewhere, LSU and Alabama flip places after grass-eating, hat-wearing, fourth-down reverse calling Les Miles slid past the Tide, and carnage in the Big 12 sees Oklahoma State surge seven places as Oklahoma and Missouri fall. Texas A&M leaps from nowhere to No. 23, and we'd be remiss if we didn't tip our hat to Baylor upon their exit. See you in 10 years, Bears.

Results for Week 11

#	School	Points/blog	SD	Delta
1	Oregon Ducks (53)	24.55	0.66	--
2	Auburn Tigers (18)	23.81	0.88	--
3	TCU Horned Frogs (9)	23.24	1.00	1
4	Boise St. Broncos (4)	21.95	1.35	-1
5	LSU Tigers	20.17	1.51	7
6	Stanford Cardinal	19.70	1.64	4
7	Wisconsin Badgers	18.89	1.82	--
8	Nebraska Cornhuskers	17.87	1.54	--
9	Ohio St. Buckeyes	16.86	2.08	2
10	Oklahoma St. Cowboys	14.99	2.61	7
11	Michigan St. Spartans	14.81	2.88	4
12	Alabama Crimson Tide	14.11	2.05	-7
13	Iowa Hawkeyes	12.71	2.76	3
14	Arkansas Razorbacks	11.80	2.25	5
15	Utah Utes	9.64	3.61	-9
16	Arizona Wildcats	8.87	3.03	-2
17	Missouri Tigers	8.06	3.40	-4
18	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	7.89	2.96	2
19	Oklahoma Sooners	7.83	2.83	-10
20	Virginia Tech Hokies	7.49	2.99	2
21	Nevada Wolf Pack	5.85	3.20	4
22	South Carolina Gamecocks	3.02	2.71	-4
23	Texas A&M Aggies	2.50	2.21	21
24	Florida Gators	2.10	2.30	7
25	Central Florida Knights	1.26	1.93	7
Others Receiving Votes: USC Trojans | San Diego St. Aztecs | Kansas St. Wildcats | Baylor Bears | Penn St. Nittany Lions | Temple Owls | Miami Hurricanes | Northern Illinois Huskies | North Carolina Tar Heels | Navy Midshipmen | Pittsburgh Panthers | N.C. State Wolfpack | Florida St. Seminoles | Fresno St. Bulldogs | Air Force Falcons | Syracuse Orange | Michigan Wolverines
Updated: Nov 10, 2010 7:23 AM PST

Total Ballots: 84

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Justify Your Existence

Events have conspired to rob the BlogPoll of its flashy differences at the top of the ballot, but it's worth noting that blog folk are much more certain of the order in 2-4 than the AP and Coaches. Boise State is well back of TCU, which isn't as far back of Auburn but is still meaningfully distant even after they hammered Utah. Auburn's lead in the AP poll is a razor thin ten points.

Further down the ballot there are still some divisions. The BlogPoll loves:

• No. 6 Stanford (7 AP, 9 Coaches)
• No. 10 Oklahoma State (12 AP, 11 Coaches) at the expense of MSU and Alabama
• No. 16 Arizona (18 AP, 19 Coaches)
• No. 17 Missouri (20 AP, 20 Coaches)

But the BlogPoll also hates:

• No. 9 Ohio State (8 AP, 7 Coaches)
• No. 19 Oklahoma (16 Coaches)
• No. 20 Virginia Tech (16 AP, 17 Coaches)

Our memories of James Madison are long.

Wack Ballot Watchdog

A light week:

• From Old Virginia has Wisconsin No. 15, four spots lower than the next most unimpressed voter. They're two slots behind Ohio State, even. They're also one of just two NC State voters left, and while the other guy has the Wolfpack 25th he's got them 19th.
• Bull Run still has South Carolina No. 14, three spots higher than the next most impressed voter. They don't budge after losing this weekend.
• Block U slides Northern Illinois up to No. 16. The Huskies' NMIV ranks them 23rd and they only get seven votes, period. Similarly, UCF is No. 14 with NMIV 19th. Some non-BCS slant in here.

Now on to the extracurriculars. First up are the team which spurs the most disagreement between voters as measured by standard deviation.

Most Disagreement

I predicted Utah would lose this crown after its TCU matchup but I'm a little baffled that they didn't get hit a lot harder after TCU hit them over the head, stuffed them into a car, and threw them into a river. That's probably why they're still here: people are baffled.

Ballot Math

First up are "Mr. Bold" and "Mr. Numb Existence." The former goes to the voter with the ballot most divergent from the poll at large. The number you see is the average difference between a person's opinion of a team and the poll's opinion.

Mr. Bold

Average error plummets this week and the winner pulls in a 2.21. A number that low usually sees a ballot with slight eccentricity instead of raving loony business, and it is indeed tough to find anything truly egregious on The Ciskie Blog's ballot. Missouri and Oklahoma are too high and Okie State is too low, so there's that, and the Big Ten seems similarly disordered. But that's about it other than having the two mid-majors 1-2.

Mr. Numb Existence

Conference expansion maven Frank The Tank slides his error under one and grabs the Mr. Numb Existence award for the first time. Our Quest For A Perfect Ballot again ends before we can even get out of the top five, as TCU features at #2.

Next we have the Coulter/Kos Award and the Straight Bangin' Award, which are again different sides of the same coin. The CKA and SBA go to the blogs with the highest and lowest bias rating, respectively. Bias rating is calculated by subtracting the blogger's vote for his own team from the poll-wide average. A high number indicates you are shameless homer. A low number indicates that you suffer from an abusive relationship with your football team.

The CK Award

Yea, verily The CK Award did come down from the mountain and saw the Utes dancing around a golden calf of ballot overrating and was like "lol wut" and was wroth. He broth forth a rain of horned frogs that did poke the Utes mercilessly, and bled on them, and scored many many touchdowns to Utah's very lonely single touchdown. Yea, you do provoke the wrath at your peril.

The CK Award is now 5-4 on the season, in the black, and next up on the chopping block is… Utah. Sigh. They're playing Notre Dame, so at least their opponent is hypothetically competitive. The Utes are a six point road favorite, though.

The Straight Bangin' Award

We're having some technical difficulties here, as I know Block U hammered the Utes after the weekend—they're at 21 in his ballot, which would be good for second here, but do not appear. Working on it. It does appear that Tilting At Windmills does get a legit win bit by vastly under-ranking his team after a soul-shattering performance on the weekend.

Swing is the total change in each ballot from last week to this week (obviously voters who didn't submit a ballot last week are not included). A high number means you are easily distracted by shiny things. A low number means that you're damn sure you're right no matter what reality says.

Mr. Manic Depressive

Man, this Purple Wimple guy loves moving stuff around. Missouri and Oklahoma drop all the way out of the poll, Utah is down 15, Arizona down ten, and TCU leap to a no longer totally insane #1. Also MSU (either MSU) jumps way up, as to Ohioi State, Arkanas, and Oklahoma State. Chaos! Temple at #21! Woo!

Mr. Xanax

USF blog Voodoo Five picks up the Mr. Xanax award but a quick glance at the ball show a lot of arrows and that number is very high for a winner here, so no wag of the finger this week.