I've been impressed with your logic. Its not a poll, thats true, and your signature shows you have a good level of knowledge of logic.
SO... give me some logical reasons that my rankings are ignorant.
Sorry this has taken me some time, but it's been a pretty busy week.
Breakdown by conference (first number is schools in your rankings, second number is total schools, number in parentheses is schools just out of your rankings)
ACC - 10/11
Big 12 - 5/12 (3)
Big East - 2/7
Big 11 - 5/11 (2)
Conference USA - 2/11 (1)
Indep. - 0/2 (2)
MAC - 1/14 (1)
MWC - 1/8 (1)
Pac-10 - 5/10
SEC - 8/12
Sun Belt - 0/9
WAC - 1/10 (1)
First of all, there is no way in hell the ACC is so far and above all the other conferences that 10 of its 11 schools are in your rankings while the SEC has 8 of 12 and the other big conference each have only 5. Eight schools from one conference is even pushing it. I'm sorry, the ACC is good, but it's not that much better than everything else, and I think it's not even quite as good as the SEC, though the middle of the conference is a bit closer, as we'll see momentarily.
Now, observe the bottom 21 of your rankings (No. 20 included because it pertains to one of my points) and those just out, plus one more for good measure and to make a point:
20. North Carolina State 4-4, L to tOSU, UNC, Miami, Clemson
21. Boise State 8-0, wins over Oregon State, BYU, others
22. Ohio State 5-3, L to Northwestern, Wisconsin, Iowa
23. Maryland 4-4, L to WVU, Ga. Tech, NC State, Clemson
24. Wake Forest 4-4, L to Clemson, NC State, Va. Tech, FSU
25. Clemson 4-4, L to TAMU, FSU, UVa, Ga. Tech
26. Alabama 5-3, L to Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee
27. Arizona State 6-2, L to USC, California
28. Texas Tech 5-3, L to New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas
29. Arkansas 3-4, L to Texas, Florida, Auburn, Georgia
30. South Carolina 5-3, L to Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee
31. Iowa 6-2, L to Arizona State, Michigan
32. UCLA 5-3, L to Oklahoma State, California, Arizona State
33. Oregon 5-3, L to Indiana, Oklahoma, Arizona State
34. Southern Miss 5-1, L to Alabama
35. North Carolina 4-4, L to UVa, Louisville, FSU, Utah
36. Boston College 5-2, L to Wake, Pitt
37. Florida 4-4, L to Tenn., LSU, Miss. State, UGa.
38. Purdue 5-3, L to Wisconsin, Michigan, Northwestern
39. Texas A&M 6-2, L to Utah and Baylor
40. Northen Illinois 7-2, L to Iowa State, UMd.
just out:
Colorado 4-4, L to Missouri, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Texas
UTEP 6-2, L to Arizona State, Boise State
UAB 5-3, L to Florida State, Tulane, South Florida
BYU 4-4, L to Stanford, USC, Boise State, UNLV
Iowa State 4-4, L to Iowa, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M, Colorado
Marshall 5-3, L to Troy, Ohio State, Georgia
*Michigan State 4-4, L to Rutgers, Notre Dame, Iowa, Michigan
Notre Dame 5-3, L to BYU, Purdue, Boston College
*Northwestern 4-4, L to TCU (Go Frogs!), Arizona State, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Wins over Ohio State and Purdue
Missouri 4-4, L to Troy, Texas, Oklahoma State, Nebraska
Navy 7-1, L to Notre Dame
Nebraska 5-3, L to Southern Miss, Texas Tech, Kansas State
*These schools have 12 games scheduled. What's up with that? I thought nobody had 12 schduled anymore...although we had 12 games last year.
All right, first up: 20-25.
I'll ignore 21 and 22, though I think being undefeated this late in the season qualifies Boise to be higher, and I think tOSU doesn't deserve to be in the top 30 (I mean, they lost to Northwestern, who admittedly are a bit better than they were back when they lost to us earlier in the season, but come on). My problem is with the order of four schools from your favorite conference: No. 20 NC State, No. 23 Maryland, No. 24 Wake Forest, No. 25 Clemson.
All are 4-4. All are in the same conference, and their schedules are not all that different. Clemson beat NC State, Maryland, and Wake (plus Utah State, but that's nothing big), and lost only to teams ranked in your top 20, plus Texas A&M, who I think everyone is punishing too harshly for one loss, even if that was to Baylor. Two of Wake's four wins were over ECU (one of the worst teams in C-USA) and I-AA N. Carolina A&T...they were solid wins, but still, those teams suck. Wake's other wins were over Duke (meh) and Boston College, the only semi-impressive win they had (though it was close). Maryland: Losses to three teams you ranked higher, plus, as I mentioned, Clemson; beat Duke (meh again), Northern Illinois (also meh), Temple (bigger meh), and Florida State (ok, I'll give you that one, that's big). Finally, NC State beat I-AA Richmond, Wake, Maryland, and Virginia Tech (fine, another good one) and lost to Ohio State, Miami, UNC (underrated team these days, it seems!) and, again, Clemson.
Taking all this into account, I would put those 6 teams as follows:
20. Boise State (They're still undefeated, the others have at least three losses)
21. Clemson
22. Ohio State (I'm taking most of my personal feelings for tOSU out of this one)
23. NC State
24. Maryland
25. Wake
If you were paying attention to who beat whom, your rankings would likely be like that.
Here's a few other thoughts:
Arkansas beat Alabama, and has played a MUCH tougher schedule with only one more loss. I'm pretty sure that makes Ark. a bit better than Bama, wouldn't you agree?
North Carolina: Wins over Miami, Georgia Tech, and NC State (and also I-AA William & Mary...meh), losses only to teams in your top 15. Don't you think that qualifies them as better than 35? I mean, South Carolina beat Vanderbilt, Kentucky (two SEC mehs), South Florida (a C-USA meh, though they did beat us, but that's not saying much), Troy (impressive earlier in the season, now just another meh) and Alabama (only somewhat impressive), and lost to two top teams in Georgia and Tennessee, and unimpressive Mississippi. Yet you have South Carolina at 30. I'm sorry, but given that, South Carolina is just less impressive than its northern counterpart. Sure, I may be talking about putting 4-4 over 5-3, but you've said yourself that records aren't everything.
Texas A&M: I know, I know, they lost to Baylor. But consider: They ONLY lost to Baylor, and Utah. I have a theory that all teams have a "range" of sorts within which they can play. Teams can be "ranked," with a lot of overlap, according to their ranges. That overlap is how a team playing in the top part of their range can beat a team playing at the bottom part of their range, as long as team B's floor is not higher than team A's ceiling. That's how TCU can beat a Northwestern team that can beat an Ohio State, but TCU could not possibly beat an Ohio State even if the Frogs play at the top of their range and the Luckeyes play at the bottom of theirs; there's overlap between NU's and TCU's ranges, and between NU's and tOSU's range, tOSU's range is fully above TCU's range, or at least there's very little overlap. That said, I think Baylor was playing at the very top of their range while the Aggies were at the very bottom of theirs. Every team stumbles occasionally. No, A&M isn't the absolute best, but to punish a team that had previously only lost to one of the top mid-majors, and had beaten several teams that YOU ranked above it, simply because it stumbled against one of the worst teams in the big five conferences seems a little extreme to me. This isn't just a problem I have with your rankings, of course; I think everyone's seeing that more as a sign that the Aggies are way overrated than that Baylor had a lucky night. (Okay, so this whole thing was mostly a chance for me to explain my range theory, but oh well, I think I still made my point.)
Now, I'm getting tired, and I have the rest of the forum to read, but I want to only make one point:
Nebraska lost to Southern Miss (which I think you have a little too low, but I hate the Golden Eagles so I don't care too much), Texas Tech (yeah, that was embarassing for the Cornhuskers), and K State (hm). They beat Missouri, though, who also lost to Troy. Don't you think they're at least worth being "just out" of your rankings, if Missouri and Iowa State are "just out"? I mean, you have three Big 12 North teams ahead of Nebraska, when it's really looking like Nebraska will win the North.
Anyway, I could come up with other logical arguments, and I'm sure I will later. But this should be enough for now.