Week 10 brings us some new faces after a weekend of disappointing results.  I had been hoping (obviously), that Pitt would do something useful for the entire football community, and that Michigan State would be able to help out Michigan, but I was sorely mistaken.  Pitt missed a field goal when Notre Dame had two guys with the same number on the field, an infraction that went unnoticed.

I will say this, Pitt should have never been in that situation.  They gained less than 25 yards in the fourth quarter and went into a complete shell.  You can think that Notre Dame turned it on defensively as much as you’d like, but Pitt did themselves zero favors with the uber-conservative playcalling.  Pitt had that game locked up and pissed it all away.

Michigan State on the other hand just decided to play zero defense for one drive.  Yes, they did get hosed on a few calls.  There was clearly no pass interference on the last drive, and they block in the back during Dennard’s INT return was actually legal, but this stuff happens.  They had dominated Nebraska for most of the game, so they have no one to blame but themselves, despite what Le’Veon Bell wants to do.

L_Bell24: “I expected all the hate, but idc…we legitimately lost ONE game this year…and that was Notre Dame! The black & white team beat us 4 times”

Both of these tweets have obviously been deleted since they were posted.  I hate excuses for losing games unless you have a star player get hurt.  Everyone gets bad calls, and you should never put yourself in the situation to let referees have any effect on the outcome of a game.  Now onto the polls.

Bronze Medal: Josh Kendall, The State, Columbia, SC

This poll isn’t horrific, he’s got a few good picks.  The top 3 is obviously accurate, with Notre Dame being an automatic #4 because they are also still undefeated, despite a porous effort last week.  I like Oregon State down at #18, as well as LSU still at #5.  Sure LSU lost to Alabama, but it was at the end of the game, and they had stuck with them the whole time.

Meanwhile, Stanford at #7, Oklahoma #8, Georgia #10, Florida #11 and Washington #17 are pretty glaring holes.  Georgia and Florida need to be ranked higher, while the rest should be lower, particularly Stanford.  Also, putting Louisiana Tech at #19 ahead of USC is a joke.  I don’t care that USC just got roasted by the #2 team in the Country, USC would roast LA Tech.

Silver Medal: Ray Ratto, Comcast Sports Bay Area

Ray ran a tight race this week, and I gave strong consideration to giving him the Gold Medal, but he ultimately fell short.  I mean, this guys poll is in shambles.  It’s utterly ridiculous.  Ohio State doesn’t deserve to be #5, even though they are the best team in the Big Ten; I hate to admit it, but it’s just true.  Then tacking on Louisville at #6 you begin to realize that this guy doesn’t actually know anything about football, he’s just ranking the undefeated teams first, which is absolutely ridiculous.

Then he evolves as a voter and starts to show his true colors.  This guy is biased towards the mid-majors and I have no fuckin’ idea why.  Toledo #16, Kent State #17, Northern Illinois #20, Ohio #23, LA Tech #25, just terrible.  There is no way he could even explain this or rationalize it to me.  The MAC is a pathetic conference.  They play league games on TUESDAY and WEDNESDAY nights, that is absolutely shameful and bush league.  Oh and in case you didn’t notice, he doesn’t rank USC or Nebraska.  How can you rank any MAC team over USC and Nebraska?  You can’t, you just can’t.

It has to be mentioned that I would have thought this was terrible prior to this weeks games.  I personally hope this guy feels like a retard since Toledo lost to BALL STATE AT HOME, and then Ohio dropped a home game to Bowling Green.  Ball State and Bowling Green are both 3-loss MAC teams, so yes Ray, you are a dumbass.

Gold Medal: Pete DiPrimio, Fort Wayne News-Sentinel

It wasn’t just the fact that this guy had Notre Dame #2 that landed him the Gold Medal, no it was much more than that this week.

Florida State #5, Clemson #6?  Hello ACC bias.  The ACC is typically garbage with the exception of a few teams, but neither of these teams are better than LSU, Georgia or Florida.  I’m sorry, but this year they just aren’t.  I’m watching Florida State right now struggle to get a touchdown against a trash Virginia Tech team.

Then Pete steps his game up and tacks on Louisville #8, Toledo #17, Louisiana Tech #19, Tulsa #20, Ohio #22, Kent State #25 and casually leaves USC and Nebraska unranked.  In comes the same reasoning that gave me trouble understanding Ray’s poll.  The real difference that got Pete the win was Notre Dame at #2, and the exceptionally ridiculous ACC bias.

For those that are curious, I’ve also included my poll.

Looking back at it the only thing I regret doing was giving Toledo the #25 spot over Louisville, but at the end of the day they are both completely bush league so it doesn’t matter.  I give Louisville and the Big East ZERO respect.  I refuse to do it.  They are a complete and utter joke of a conference that receives an auto-bid when they bring nothing to the table.  It’s shameful, it disgusts me and I cannot stand them.

The only reason why I put Notre Dame #4 is because I think they have a Top 5 defense and they’ve managed to stay undefeated.  I’m trying to look at a team’s body of work for this poll, rather than having them fluctuate week to week based on bad performances, otherwise there would be a lot more teams further down.  Where would I put Notre Dame on a week-to-week basis after last week?  I’d probably put them around #15, maybe even lower.  You can’t go to 3 OTs against a team that lost to Youngstown State…when you are at home.

Personally, I think they’ll slip up in the last three weeks at some point and the National Championship game will be Alabama and Oregon.  Perhaps then we’ll see a Kansas State vs. Notre Dame Fiesta Bowl, regardless ND will be in a BCS game because of their special rules.  Remember, if they finish in the top 12 of the BCS rankings, they have to be given one of the At-Large spots, no matter what the case is.