Dropped Out: California (#19), Notre Dame (#22), Virginia Tech (#23), Oklahoma (#24), South Carolina (#25).Only after finalizing the poll over at MGoBlog (this poll is the only reason to visit an otherwise excellent Michigan site) did I see how much turnover was on the back end of the poll. I feel justified as none of the fallen did anything to deserve continued support. Cal was likely just as shaken as everyone else watching the 12-foot fall of Jahvid best onto the back of his head – prayers are with him as news reports let us all know his extremities are moving just fine.

Some notes:

Pitt #8 – One of the few one-loss teams (if this were all perfect math, a standard distribution would have fewer undefeated teams than one-loss teams but I digress), but that loss is a bad one – NC State. Plus wins are all in the Big East and the MAC. Again, I think this is one of the few complete teams in the nation (offense, defense, special teams) so my ranking overweights that and assumes a win over WVU and a great battle with Cincinnati.

Iowa #17, Penn State #19 – Everyone accepts the current narrative that Iowa has been hanging on by the most tenuous of threads – well how about Penn State? Nittany Lions lost to Iowa and really have only one impressive win when they shutout Minnesota. The Buckeye defense exposed an offense that rarely produces at peak efficiency.

Oregon State #24 – the only team on my board with three good LOSSES (Cincy, Arizona, and Southern Cal) and that Stanford win looks even better now. Have you seen how solid QB Sean Canfield has been in the past four weeks? The Beavers are even tougher to stop when defenses need to avert focus from Jacquizz Rodgers.

believes that QB Andrew Luck is the best QB in the nation.