GFB TOP 25

I give up. I mean really- is ANYBODY good this year? Just when we think we've got a bit of a pecking order established then Penn State, Ole Miss and California go out and get trounced. You can blame injuries on some of these losses. Oklahoma's and USC's for example had key players injured and almost half of Ole Miss' team was hit by the H1N1 virus before their loss Thursday night. But what excuse is there for Penn State and Cal? Were they overrated or just had a bad week? Parity in this day and age really levels the playing field, and if you have an off night, you're going to get knocked off. People are already asking if this is going to be like 2007 all over again, which had ridiculous upset after ridiculous upset, and a two loss team- LSU- winning the whole thing? I would say that not only could we something similar this year, but that this is going to be the new trend, where we don't have a group of juggernauts, but instead a widely contested national championship all the way through.

For competitive balance, that's certainly not a bad thing, but unfortunately there is something bad that schools are going to take from this: scheduling. I have said from the beginning I'm not moving Boise State up into the top 12 so they could make a BCS bowl. They beat Oregon, which after Saturday looks a whole lot more impressive, yet they play nobody of substance the rest of the way. I cannot and will not justify them being one of the 10 best teams to play in a BCS bowl, yet I believe they're going to get in. Why? Because we're four weeks into the season- FOUR WEEKS!- and they're already up to fifth in the country. Only four teams stand in their way and none of them outside of Alabama look invincible. Florida's passing game has suffered, which means Tim Tebow has to basically play halfback as much as quarterback. Texas run game has been hurting and LSU had an Iowa-vs-Northern-Iowa type miracle to stay unbeaten against Mississippi State. And as awesome as Bama have looked so far, this season has proven you just never know.

It's very possible that the only undefeateds left by the time they select the bowls will be Boise State, TCU and Houston. Three non-BCS conference teams who won some big non-conference games and then steam-rolled through weak conferences- well ok TCU is definitely not in a weak conference, but Conference USA and the WAC are. And these are going to be your three undefeated teams at season's end. What this has to do with scheduling is that BCS conference teams are going to look at this and say if they had just scheduled four cupcakes in the non-con, then they'd for sure be going to the national championship. Not only would any undefeated BCS conference champ to the national title over these teams, but any one-loss champ would too. It's more incentive to schedule weaker teams in the non-con and hope to only lose once when you get in conference. People can talk all they want about how the BCS doesn't reward a weak schedule, but when there's SO much parity in the sport, an undefeated or one-loss BCS school is going to get rewarded no matter how weak their strength of schedule.

Hopefully teams continue to schedule like the Gophers, who have added Texas and USC in the coming years. Ok then, onto the polls. If you think my poll is a joke and full of errors, just look at the USA Today Coaches' Poll. SI.com Andy Staples wants to have it abolished and it's hard to argue with him after looking at this week's (He also comes up with the best idea for having an objective poll I've ever heard, but as he says, it makes way, way WAY too much sense to ever happen).

GFB Top 25: Week 5

1. Alabama (4-0)
2. Florida (4-0)
3. Texas (4-0)
4. LSU (4-0)
5. Virginia Tech (3-1)
6. USC (3-1)
7. Ohio State (3-1)
8. Cincinnati (4-0)
9. Houston (4-0)
10. Iowa (4-0)
11. TCU (3-0)
12. BYU (3-1)
13. Oklahoma (3-1)
14. Miami (2-1)
15. Boise State (4-0)
16. Kansas (4-0)
17. Oklahoma State (3-1)
18. Georgia (3-1)
19. Oregon (3-1)
20. Michigan (4-0)
21. Penn State (3-1)
22. South Carolina (3-1)
23. Ole Miss (3-1)
24. California (3-1)
25. Nebraska (3-1)

DROPPED OUT: 17. Florida State (2-1), 23. Washington (2-1), 25. Georgia Tech (3-1)