Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Legion World College Game Week Top 25 Poll (Week 7)

Since we're doing such a great job of predicting game outcomes I thought it would be fun to establish our own Poll Rankings as opposed to relying on the AP or USA Today Polls. So here goes...

Below you will find a list of the Major College Football programs. It includes all the teams in major conferences as well as some of the major Independent football programs. I've kept them grouped in conferences to make them easier to find on the list.

For this inaugural week, I need you to list your top 40 in order so that we can establish a baseline for the LW Top 25. In the following weeks you will only be ranking the Top 25.

Your rankings must be submited no later than 6 AM eastern time on Wednesday mornings so that I can get them all tabulated and posted before the Thursday night games.

Of course, feel free to include any teams you feel belong in your rankings, even if I haven't listed them here (or inadvertantly left them off.)

I will post a list of the week's Top 25 sometime on Wednesday evening (and will include all of those teams receiving votes in the notes)

ACC
Boston College
Clemson
Duke
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Maryland
Miami (FL)
North Carolina
NC State
Virginia
Virginia Tech
Wake Forest

Big East
Cincinnati
Connecticut
Louisville
Pittsburgh
Rutgers
South Florida
Syracuse
West Virginia

Big 10
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State
Minnesota
Northwestern
Ohio State
Penn State
Purdue
Wisconsin

Big 12
Baylor
Colorado
Iowa State
Kansas
Kansas State
Missouri
Nebraska
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Texas
Texas A & M
Texas Tech

Conference USA
East Carolina
Houston
Marshall
Memphis
Rice
SMU (Southern Methodist)
Southern Miss
Tulane
Tulsa
UAB (Univ of Alabama Birmingham)
UCF (Univ of Central Florida)
UTEP (Texas El Paso)

Mid America
Akron
Ball State
Bowling Green
Buffalo
Central Michigan
Eastern Michigan
Kent State
Miami (OH)
Northern Illinois
Ohio University
Temple
Toldeo
Western Michigan

Mountain West
Air Force
BYU (Bringham Young)
Colorado State
New Mexico
San Diego State
TCU (Texas Christian)
UNLV (Nevada Las Vegas)
Utah
Wyoming

Pac 10
Arizona
Arizona State
California
Oregon
Oregon State
Stanford
UCLA
USC
Washington
Washington State

SEC
Alabama
Arkansas
Auburn
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
LSU
Mississippi
Mississippi State
South Carolina
Tennessee
Vanderbilt

Sun Belt
Arkansas State
FAU (Florida Atlantic)
FIU (Florida International)
LA Lafayette
LA Monroe
Middle Tennessee
North Texas
Troy

Western Athletic
Boise State
Fresno State
Hawaii
Idaho
Louisiana Tech
Nevada
New Mexico State
San Jose State
Utah State

Independents
Army
Navy
Notre Dame
Western Kentucky

Okay, I'll start things off by posting my Top 40.

1) LSU
2) Florida
3) USC
4) Oklahoma
5) West Virginia
6) California
7) Penn State
8) Boston College
9) Rutgers
10) Ohio State
11) Texas
12) South Carolina
13) Oregon
14) Clemson
15) Alabama
16) Virginia Tech
17) Arkansas
18) Kentucky
19) South Florida
20) Louisville
21) Texas A&M
22) Georgia Tech
23) Hawaii
24) Tennessee
25) Nebraska
26) Michigan State
27) Arizona State
28) Missouri
29) UCLA
30) Miami (FL)
31) Florida State
32) Air Force
33) Southern Miss
34) Maryland
35) Georgia
36) Kansas
37) Washington
38) Connecticut
39) Pittsburgh
40) Wyoming

1) LSU
2) USC
3) Florida
4) Oklahoma
5) West Virginia
6) California
7) Penn State
8) Texas
9) Rutgers
10) Ohio State
11) Boston College
12) Oregon
13) South Carolina
14) Alabama
15) Virginia Tech
16) Clemson
17) Kentucky
18) South Florida
19) Arkansas
20) Texas A&M
21) Louisville
22) Georgia Tech
23) Michigan State
24) Wisconnsin
25) Nebraska
26) Hawaii
27) Arizona State
28) UCLA
29) Missouri
30) Air Force
31) Texas Tech
32) Tennessee
33) Florida State
34) Miami (FL)
35) Maryland
36) Southern Miss
37) Washington
38) Connecticut
39) Kansas
40) Boise State

I’ll admit outright that I like certain teams and dislike certain teams. I have Hawaii at #25 and even that was a stretch for me. I’m still big on Louisville, Nebraska and Georgia Tech. Like Vee and Kippers, I feel Arkansas is still a top 20 team and will show that over the next few weeks. I’m thrilled Vee put Connecticut in his top 40 (as I did!).

1. USC
2. LSU
3. Oklahoma
4. Florida
5. West Virginia
6. Penn State
7. California
8. Ohio State
9. Rutgers
10. Boston College
11. Texas
12. Oregon
13. South Carolina
14. Alabama
15. Wisconsin
16. Clemson
17. Texas A&M
18. Kentucky
19. Louisville
20. Arkansas
21. Georgia
22. South Florida
23. Nebraska
24. Hawaii
25. Missouri
26. VT
27. Georgia Tech
28. Arizona State
29. Cincinatti
30. Air Force
31. UCLA
32. Michigan State
33. Texas Tech
34. UConn
35. Kansas
36. Purdue
37. Washington
38. Florida State
39. Miami
40. Mississippi State

Those last 10 or so were really hard, and there were other teams (Oregon State, Boise State, Southern Miss, among others) that I wanted to make room for but just couldn't.

You guys REALLY don't like Wisconsin, do you?

Oops! Did I forget to include them?

I've actually felt they should not have been ranked at all since the start of the season or a least not in the top 20. As you pointed out the last 10-15 slots were actually quite difficult. There were lots of deserving teams to consider and some didn't make it in. Wisconsin was less deserving IMO.

I didn't include them either.

And yeah, those last 10-15 slots were hella tough. I wanted to get Boise State in there really bad.

But I think I'm going to change mine to include Wisconsin, since I think they should at least be in the top 25. But that means Kansas drops two b/c I'm not dropping UCONN any farther down

PS: Apparently about as much as you like Tennessee

Not going to apologize for hating Tennessee. They're right up there with Auburn as Alabama's Most Wanted. And since they're 1-2, I felt justified.

INcidentally, here's a sub-poll. Who are your team's top 10 most hated rivals? Here in Bama country, it goes something like this:

1. (tie) Auburn
1. (tie) Tennessee
3. LSU
4. Arkansas
5. Notre Dame (don't know why, but lots of Alabama fans just seem to HATE 'em. Probably long memories from the 60's and 70's.
6. Florida
7. Texas A&M
8. Georgia
9. Penn State (Also with older fans, rivalry going back to the 60's)
10. FSU

Hmmm....back in the day it was probably the following for Miami

1. (tie) Florida State
1. (tie) Notre Dame
1. (tie) Florida
4. Nebraska
5. Oklahoma
6. Penn State
7. Ohio State
8. Michigan
9. Boston College
10 Virginia Tech

* We used to play Florida and FSU every year for the State of Florida Championship Trophy until Spurrier arrived in Gainesville and decided he didn't want two nightmare non conference games on his schedule.

* We also used to play Notre Dame every year and grew to hate the Golden Domeheads.

* When Howard Schnellenger took over the program, he immediately revamped the schedule and we began playing at least 2 of the next five teams on the list every year. We started out as cannon fodder for them but over the course of a couple of years under Howard, we started beating them and those series became more and more fun for us, less so for them

* VTech and BC joined with us to create the Big East Football Conference and they (along with Syracuse & West Virginia to a lesser extent), became our biggest competition in the Big East. Of course, both of them came with us to the ACC in order to grow the ACC into a big enough conference to be eligible for a conference championship game.

Every one of the teams on that list beat us in at least one game that Hurricane fans will never forget (or forgive ) But we did balance the scales with all of them.

Personally, nothing gets me more riled up than knowing that we will be facing Notre Dame or FSU or Florida in a game, probably in that order!

Okay, no worries. Just because I've already pain-stakingly entered all of you selections by hand and gone back over the list numerous times in order to be certain that each one of you carefully thought out picks was posted in the proper order...go ahead make your changes....I'll just throw everything out and start again...no problem!

1) USC
2) LSU
3) Florida
4) Oklahoma
5) West Virginia
6) California
7) Texas
8) Rutgers
9) South Carolina
10) Ohio State
11) Penn State
12) Oregon
13) Clemson
14) Boston College
15) Alabama
16) Virginia Tech
17) Arkansas
18) South Florida
19) Kentucky
20) Louisville
21) Texas A&M
22) Georgia Tech
23) Hawaii
24) Tennessee
25) Nebraska
26) Michigan State
27) Missouri
28) Arizona State
29) UCLA
30) Miami (FL)
31) Florida State
32) Air Force
33) Southern Miss
34) Maryland
35) Georgia
36) Kansas
37) Washington
38) Connecticut
39) Pittsburgh
40) Wyoming

I'm a bit ignorant about college football outside the teams I pay attention to which is usually the traditional football schools and the top 25. I copied Vee's and edited it with my feelings. Similiar feelings with the love for the SEC. Though I hate LSU and can't put them at #1. The last 10 I trusted Vee.

Aww, shucks! Thanks for the implied confidence.

1) USC
2) Oklahoma
3) LSU
4) Florida
5) Ohio State
6) California
7) Penn State
8) Boston College
9) West Virginia
10) Clemson
11) Hawaii
12) Rutgers
13) South Carolina
14) Oregon
15) South Florida
16) Texas
17) Alabama
18) Virginia Tech
19) Arkansas
20) Texas A&M
21) Georgia Tech
22) Kentucky
23) Louisville
24) Wisky
25) Tennessee

Hey Blockade Boy! Do you want to add 26-40 to your list or are you done?

Okay here's goes the Inaugural Legion World College Game Week Top 25 as voted by our distinguished posters! (Numbers in [brackets] indicate number of first place votes.)

Legion World Top 25 Poll
1 USC [3]
2 LSU [2]
3 Florida
4 Oklahoma
5 West Virginia
6 California
7 Penn State
8 Ohio State
9 Rutgers
10 Boston College
11 Texas
12 South Carolina
13 Oregon
14 Clemson
15 Alabama
16 Virginia Tech
17 Arkansas (tie)
17 South Florida (tie)
19 Kentucky
20 Texas A&M
21 Louisville
22 Hawaii
23 Georgia Tech
24 Nebraska
25 Wisconsin

Others receiving votes: Tennessee, Michigan State, Missouri, Arizona State, UCLA, Air Force, Georgia, Miami (FL), FSU, Southern Miss, Maryland, Kansas, Texas Tech, Washington, Connecticut, Cincinnati, Purdue, Pittsburgh, Wyoming, Boise State, Mississppi State

Some conference analysis....

Top 10: The Big 10, SEC, Pac 10 and Big East each placed two teams in the top 10 while the ACC and Big 12 have one each.

Top 25: The SEC leads the way with 6 teams ranked in the Top 25, followed by the ACC, Big East and Big 12 which all placed 4 teams in the poll. The Big 10 and Pac 10 each had 3 teams in the Top 25 and the WAC had 1.

PS to Cobie: Your Huskies managed to secure the final slot in the Top 40 (actually wound up in a tie at 39 with Washington) edging out Cincy, Purdue, Pitt, Wyoming, Bosie State, & Miss St.

Take that, Pitt!

And rightly so as it turns out!

Don't forget to cast your ballots by 6 PM Wednesday everyone! Post your top 25 teams & I'll have the new poll up Wednesday night.

Here's my Top 25 for Week 5 (through 9/23)...

1) LSU
2) USC
3) Florida
4) Oklahoma
5) West Virginia
6) California
7) Boston College
8) Rutgers
9) Ohio State
10) Texas
11) Oregon
12) Clemson
13) Kentucky
14) Virginia Tech
15) Georgia
16) South Florida
17) South Carolina
18) Missouri
19) Alabama
20) Penn State
21) Miami
22) Arizona State
23) Hawaii
24) Wisconsin
25) Michigan State

1. USC
2. LSU
3. FL
4. Oklahoma
5. WV
6. California
7. Rutgers
8. Ohio St.
9. Texas
10. Wisconsin
11. Oregon
12. Clemson
13. South Carolina
14. South Florida
15. Boston College
16. Georgia
17. Kentucky
18. Virginia Tech
19. Hawaii
20. Missouri
21. Penn State
22. Alabama
23. Arizona State
24. Cincinnati
25. Nebraska

1. USC
2. LSU
2. Florida
4. Oklahoma
5. West Virginia
6. California
7. Ohio State
8. Boston College
9. Rutgers
10. Oregon
11. Texas
12. Clemson
13. Kentucky
14. Wisconsin
15. South Carolina
16. South Florida
17. Georgia
18. Penn State
19. Alabama
20. Missouri
21. Virginia Tech
22. Hawaii
23. Michigan State
24. Arizona State
25. Cincinatti