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New Blog Poll; My AGS Top 25; My Cruddy Picks

New blog poll to your right, there. How optimistic are you about the 2005 Mountain Hawk season? Vote!

To those who care about such things, my AGS Top 25 is below, with a handful of explanations:

1. Delaware
2. Montana St
3. Eastern Washington
4. Western Kentucky
5. Harvard
6. William & Mary
7. Montana
8. Northern Iowa
9. James Madison
10. Furman
11. Lafayette
12. Hampton
13. North Dakota St
14. Lehigh
15. Georgia Southern
16. Northwestern St
17. New Hampshire
18. Cal Poly
19. Coastal Car
20. South Carolina St
21. Grambling
22. Penn
23. McNeese St
24. Eastern Kentucky
25. Western Carolina

Win of the Week: North Dakota St
Loss of the Week: Massachusetts

Delaware at #1? I watched that Lehigh game. They deserve the #1 vote the way they came back. They are absolutely the best Atlantic 10 team right now with JMU and UMass losing, and Bill & Mary, New Hampshire, and Hofstra unproven.

Why Harvard at #5, and why Penn? I think they have an excellent team and will be Harvard's stiffest challenge in the Ivy. Since they and Harvard haven't played, we're still voting on potential, and I think both deserve this ranking.

Eastern Kentucky is 0-2. Why them? The Colonels are 2 plays away from being 2-0 against ranked teams. They deserve votes.

North Dakota St. is the biggest win of the week? In a week of incredible upsets, no upset was more eye-opening than the Bison's 35-7 thrashing of Northwestern St. on the road. Pure domination - and the Bison have all of a sudden gotten on my radar screen. Sure, Coastal Carolina beating James Madison was impressive, but it was a hard fought win - and at home.

UMass is the most significant loss of the week? No team was hurt more than the Minutemen losing to Colgate. Colgate had lost so much face the week before in losing to Central Connecticut St., and then turning around and upsetting UMass put the egg right on their faces.

Here's something early to ponder as well. Two non-playoff bid conferences (the Great West and Big South) had the biggest wins in their conferences' history this past weekend. Let's say you're the second-placed Patriot League team looking for an at-large I-AA playoff bid, but your competition is Coastal Carolina (who beat #1 JMU) and North Dakota St. (who walloped #4 Northwestern St.). Guess which two teams will likely get in first.

My Cruddy Picks
Let's see. 11-11, including an atrocious 1-4 in the Patriot League. And even the ones I got right weren't really right (Kansas 34, App St. 24 leaps to mind). If you get rid of all the bogus I-AA victories over non-D-I competition it's... (shudder)... 7-11!!! I'm not making any excuses - this is just really really bad. Time for the post-mortem so I can look ahead to next week.

Really Right: Southern Illinois 77, Union (KY) 0. Real score: SIU 82, U(KY) 7. Figures I would have to pull from the cheap non-D-I wins as one of the ones that is "really right".

Should have been right: Eastern Kentucky 29, Western Kentucky 28. One lousy stop and my prediction of the Colonels' upset would have been preserved - especially after a furious rally to take the lead late in the game. But the Hilltoppers managed the drive and got the lousy field goal to make it WKU 23, WKU 21.

Was I ever wrong!: N'Western St. 27, North Dakota St. 13. With all my horrible picks to choose from, this one stands out. It hangs in the air like an insult to your mother-in-law's face: "The Bison just can't hang with N'Western St. in Nachitoches." I hear it in slow motion... "The.... Bison... juuuust... cannn't..." The Bison, of course, proved me wrong shortly after the opening kickoff, and proceeded to humiliate me further in a 35-7 butt-whoopin'.

Comments

colgate13 said…
North Dakota State is not eligible for the playoffs, so they're out of the picture.

CCU made a great case for playoff inclusion. They win vs. App State and they will get in at large unless they stumble later.

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