OBNUG Ballot - Week 7

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Ohio St. Buckeyes	1
2	Ohio Bobcats	3
3	South Carolina Gamecocks	-2
4	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	--
5	Alabama Crimson Tide	-2
6	Florida Gators	1
7	Louisiana Tech Bulldogs	2
8	Northern Illinois Huskies	12
9	Nevada Wolf Pack	16
10	Toledo Rockets	14
11	Kansas St. Wildcats	-1
12	Boise St. Broncos	1
13	Tulsa Golden Hurricane	6
14	Northwestern Wildcats	3
15	Oregon St. Beavers	--
16	Louisville Cardinals	7
17	Rutgers Scarlet Knights	--
18	Mississippi St. Bulldogs	-3
19	Oregon Ducks	-11
20	UCLA Bruins	--
21	LSU Tigers	--
22	Georgia Bulldogs	-16
23	USC Trojans	--
24	Ball St. Cardinals	--
25	Utah State Aggies	--
Dropouts: Penn St. Nittany Lions, Texas Longhorns, Duke Blue Devils, Clemson Tigers, West Virginia Mountaineers, Stanford Cardinal, Michigan St. Spartans

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "

For the first time this season, there is a clear-cut No. 1 team in America - not in the polls of media and experts but rather in the convoluted machinations of my well-intentioned BlogPoll. The Ohio State University leads the nation in wins over D1A teams. They don't take their first bye until November 10, so get used to them in this spot.

The remainder of my Top 25 is much weirder than usual, thanks to this week's tiebreaker. For a refresher, here is the mission statement for my Top 25:

My Top 25 operates under the assumption that all FBS football teams are equal because, if they weren't, the NCAA obviously wouldn't group them all into the same classification. That would just make no sense.

Therefore, to choose the best from the FBS, I am building my BlogPoll based on one very big factor: Wins over fellow FBS teams. When ties happen within my standings (and they happen A LOT early in the season), I will do the tie-breaking based on a new stat every week, like, say, points allowed or Dairy Queens per capita. You know, real scientific stuff.

This week's tie-breaking method is the lowest average of recruiting stars. In other words, who does the most with the least (no offense, Sun Belt)? The suggestion came courtesy of a comment, and the data came courtesy of MKingery who computed Rivals star ratings for the past four years for every team in the country and then came up with an overall average. Complete details are here, if you're into spreadsheets.

Notable:

• Spots three through six were highly competitive among South Carolina, Notre Dame, Alabama, and Florida. Half a star separates the four schools, so that's, what, an Idaho recruit?
• Boise State actually suffers a bit using this week's tiebreaker as the Broncos recruit better than half of America's top-level college football teams. BSU even recruits better than Kansas State, according to the numbers. The Broncos average 2.59 stars over the past four years. The Wildcats 2.54.
• Congratulations to Louisiana Tech for recruiting poorly, winning lots, and earning a No. 7 rank as the most underrecruited five-win school in the country.
• Ball State and Utah State slip into the Top 25 with the lowest star ratings among four-loss teams. The Ballers and Aggies are just behind schools like USC, LSU, and Georgia who are doing less with more compared to their fellow five-win brothers.

The complete Top 25 table is below.

Got a suggestion for a tie-breaking procedure? I'm all ears.

Got a beef with the way I do my polling? Beef away in the comments.

Got some ways to make this Top 25 better? Please help. I'm easily swayed.