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For the first time ever, Boise State actually went up in the BCS rankings this week. What sort of wizardry was this? No one's really sure, but you can guarantee that the BCS won't let it happen again.
Also doing his best to make sure it never happens again is Craig James, voice of irrational people everywhere. James turned in a ballot that had Boise State at No. 10, a full three spots worse than the next lowest voter who had the Broncos at No. 7. As you might imagine, James's rationale for doing so was equal parts ignorant and inane. At least he's dependable.
I did not watch ESPN's BCS countdown show, but I imagine it went a little something like this.
Chadd Cripe and Brian Murphy did watch the program, and their Tweets pretty much confirmed what I thought.
(Now would be a good time to point out that James has Stanford at No. 3, seven full spots higher than Boise State.)
Zing! Nice one, Stewart Mandel.
I'm not sure what else can be added to the James discussion. He is a buffoon who gets paid to have an opinion - any opinion - just so long as he makes the opinion loud and, when pressed for clarification, louder. Television is no place for rational debate, which makes it a perfect place for James. He can say he voted Stanford No. 3 because the Stanford kids study so hard (by that reasoning, shouldn't Army, Navy, and Air Force be 1, 2, and 3?), and Rece Davis won't have the airtime or the monosyllabic words to explain why that makes no sense.
Craig James will continue being Craig James for the rest of the year. I suggest turning your TVs elsewhere and focusing your energy on the real crime here: That his vote counts in a poll.
ESPN's reaction to the BCS standings
The Worldwide Leader responded by posting a video on YouTube titled "Is Boise State overrated?" Don't worry. The actual video is not nearly as inflammatory as the headline.
Official Top 25 polls - AP, USA Today, and BCS Poll
More poll data available at the ESPN website.
Official OBNUG Top 25 poll
If you can't see the image below, go to Google Docs to get the full OBNUG Top 25 breakdown.
Others receiving votes: no one
Explanation: The OBNUG Top 25 poll uses a points-based ranking system to determine its order. Each pollster receives 50 points to distribute to teams as he or she sees fit. The max points that a voter can award a team is 10 points. The minimum is one point. There is no voting for Idaho allowed.
OBNUG voters have made it very clear that it is Alabama and LSU and then Boise State and then the undefeateds and then everyone else. There are clear lines of demarcation between the groups, so I'm curious to know: What's going to happen when LSU and Alabama play in two weeks?
A lot depends on how the game goes, but I know for my personal voting ballot I'm going to have a hard time assigning much blame to the loser of a game featuring my two top teams. You can learn more about the winner of this game than you can the loser, and that doesn't really help me in my balloting. If LSU loses by 40, how far do they drop? It's not like losing to Alabama changes seven weeks of domination of everyone else.
My conclusion: Making you tell me what to do. Hit the comments and let me know.
Transparency is king
Meet your voters for this week, and guffaw in delight at how foolishly you think they voted. If you can't see the embedded votes, visit the Google Docs site for reference.
Your turn - Help shape our BlogPoll and right our wrongs
How can the OBNUG poll be improved? How far should Oklahoma and Wisconsin have dropped? Who's too high and who's too low? Share your thoughts in the comments.