Week 4 Top 25

1. Auburn (3-0)
2. Ohio State (3-0)
3. Southern California (3-0)
4. West Virginia (3-0)
5. Florida (3-0)
6. Michigan (3-0)
7. Texas (2-1)
8. Louisiana State (2-1)
9. Notre Dame (2-1)
10. Louisville (3-0)
11. Georgia (3-0)
12. Virginia Tech (3-0)
13. Tennessee (2-1)
14. Oregon (3-0)
15. Iowa (3-0)
16. Florida State (2-1)
17. California (2-1)
18. Oklahoma (2-1)
19. Clemson (2-1)
20. Texas Christian (3-0)
21. Nebraska (2-1)
22. Arizona State (3-0)
23. Penn State (2-1)
24. Rutgers (3-0)
25. Boston College (3-0)

Games Watched: Notre Dame v. Michigan, Louisville v. Miami (20 stats max), Auburn v. LSU (15 snaps max including last 3 plays), Florida v. Tennessee (quarter and half max), TCU v. Texas Tech (quarter max), FSU v. Clemson (quarter max), WVU v. Maryland (on and off while eating dinner), USC v. Nebraska (one half max)

Logic: I like MGoBlog's idea of ranking teams based on who would win on a neutral field. If I understand correctly, this is similar to Bill Simmons' NBA Player Value logic (a team with player X would trade him for any of the players listed higher than player X...for example, a team with the tenth best player would trade him for any of the players ranked 1-9). Here, the number 1 team in the country would beat 2-25 on a neutral field, 2 would beat 3-25, so forth and so on.

Problems: After the top 6, things got difficult for me. I based my rankings using the logic above and for the teams I didn't watch, I looked primarily at 3 factors: opponent, score, and past results (including 1st hand observations if applicable).

At 7-9, I slotted Texas, Notre Dame, and LSU. I moved Texas from 8 to 7 because of it's win, coupled with LSU's loss. Using the neutral field logic, I placed both ahead of Notre Dame.

My other problem spot was the 13-16 block, particularly what to do with Tennessee. The Vols were missing 3 key players and only lost by 1 at home to Florida. I knew Oregon would move up, partly because higher ranked teams losing. Oregon checks in at 14 because I don’t know what to make of Iowa. They barely beat Syracuse without Drew Tate but it appears they are getting better week to week like Iowa teams normally do. Florida State is at 16 because of their defense.

I did my best with the rest. Comments welcome.