The Hostile 10 September 27th Edition:

My first cut at the college football Top 10. I place a heavy premium on actual results in actual games. Obviously, I may perceive some teams to be better than their ranking, but that is the beauty of this list, it is dynamic and once those teams (cough cough Florida cough cough Texas) actually dominate a team of worth they will move up the board accordingly. You do control your OOC scheduling and as such you should be punished (or at least not rewarded) when you don't test yourself against the best early.

1. Alabama: They probably have the 2nd best win in the country (VT @ neutral site) to date and stifled an Arkansas offense that just put up 41 on a decent Georgia team. The only real knock on them is that they really only have 2 "tough" games left, LSU (see #10) and MAYBE Auburn.

2. Iowa: I am as anti-Big 10 as they come. The next big game OOC win they have will be the first in probably 5 years, so stay with me here. They have the 8th best scoring defense against what is the 11th toughest SOS to date, plus a win at Happy Valley and an OOC win vs what is most likely a bowl eligible Arizona team. Given, this team probably loses 2-3 games this year and PSU will most likely be looked upon as vastly overrated when all do their end of season post-mortem.

3. Florida: I am not impressed yet. The defense is lights out as you would expect with everyone from the 2 deep returning. They have the 95th SOS. That is right, the defending champions, have a bottom quartile SOS. Not to mention 8 home games. A sound beating of @ LSU might move them up, it might not.

4. Texas: I feel somewhat obligated to do this simply because I can't justify a 1 loss team ahead of them. A 101 ranked SOS makes Florida's SOS look like they play in NFC East. Do I dare even waste my time trying to break down UL-Monroe, Wyoming, Texas Tech, and UTEP?

5. Virginia Tech: They have no margin of error from this point on. That being said, their only loss came against my #1 team in the country and they already have 2 wins vs top 20 ranked teams (Neb, Miami) and the 4th toughest SOS in the land. They single-handedly stopped the "U's" revival this weekend and now Luther Campbell will have to postpone his 5th coming out party. Tyrod Taylor and the 79th ranked offense probably means the stay up here will be brief.

6. Boise State: What to do with Boise State? Do I think this is the 6th best team in the country? No way. Do I think if they had to play in a BCS conference that their lack of depth would cause them 3+ loses per year? Sure. It is a whole lot easier to play Oregon one week and then rest up a bit with Miami (OH), Bowling Green, and UC Davis. But, Boise State really is a system quandary for me. They have already played their only team of substance (Oregon) this year and it is starting to look like that team is nothing like they appeared to be on the blue turf. All will be much easier when Oregon drops another but I don't see this Boise State team ever moving up from here.

7. Cincinnati: Strictly a "to date" ranking for Cincinnati. As bad as their SOS has been they have still played a tougher slate than both Florida and Texas, plus they actually went on the road to Corvallis, which is some dinky farming town in the Pacific Northwest that not many come out alive from. Pitt and W. Virginia look like the only 2 tough games remaining, but win them all and Cincinnati will be a mainstay in these rankings. Hard to find a better young football mind than Brian Kelly.

8. Oregon: The loss to Boise State was a debacle, a complete embarrassment (although not as embarrassing as it must have been personally for new HC Chip Kelly to have current AD and former HC Mike Bellotti whispering sweet nothings in his ear on the sideline as the game was actually going on). So, what do we have now? A return to the high octane offense ways of the past, a RB that doesn't fling rights and stays away from the buffet, the 3 best wins of any team in the country against the 3rd toughest SOS in the country.

9. USC: They have the best win of any team right now in the country and at this point in the season it is all about wins. Their loss at UW came without the best defensive player in college football, their starting QB, their starting center, their #2 WR, and a limping #1 RB. As we seem to say every year, they still should have won that game and my guess is this is a 3 loss team. Still, this program under PC is the best "big game" team I have ever seen. A loss to Cal next week and they may be banished for the remainder of the season.

10. TCU: I started to list out LSU here, but then I dug a little deeper and the whole thing just stunk and I found myself defending a statistically abysmal team who beat a Mississippi State team thanks to the Bulldogs proclivity for passes on the 2 foot line. LSU can prove me wrong this weekend against Georgia. So, I showered the dirt off and came back to TCU. They are already 2-0 in the ACC with wins against Virginia and Clemson and they have the 12th rated defense in the country right now. With wins vs BYU and Utah, this is the most likely team to break into BCS.

My BCS predictions:

NC Game: Florida vs Texas
Rose Bowl: Oregon vs Ohio State
Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma vs TCU
Orange Bowl: Cincinnati vs Virginia Tech
Sugar Bowl: Alabama vs USC