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Week 7 BlogPoll Results: In Which Mark Richt Has Lost Control of Standard Deviations

As the weeks go by, there's less and less that we can all agree on in the world of College Football. This week's disagreements included anyone ranked less than 5.

By Joey Weaver
Jonathan Daniel - Getty Images

Take a look at that "SD" column. S.D., for those unaware, means "Standard Deviation", which is a measure of consistency. A low number means that the team was picked to a certain ranking very consistently (Alabama was a very near unanimous #1 selection). Ohio State's standard deviation of nearly 5.5 means that they fell in a very wide variety of places and nobody has any idea of where to put them (notice the 1 first-place vote...check out the write-up for an explanation on that one). The point here is that the standard deviations absolutely explode after #5 Notre Dame, indicating that only 5 teams have given us any reason to be confident in their abilities and that we really have no idea how good anyone else is. It's just been that kind of year in college football.

College Football Rankings 2011

Results for Week 7

# School Points/blog SD Delta
1 Alabama Crimson Tide (62) 24.64 0.84 --
2 Oregon Ducks (3) 23.32 2.15 --
3 Florida Gators (5) 22.51 1.40 Arrow_up 2
4 Kansas St. Wildcats (1) 21.99 1.36 Arrow_up 2
5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (4) 21.30 1.81 Arrow_up 2
6 LSU Tigers 18.41 2.62 Arrow_up 3
7 South Carolina Gamecocks 17.05 2.44 Arrow_down -4
8 Oregon St. Beavers 16.89 3.84 Arrow_up 2
9 Oklahoma Sooners 16.18 3.44 Arrow_up 5
10 Ohio St. Buckeyes (1) 16.05 5.49 Arrow_down -2
11 Florida St. Seminoles 13.70 3.69 --
12 USC Trojans 13.09 4.69 --
13 Georgia Bulldogs 11.82 3.12 --
14 Mississippi St. Bulldogs 10.21 3.80 Arrow_up 5
15 Louisville Cardinals 9.88 3.84 Arrow_up 3
16 Clemson Tigers 9.49 4.56 --
17 West Virginia Mountaineers 9.29 3.46 Arrow_down -13
18 Texas Tech Red Raiders 8.32 4.52 Arrow_up 13
19 Rutgers Scarlet Knights 7.33 3.61 Arrow_up 1
20 Texas A&M Aggies 6.36 3.70 Arrow_up 4
21 Cincinnati Bearcats 6.24 3.87 --
22 Stanford Cardinal 4.83 4.42 Arrow_down -5
23 Ohio Bobcats 3.96 4.92 --
24 TCU Horned Frogs 2.11 2.61 Arrow_up 4
25 Michigan Wolverines 1.76 2.58 Arrow_up 4
Others Receiving Votes: Boise St. Broncos | Arizona St. Sun Devils | Iowa St. Cyclones | Louisiana Tech Bulldogs | Northwestern Wildcats | Nevada Wolf Pack | Texas Longhorns | Tulsa Golden Hurricane | Northern Illinois Huskies | Toledo Rockets | North Carolina Tar Heels | UCLA Bruins | Wisconsin Badgers | Virginia Tech Hokies | Western Kentucky Hilltoppers | Penn St. Nittany Lions | Nebraska Cornhuskers | Ball St. Cardinals | Utah State Aggies | Kent St. Golden Flashes
Updated: Oct 16, 2012 9:30 AM EDT

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Rankings 2011

A few issues here I want to point out:

1) South Carolina, what the Hell are you doing with your lives?? A week after I thought you might be the team that unseats Alabama, you laid an egg HARD against LSU.

2) Notre Dame is the real deal this year. That defense is dangerous, and the reason they're going to play in (and perhaps win) a BCS game come January.

3) I'm having trouble deciding whether Oklahoma's shallacking of Texas was a testament to how good Oklahoma is or how bad Texas's defense is.

4) Florida will beat georgia in a couple weeks in a very low-scoring game. I say that because Florida's defense is an absolute nightmare for opposing offenses and will play well against georgia's, but at the same time georgia's defense is impressive and can probably stifle Florida's crap-fest offense for the most part.

5) The ACC has only two ranked teams, and only 2 more got any votes at all. Guys, we really suck this year.

Thoughts? How does this year's parity rank among college football seasons that you've seen? Why is this season such a mess in that way?