After Oregon lost at home today vs Cal, Herbstreit moved up Oregon to #5 in his poll. He has Cal at #3.
Cal at #3 is only reasonable. But only Herbie could rationalize dropping USC after a win and raising Oregon after a loss. He's nuts. Pay no attention.
I don't think the #11 team should have to fall when they lose to #6. Just b/c they didn't beat #6 doesn't mean they aren't good enough to stay as #11. Now add in the fact that #s 3, 4, 7, and 10 all lost to unranked teams and #5 lost to #18 and I can see where Oregon could be moved up from #11 even after the loss. IMO, this is a major flaw with the polls. It's been the custom to drop a team after a loss even when the loss was to a higher ranked team, which is what should be expected if the poll was right going into the game, don't you think?
This is a very accurate assessment and is a point of contention I have always had with polls and rankings. The counter to this argument though is that there are always teams one week that do not impress or "deserve" the ranking they have while teams behind them do show up and put on a performance a poll-voter may consider more "worthy" of that spot. Thus if #11 loses to #6 and no one else in the top 15 loses, they may move #11 down because #16 had a great performance. It's a strange system that is ultimately purely subjective as evidenced by Herbie's flip-flopping LSU and USC on this week of all weeks. Neither team showed up and gave a very good performance based on their competition. Brian ~Go Tigers!~
