BlogPoll: The Roundtable...Revisited

Note to BlogPollers: I might not have gotten everyone. If I didn't (some of you didn't post responses, preferring instead to e-mail them to me), please post a link to your response so everyone can see, and then feel free to flog me severely for my stupidity. Thanks.

Thanks to all who did play along. I got a better response than I had expected. I figured that only Orson and Brian were big enough losers to give this a whole lot of time and effort during A) the summer and B) the World Cup.

I decided to do this summary a little bit different than I first planned. Before I get started on the individual questions and such, here are links to all the responses I received, in no particular order:

Badger Sports Blog (not a BlogPoller, but this is my roundtable, and he's welcome)
Maize n Brew
Eagle in Atlanta
Sexy Results! (!)
Orange 44
MGoBlog
My Opinion on Sports
Burnt Orange Nation
Sunday Morning Quarterback
MDG College Football
View From Rocky Top
I'm a Realist
Dawg Sports
Every Day Should Be Saturday
Bruins Nation
Kanka Sports
Pitt Sports Blather
Pitch Right
Have You Met Tony?
Oh, and me

As I went through the questions and some of your answers, I also tallied the votes on questions where votes were talliable (word?). On questions like "overrated" and "underrated", I only counted certain mentions of teams, but I did count more than one team from many of your responses, depending on how you answered. Same went for the H*i*m*n question.

Which preseason college football magazine is your favorite?

This went as expected. Phil Steele got a lot of votes. Many, including Pitch Right, made it clear that it wasn't that other major national magazines "sucked", it was that Phil was so good.

I think Sexy Results voted for Phil. I know EDSBS did. And you all know what I think.

Orange 44 voted for Blue Ribbon, which I believe is available in book form or on ESPN Insider later this summer. And if I'm right about the ESPN Insider part (I think I clipped and read the previews last year off ESPN), Blue Ribbon is also a good choice, only it lacks Phil's run-on sentences, gambling info, VHTs, pictures of alleged hotties in bikinis, Turnovers=Turnaround, and really small print.

Tony still likes Athlon's, but he admits he hasn't really paid much attention to the magazines. This is like saying Shasta Cola is really good when you've never tasted Coke, Pepsi, or about 35 other different kinds of pop soda soda pop ah, whatever the hell you all call it.

Totals
Phil Steele 10
Sporting News/Athlon 2 each
Blue Ribbon 1
Sunday Morning Quarterback 1*

(* In case you're wondering, SMQ, Burnt Orange Nation is the suckup vote.)

Which team is being supremely overrated in the preseason rankings?

This was fun. OU fan My Opinion on Sports picked Texas. Burnt Orange Nation picked Oklahoma. Stunning.

MOS probably doesn't want to know that he was the lone wolf on Texas. BON has company in picking Oklahoma, including Orange 44, who has a lack of trust in Rhett Bomar (who can blame him?).

Some, including SMQ, jumped on West Virginia (Phil did, too). I'm humored by this because of something I'm about to point out...just hang on.

Oh, and Notre Dame and Ohio State were sitting ducks for this question, so much so that there were a few of you who refused to acknowledge them (or barely did, like me).

USC received consideration, as well, even though about the only way they'd be overrated in my view is if they were a preseason top 3 team that got the "All-Access" treatment from ESPN while the "Worldwide Leader" ignored real title contenders like, say, Texas (though at least Longhorn fans would be used to this treatment).

Totals
Oklahoma 7
Notre Dame/Florida State/USC 4 each
Ohio State/Miami (FL) 3 each
West Virginia 2
LSU/Texas/Florida/Louisville 1 each

Turn the tables. Who is underrated?

This question received the largest number of different responses. I counted a total of 25, and even more teams were mentioned in passing by various posters (I tried to read your minds in a way to figure out the most important responses to retain for this count).

A surprising love for Boston College (led by SMQB), even though there are those who think they will plateau now after a fine ACC debut. West Virginia is the only team to get multiple mentions as being both overrated and underrated, which leads me to believe that the preseason top 5 love might actually be accurate.

I never thought I'd see a day where I would post that Michigan and Nebraska were, in my view, underrated, but it happened.

And I wasn't shocked to see some mentions made of the Tennessee Volunteers. View From Rocky Top chimed in on the Vols before boarding the plane. And he's probably right. After all, they're not going to go 5-6 again, no matter how much we all would enjoy it.

The Badger Sports Fan selected Michigan State, and Brian from MGoBlog tried to have him whacked for it.

Totals
Boston College/Tennessee/Iowa/Michigan 3 each
Nebraska/LSU/West Virginia 2 each
Navy/Virginia Tech/Temple/Indiana/Wisconsin/LSU/Pittsburgh/Arkansas/Fresno State/California/Texas/UCLA/Auburn/Georgia/Oregon/Purdue/Iowa State/Utah/Michigan State 1 each

Which conference will be best in 2006?

Some, who shall remain unnamed here (COUGHbruinsnationCOUGH), backed away from this question. Others actually tried to answer it.

Eagle in Atlanta likes the Big 12. I like the Pac 10. Dawg Sports homered on the SEC. MGoBlog voted for four, which is, I think, cheating.

Orange 44 digs the SEC, and I don't blame him for that. It's a really good league.

Totals
SEC 6
Big 12/Big 10/Pac 10 2 each
ACC 1

Which "non-BCS" conference will be best in 2006?

No one voted for the Sun Belt.

In fact, MGoBlog voted for "anyone but".

You people suck. And you're boring.

Since your responses were boring, I'm not going to cite any of them. Take that.

Totals
Mountain West 8
Western Athletic 6
Conference USA 3

Which non-BCS conference team will have the best season?

Maize n Brew voted for SMU. And he actually brought a decent argument to the table (I'm not high on SMU, but I really think they have a chance to steal a bowl bid if they can get some QB play).

The Badger Blogging Dude sort of cheated and picked Notre Dame. I should have excluded the, but I counted on you guys to avoid them, since they are a BCS conference by themselves. Somewhere in that mountain of a post, I think Sexy Results! gave some love to Navy, as did I. SMQ is all over Boise State...or Fresno State. MDG had trouble picking between Boise and Utah. I'm a Realist tabbed Fresno State, while EDSBS jumped on the Horned Frog bandwagon, if such a thing exists.

Totals
Utah 4
Navy/Boise State/TCU 3 each
Fresno State 2
SMU/Notre Dame 1 each
Wyoming 1 (though I'm not sure if it was a serious one)

Let's get your first read on this one...who will win the H*i*m*n? Oh, by the way, players whose last names begin with the letter "Q" are ineligible.

Kanka Sports likes Chauncey Washington out of USC, and also the most mentioned choices, Adrian Peterson and Troy Smith.

MDG was the only one to unearth Michael Bush out of Louisville. MOS shocked the BlogPoll world by choosing Peterson. Orange 44 picked Brendan Carney, even though I didn't think NFL kickers were eligible for the H*i*m*n.

Eagle in Atlanta cheated. I'm very upset. I should sentence you to a 1,000-word essay touting a H*i*m*n candidate not named "Quinn", but you'd probably give me the latest Beano Cook rant on how OMG QUINN UNBELIEVEABLE!.

Totals
Peterson 9
Smith 4
Quinn/Carney/Bush/Washington/Kenny Irons/Marshawn Lynch/Chris Leak* 1 each

(* You'll never guess where this came from. I couldn't believe it, either.)