My Power 16

Before I reveal my first Power16 of the 2005 season, I feel the need to tie up a couple of loose ends. I had originally intended to post a top-25, but ultimately decided that 25 was an entirely arbitrary number used by a couple of entirely arbitrary polls. 16 represents the number of teams playing in "major" bowls games at the end of the season. As you may notice, neither Miami nor Florida State appear in my Power16, you may surmise that this is because they did not play until Monday night. Of course that would be wrong though. After watching the game tonight I honestly do not believe that either team is in the top 16 in the country. Florida State doesn't seem to have an offense at the moment and Miami needs to find an offensive line (9 sacks!) before they can be taken seriously. Virginia Tech is looking very good right now in the ACC.

Well, here goes:

1. USC (once again, duh!)
2. Texas (I'm still having Vince Young nightmares)
3. Georgia (safe to say, I was impressed)
4. Iowa (only elite Big Ten team that looked dominant Saturday)
5. Ohio State (won't look as good with Troy Smith at the helm and should have won by more)
6. Michigan (still a homer pick, hopefully Michigan's D just didn't want to tip off ND)
7. Virginia Tech (looking like the class of the ACC right now)
8. LSU (my heart goes out to them)
9. Tennessee (c'mon, only 7 points over UAB?)
10. Florida (erg, rushing game please?)
11. Louisville (will win Big East hands down with Pitt now revealed)
12. Purdue (I'm reserving judgment until they play, but #12 seems about right)
13. Arizona State (hard to get a read against Temple)
14. California (better test against Washington next week, could be 10-1 based on their schedule)
15. Boston College (good win at BYU, will beat FSU at home and win Atlantic Division)
16. Notre Dame (hey, I'm sold...)