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Believe it or not, for a fifth-straight week we have a change at the top spot of the CFRA poll!  Last week, LSU nosed out Alabama by a single point to take the # 1 spot, but this week the roles reverse as the Tide finish just one point ahead of the Tigers.  Even more astonishing may be the fact that LSU finished with six more first-place votes than Bama yet still fell short of the top spot!  The reason for this is that no voter ranked Alabama worse than third, yet a few CFRA pollsters put LSU at # 4 or 5.  There was also one major break of 40 or more points in this week’s poll between Oklahoma State at # 7 and Clemson at # 8.

1.  Alabama (3)- 384 points

2.  LSU (9)- 383 points

3.  Oklahoma (2)- 368 points

4.  Boise State (1)- 351 points

5.  Wisconsin (1)- 338 points

6.  Stanford- 318 points

7.  Oklahoma State- 314 points

8.  Clemson- 266 points

9.  Oregon- 255 points

10.  Texas- 222 points

11.  Michigan- 198 points

12.  Arkansas- 178 points

13.  Georgia Tech- 174 points

14.  Nebraska- 172 points

15.  Florida- 144 points

16.  Auburn- 130 points

17.  South Carolina- 114 points

18.  Illinois- 113 points

19.  Kansas State- 109 points

20.  Virginia Tech- 106 points

21.  West Virginia- 93 points

22.  Michigan State- 76 points

23.  Texas A & M- 66 points

24.  Florida State- 60 points

25.  Arizona State- 53 points

Others Receiving Votes: Houston 39, Baylor 39, Texas Tech 32, Southern California 19, South Florida 18, SMU 13, Penn State 10, Virginia 10, Georgia 8, Notre Dame 7, Pittsburgh 6, Wake Forest 5, Cincinnati 4, Washington 3, Tennessee 1, Iowa 1

Dropped Out: TCU 21

Teams Ranked Higher in CFRA than AP and Coaches Polls: Alabama (1), Boise State (4), Florida (15), Kansas State (19) Texas A & M (23).

Teams Ranked Lower in CFRA than AP and Coaches Polls: West Virginia (21), Florida State (24), Arizona State (25).

Teams Ranked Exactly the Same in All 3 Major Human Polls (AP, CFRA, and Coaches): Clemson (8), Oregon (9), Georgia Tech (13).

 

For the fourth straight week, we have a change at the top spot of the CFRA top 25.  LSU has now taken over as the number one team in the country edging out Alabama by a single point.  There was one tie in this week poll and three major breaks of at least 40 points.  The tie occurred at the 23 spot between West Virginia and Florida State, two squads who suffered disappointing losses on Saturday.  The major breaks in the poll are between Oklahoma State and Nebraska (# 7 and 8), Florida and Clemson (# 12 and 13), and Texas and Michigan (# 17 and 18).

1.  LSU (10)- 407 points

2.  Alabama (3)- 406 points

3.  Oklahoma (3)- 396 points

4.  Boise State (1)- 376 points

5.  Stanford- 339 points

6.  Wisconsin- 338 points

7.  Oklahoma State- 336 points

8.  Nebraska- 292 points

9.  Virginia Tech- 272 points

10.  Oregon- 266 points

11.  South Carolina- 263 points

12.  Florida- 243 points

13.  Clemson- 181 points

14.  Texas A & M- 180 points

15.  South Florida- 172 points

16.  Baylor- 168 points

17.  Texas- 151 points

18.  Michigan- 112 points

19.  Arkansas- 107 points

20.  Georgia Tech- 97 points

21.  TCU- 79 points

22.  Illinois- 64 points

23.  West Virginia- 55 points

23.  Florida State- 55 points

25.  Michigan State- 32 points

Others Receiving Votes:  Houston 26, Arizona State 22, Kansas State 20, Texas Tech 17, Southern California 11, Penn State 9, Auburn 9, Ohio State 8, Iowa State 7, Navy 4, Notre Dame 3, Washington 2.

Dropped Out:  Southern California 23.

Teams Ranked Higher in CFRA than AP and Coaches Polls: Wisconsin (6), Virginia Tech (9), Michigan (18), Georgia Tech (20)

Teams Ranked Lower in CFRA than AP and Coaches Polls:  Oklahoma (3), Oklahoma State (7), South Carolina (11), Arkansas (19), TCU (21)

Teams Ranked Exactly the Same in All 3 Major Human Polls (AP, CFRA, and Coaches): Nebraska (8), Florida (12), Texas (17)

The biggest change in this week’s CFRA poll is at the top where Oklahoma has regained its # 1 ranking after temporarily losing it to Alabama.  LSU and Boise remain at # 3 and 4 respectively, and Stanford has now jumped into the top 5 after Florida State’s loss to Oklahoma.  There are no ties in this week’s poll but there are three major breaks of 40points or more.  These major gaps exist between the # 4 and 5 spots (Boise State and Stanford), the 15 and 16 spots (Florida and West Virginia), and # 19 and 20 (Texas and Clemson).

1.  Oklahoma (7)- 387 points

2.  Alabama (4)- 376 points

3.  LSU (4)- 368 points

4.  Boise State (1)- 361 points

5.  Stanford- 320 points

6.  Wisconsin- 316 points

7.  Oklahoma State- 297 points

8.  Texas A & M- 263 points

9.  Nebraska- 253 points

10.  Arkansas- 232 points

11.  Oregon- 229 points

12.  Virginia Tech- 226 points

13.  South Carolina- 222 points

14.  Florida State- 199 points

15.  Florida- 185 points

16.  West Virginia- 134 points

17.  South Florida- 130 points

18.  Baylor- 122 points

19.  Texas- 111 points

20.  Clemson- 64 points

21.  Michigan- 56 points

22.  Georgia Tech- 49 points

23.  Southern California- 48 points

24.  TCU- 45 points

25.  Illinois- 43 points

Others Receiving Votes:  FIU 37, Michigan State 27, Houston 23, Miami-FL 14, Texas Tech 10, Notre Dame 10, Auburn 9, Vanderbilt 8, Ohio State 7, Maryland 4, Penn State 3, Navy 3, Missouri 3, North Carolina 2, Iowa State 2, Ohio 1, Mississippi State 1.

Dropped Out:  Ohio State 17, Auburn 18, Arizona State 22, Mississippi State 24.

Teams Ranked Higher in CFRA than AP and Coaches Polls:  Arkansas (10), Clemson (20), Georgia Tech (22)

Teams Ranked Lower in CFRA than AP and Coaches Polls:  South Carolina (13), TCU (24), Michigan State (NR)

Teams Ranked Exactly the Same in All 3 Major Human Polls (AP, CFRA, and Coaches):  Oklahoma (1), Boise State (4), Texas A & M (8), Nebraska (9), Florida (15), West Virginia (16)

The second week of college football is in the books and we have one major change near the top of this week’s CFRA poll.  Florida State has jumped Stanford for the # 5 spot, nosing out the Cardinal by a single point in this week’s rankings.  Interestingly enough, the  only other one point disparity in this week’s poll is at the # 3 spot, as Boise State has narrowed LSU’s eight point margin down to one. Conversely, we also have two major breaks of 30 points or more in the week 2 top 25, both involving teams from Florida.  One of these gaps is between the forementioned teams Boise State and Florida State (ranked # 4 and 5), and the other is between Oregon and Florida at the # 14 and 15 spots.  Furthermore, we have one tie in this week’s poll, which at # 24 between TCU and Mississippi State.  Here are this week’s rankings:

1.  Alabama (8)- 340 points

2.  Oklahoma (4)- 329 points

3.  LSU (1)- 316 points

4.  Boise State (1)- 315 points

5.  Florida State- 274 points

6.  Stanford- 273 points

7.  Wisconsin- 263 points

8.  Oklahoma State- 241 points

9.  Nebraska- 217 points

10.  South Carolina- 210 points

11.  Texas A & M- 203 points

12.  Arkansas- 201 points

13.  Virginia Tech- 194 points

14.  Oregon- 177 points

15.  Florida- 140 points

16.  Michigan State- 126 points

17.  Ohio State- 104 points

18.  Auburn- 83 points

19.  South Florida- 76 points

20. Baylor- 74 points

21.  West Virginia- 66 points

22.  Arizona State- 64 points

23.  Texas- 38 points

24.  TCU- 34 points

24.  Mississippi State- 34 points

Others Receiving Votes:  Southern California 32, Houston 23, UCF 18, Penn State 14, Georgia Tech 10, Illinois 9, Michigan 9, Northwestern 8, Texas Tech 8, Tennessee 7, FIU 7, Maryland 6, Brigham Young 4, Missouri 4, Clemson 1.

Dropped Out: Penn State 19, Missouri 20, Southern California 24.

Teams Ranked Higher in CFRA than AP and Coaches Polls: Alabama (1), Nebraska (9), South Carolina (10), Arkansas (12), Florida (15), Auburn (18), South Florida (19), Mississippi State (24)

Teams Ranked Lower in CFRA than AP and Coaches Polls: Oklahoma (2), Texas A & M (11), Michigan State (16), West Virginia (21), TCU (24)

Teams Ranked Exactly the Same in All 3 Major Human Polls (AP, CFRA, and Coaches): LSU (3), Boise State (4), Florida State (5), Stanford (6)

The CFRA poll has been released and we have a change at the top.  Alabama has overtaken Oklahoma a the # 1 ranked team in the country even though both teams cruised to blowout victories on Saturday.  Another interesting aspect of the poll is that we once again have a multitude of teams receiving votes into the poll, as 47 different squads received at least one top 25 vote.  Such a phenomenon clearly speaks to the perceived parity in college football this season as well as the geographic and ideological diversity that exists within the CFRA.  There are also a couple of major breaks of 40 or points in this week’s poll.  These major gaps exist between the # 4 and 5 spots (Boise State and Stanford) and the # 14 and 15 spots (Oregon and Mississippi State).  Furthermore, if you scroll down to see which teams were ranked higher or lower in the CFRA than the other major polls you will see that there appears to be some surprising conference trends emerging.  This poll has rarely ranked Big 10 teams favorably,  but in this week’s poll you will see that both Big 10  powerhouses (Nebraska and Wisconsin) were ranked higher in the CFRA than both the AP and Coaches.  Conversely, the Big 12 and ACC had numerous teams ranked lower in this poll than the other major human polls.

1.  Alabama (7)- 383 points

2.  Oklahoma (6)- 380 points

3.  LSU (2)- 365 points

4.  Boise State (1)- 357 points

5.  Stanford- 315 points

6.  Florida State- 307 points

7.  Wisconsin- 280 points

8.  Oklahoma State- 266 points

9.  Nebraska- 248 points

10.  Texas A & M- 241 points

11.  Arkansas- 229 points

12.  Virginia Tech- 226 points

13.  South Carolina- 210 points

14.  Oregon- 202 points

15.  Mississippi State- 155 points

16.  Michigan State- 137 points

17.  Ohio State- 134 points

18.  Florida- 112 points

19.  Penn State- 83 points

20.  Missouri- 70 points

20.  West Virginia- 70 points

22.  Texas- 50 points

23.  Baylor- 46 points

24.  Southern California- 43 points

25.  South Florida- 42 points

Others Receiving Votes:  TCU 36, Auburn 35, Utah 22, Brigham Young 20, Arizona State 19, Houston 15, Georgia 15, Air Force 14, Northern Illinois 10, Northwestern 9, Illinois 8, Iowa 7, Clemson 7, Texas Tech 6, Hawaii 5, NC State 4, Maryland 4, Georgia tech 4, Notre Dame 3, UCF 3, Michigan 2, Pittsburgh 1.

Dropped Out: TCU 15, Notre Dame 19, Georgia 20, Auburn 23

Teams Ranked Higher in CFRA than AP and Coaches Polls: Alabama (1), Stanford (5), Wisconsin (7), Nebraska (9), Arkansas (11), Mississippi State (15), Penn State (19)

Teams Ranked Lower in CFRA than AP and Coaches Polls: Oklahoma (2), Florida State (6), Texas A &M (10), Virginia Tech (12), South Carolina (13), Ohio State (17), TCU (unranked), Arizona State (unranked)

Teams Ranked Exactly the Same in All 3 Major Human Polls (AP, CFRA, and Coaches): Florida (18)

College football is back, and so is the College Football Researchers Association top 25 poll!  We are now entering the third year of the new CFRA poll, and before I get into the specifics and intricacies of this preseason edition, I’d like to make a major announcement.  This year’s NCAA Record Book was published just a few weeks ago, and in it you will find that the CFRA has gained prominent position in the world of college football.  Here’s a link to the book in pdf format: http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/stats/football_records/2011/FBS.pdf.  If you scroll down to page 70, you will see the CFRA is listed as one of the 16 active NCAA-recognized ranking systems and on p. 71 you will see a full description of  our poll’s history.   More importantly, however, you find on the chart on p. 70 in the far right column that the CFRA is one of the only two ranking systems in the country who has declared a national champion for all 141 seasons college football has been played!  We were able to obtain this honor by recently declaring and reporting to the NCAA several of our past national champions.  Last fall, myself and other voters worked to dig up some of the of the old CFRA polls where predated national champions were crowned from the late 1800s.  Also, our organization voted last December on predated champions from the years of 1993-2008, the period in which the CFRA was inactive.  As a result of these efforts, we were able to declare and record CFRA champions for every single year college football has been played.  The Billingsley Report is the only other rankings system which can say that, and that report is mathematical in nature.  Thus, the CFRA has officially become the  most comprehensive and historical multi-voter poll in the entire nation.

Now, on to our preseason poll for 2011.   Many experts are claiming that college football is as wide open and parity-ridden as ever entering the 2011 season, and the CFRA preseason poll certainly exemplifies that.  In all, 50 different teams received top 25 votes, which is the most since the CFRA was re-established three years ago.  There are also both some similarities and differences between this poll and the mainstream Coaches and AP Polls published a couple of weeks ago.  The top 3 in all the polls are the same, but Boise State is ranked fourth in the CFRA, which is higher than both of the other major human polls.  Another interesting aspect of this poll is that Alabama actually received the most first-place votes but ended up being ranked # 2 behind Oklahoma.  Here is this year’s CFRA preseason poll.

 1.  Oklahoma (3)- 346 points

2.  Alabama (7)- 343 points

3.  Oregon (2)- 326 points

4.  Boise State (2)- 315 points

5.  LSU- 300 points

6.  Stanford- 290 points

7.  Florida State- 245 points

8.  Wisconsin- 224 points

9.  Oklahoma State- 223 points

10.  Nebraska- 206 points

11.  Arkansas- 200 points

12.  Virginia Tech- 199 points

13.  Texas A & M- 196 points

14.  South Carolina- 182 points

15.  TCU- 157 points

16.  Michigan State- 111 points

17.  Ohio State- 109 points

18.  Mississippi State- 106 points

19.  Notre Dame- 100 points

20.  Georgia- 99 points

21.  Missouri- 84 points

22.  Florida- 75 points

23.  Auburn (1)- 65 points

24.  Southern Cal- 45 points

25.  Texas- 43 points 

Others Receiving Votes:  West Virginia 39, Penn State 35, Brigham Young 29, Nevada 29, Utah 21, Pittsburgh 15, Iowa 14, Arizona State 14, Miami-FL 14, Air Force 12, Houston 11, Navy 10, Hawaii 8, Northern Illinois 6, Illinois 6, Central Florida 5, South Florida 3, Clemson 3, Texas Tech 3, Tulsa 3, Georgia Tech 2, NC State 1, Wake Forest 1, Northwestern 1, San Diego State 1. 

Teams Ranked Higher in CFRA than AP and Coaches Polls: Boise State (4), Wisconsin (8), Arkansas (11), Virginia Tech (12), Michigan State (16), Mississippi State (18)

Teams Ranked Lower in CFRA than AP and Coaches Polls: LSU (5), Florida State (7), Texas A & M (13), South Carolina (14), Notre Dame (19)

Teams Ranked Exactly the Same in All 3 Major Human Polls (AP, CFRA, and Coaches): Oklahoma (1), Alabama (2), Oregon (3), Missouri (21)

I’m excited to announce that the College Football Researchers Association has created a discussion for fans and members alike to debate and discuss college football news items from both the past and present.  You don’t have to be a CFRA member to join, so please go to the link below, create an account, and participate in this world-class college football forum. 

http://cfra.yuku.com/

Please click on the CFRA Almanac tab above and scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the complete list of CFRA champions.  Here are a few interesting observations I made while constructing the list:

1.  There have been 142 CFRA national champions but only 13 schools have just one title.  That definitely speaks to how the sport has been dominated by dynasties.

2.  The last current non-AQ team to win a championship was BYU in 1984 but before that you have to go all the way back to Army in 1946.

3.  Penn, Harvard, Minnesota, and Pittsburgh all have four or more national championships, whereas, Penn State, Ole Miss, and Iowa only have one each.

Here are some stats comparing  our poll with the final AP and Coaches polls. 

Teams Ranked Higher in CFRA than AP, and Coaches: Boise State (6), NC State (24)

Teams Ranked Lower in CFRA than AP, and Coaches:  Oklahoma (7), Arkansas (13), Maryland (25)

Teams Ranked Exactly the Same in All 3 Major Human Polls (AP, CFRA, and Coaches):  Auburn (1), TCU (2), Oregon (3), Stanford (4), Ohio State (5), LSU (8), Michigan State (14), Missouri (18), South Carolina (22)

Much like all other college football polls across the nation,  the College Football Researchers Association (CFRA)  has elected Auburn University as its 2010 college football national champion.  We would like to congratulate the Tigers for their amazing season which earned them their third CFRA national championship (1957, 1983, 2010).  However, it is worth noting that Auburn’s margin of victory is much narrower in this poll than in most others.  TCU was able to garner 41.2% of the first-place votes cast leaving them only 8 points behind the Tigers when all the ballots were counted.  This result is similar to last year’s final result where Boise State finished received 40% of the first-place votes and lost by 4 points to Alabama.  Another interesting aspect of this final poll is that the 48 different teams received votes, which is the most since week 2 of the season. 

1.  Auburn (10)- 418 points

2.  TCU (7)- 410 points

3.  Oregon- 394 points

4.  Stanford- 372 points

5.  Ohio State- 342 points

6.  Boise State- 332 points

7.  Oklahoma- 310 points

8.  LSU- 296 points

9.  Wisconsin- 293 points

10.  Alabama- 265 points

11.  Nevada- 252 points

12.  Oklahoma State- 240 points

13.  Arkansas- 239 points

14.  Michigan State- 202 points

15.  Virginia Tech- 184 points

16.  Mississippi State- 153 points

17.  Florida State- 140 points

18.  Missouri- 122 points

19.  Nebraska- 92 points

20.  Central Florida- 87 points

21.  Texas A & M- 80 points

22.  South Carolina- 48 points

23.  Utah- 46 points

24.  NC State- 30 points

25.  Maryland- 29 points

Others Receiving Votes: Northern Illinois 25, Tulsa 23, Texas Tech 17, Miami-OH 17, Iowa 16, San Diego State 10, South Florida 8, West Virginia 7, Florida 6, Southern Cal 5, Navy 4, Pittsburgh 3, Arizona 3, Air Force 3, UConn 1, Hawaii 1

Dropped Out: West Virginia 23, Hawaii 25

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