How high will the Bulls be ranked?

Lots of good questions to be considered before the new AP and coaches' top 25 polls come out Sunday afternoon. Just how high can the No. 18 Bulls jump after knocking off No. 5 West Virginia in what turned out to be at best the third-biggest upset of the weekend? Could USF be the highest-ranked team in the state? And with Rutgers losing to Maryland, is USF now the team to  beat in the Big East?

-- The Big East will probably take some hits this week, nationally. The conference's preseason Big Three of West Virginia, Louisville and Rutgers have already lost four games to teams that weren't ranked when the season started. There will be a lot of ranked teams, but you'll probably hear criticism as to whether there's a real national contender in the league. It's going to take a while for USF or Cincinnati to be taken as seriously as the three programs that earned their national credibility last season.

-- My guess right now is that USF will be ranked 10th. Here's the logic: From being ranked 18th, I see the Bulls easily jumping five teams that lost this weekend (No. 5 West Virginia, No. 7 Texas, No. 10 Rutgers, No. 11 Oregon, No. 13 Clemson). After beating a respected top-five team like West Virginia, I think the Bulls hop ahead of one-loss teams South Carolina, Georgia and Virginia Tech, and that puts them 10th. That would have Kentucky ranked ninth, but very vulnerable to losing at South Carolina this week; Oklahoma, now sixth in my rankings, could fall at Texas, which I've got pegged at 12th. USF also could pass the LSU-Florida loser, which means simply by faring well at Florida Atlantic, the Bulls could be ranked eighth or even seventh when they play host to Central Florida in two weeks. Remember just a month ago when USF was, what, 38th, counting deep into Also Receiving Votes?

-- This weekend's games helped validate USF's start -- you think that win at Auburn looks like a significant one again now? And for the Bulls to beat North Carolina by 27, then have UNC give Virginia Tech a scare, losing 17-10 in Blacksburg, that adds some punch to USF's 4-0 start. Having said that, the Bulls now likely won't play another team ranked in the top 10 this season. Rutgers and Cincinnati should be ranked, and I think Louisville could get back in by November, so there will be pressure for USF to not only win its games but win convincingly to show voters they belong at such a high ranking.

Thoughts? Picks on where the Bulls should be ranked? Even with USF having a road win against the Auburn team that knocked off Florida in Gainesville, it's hard for me to see voters dropping the Gators much lower than eighth or ninth.

Comments

[Curtiss Gibson]

Craziness!!!!!

[Curtiss Gibson]

And by the way... fans need to head south to FAU. If we falter somewhere down the road, fan turnout at that game will help show that we can take our show on the road and could be a deciding factor to a bowl committee.

As far as the poll, I'm thinking 10-12. The way teams are falling, all we need to do is keep on winning. We run the table and things will work out no matter what we are viewed as tomorrow.

[ChiTownBull]

I think we should be 8 or 9

Greg I know you are a gator but how can you justify them staying in the top 10 after losing at home to an unranked opponent?

Also, why would you only drop OK to #6?

[Mark]

Oklahoma will fall out of the top 10. They loss to an unranked team.

[Rob]

USF has to be ranked over UF at this point. UF has a loss. USF has a better strength of schedule so far and 2 meaningful wins. USF beat Auburn on the road and UF lost to them at the Swamp. How fast has this town turned? I was out tonight and when Auburn won the game the place went nuts and chants of USF, USF, USF broke out. It was amazing. GO BULLS!! This is Bulls country!!

[ChiTownBull]

Rob - Great to hear how Tampa is finally waking up to the BULLS!

[G.A.]

I think that nationally, Oklahoma and Florida were perceived as elite-level teams. As a voter, you don't slide them below all the undefeated teams automatically. This one of those things that will shake itself out very quickly: if Florida can beat LSU this week, they'll be ranked ahead of USF; if Florida takes a second loss, then they'll drop down into the teens.

It's like Auburn: you can say Florida lost to an unranked team, yes, but if they were No. 17 when they lost to USF, now they have two down-to-the-wire games against top-10 teams and a bad loss to Mississippi State. Which of those two things is the more accurate depiction of how good Auburn is? I think very soon, you'll see Auburn back in the polls with two losses.

[Andy]

I agree that we won't be ranked above UF, but that is one of the ways the ystem in flawed. I don't care who is "respected" because of tradition...I think USF is currently throwing tradition out the window. The fact remains that Auburn beat Florida at the Swamp, and USF beat Auburn at their house. That should automatically put USF above UF...but it probabally won't. We just need to keep winning.

Also, go online and vote for Ben Moffitt's INT for a touchdown on ESPN for the week's game-changing performance. A lot of competition.

[cee]

these rankings are pointless, especially for USF. when you are as lucky as we have been after 4 games, we don't deserve much of the praise. remember, there were a lot of turnovers vs. auburn and vs. WVU. they gave the game to us on both occasions. by no means did we take it from them. and even in the WVU game, pat white didn't play all 4 quarters. the voters will see this and they will act accordingly. whether it is next week or the week after and all the weeks after that, the lack of discipline and thuggery will catch up to this program. leavitt has built our program on a bunch of wooden stilts and it is bound to fall over like a stack of cards. casual USF fans, do not fall for this illusion. the passionate USF knows that this wave of emotion that you casual fans are riding on is temporary. our annual "choke" loss is upon us, so just be prepared and do not underestimate the poor job that Leavitt has done up until this point.

[DR]

An overtime game, involving a lot of turnovers, and a last second field goal were the 2 Auburn games. A last second field goal won't drop Florida out of the top 10. I don't think USF will crack the top 10. Those sore loser coaches from Auburn and West Virginia won't rank them that high. I think they'll be #11 and that is screwed up, but the Bulls just need to keep doing their thing and kicking some tail and they'll be up there at the end of the season for sure.

[DR]

Cee, you definitely sound like a crying gator, its embarrassing! You're national title hopes are gone and maybe, just maybe you will be able to win the state title. You guys were loving Tebow, now what?
If you watched the game as a football fan, and not a Gator fan, you would have noticed that the turnovers against West Virginia were forced by USF. Pressure and hard hitting created TOs. Florida should change their name to the Florida Pillow Fluffers. Florida's defense is nowhere near as good as the Bulls DE.
Cee, go to Sam's club and buy a couple of those jumbo packs of tissues for you and your gator friends, you will need them for a while, especially after a 2 game losing streak, cause LSU's gonna whoop that a**!

[Ken]

#11. Oklahoma, Florida, and yes, even WVU aren't going to fall that far for one loss--all stay in the top 10. We move ahead of the other teams that lost (Clemson, Rutgers, Texas, and Oregon, though Oregon's loss to Cal shouldn't hurt them much, and we jump VT, SC, and Georgia. We will get into the top 10 if we win the next two weeks, but to stay there we'll have to beat Rutgers. Winning, not rankings, is the name of the game from here on out.

[USFBULL10-4]

CEE,

Every week you've been telling us we're going to get killed.

You must hate your life !

I would hate to be you.

You have blasted AUBURN for the past 3 weeks, saying they suck. And that our win @ AUBURN means nothing. How can you still feel that way? You can't keep coming up with excuses !

Turnovers and injuries are part of the game, they're not excuses for winning. They are the reasons teams win !

Should we be polite and give the team the ball back when they fumble and tell them we have a guy in Tampa on a message board that doesn't think recovering fumbles is a fair way to win?

Or when a player gets hurt, should we stop the game and re-schedule it until he gets better?

This is how you sound CEE !

This is another great day for USF fans !

[Bulnes]

Go figure the BULLS are 4-0 and every game has been a fluke win. And then every team we beat, whenever they have a good game it's also a fluke. Your poor little brain...it must be working at full capacity !

[EEC]

Who ever is messing with Cee if you want people to believe you are see don't use capitals and construct sentences like a nineth grader.

[Jim Johnson]

I see the Bulls easily jumping six teams that lost this weekend (No. 5 West Virginia, No. 7 Texas, No. 10 Rutgers, No. 11 Oregon, No. 13 Clemson and No. 17 Virginia Tech).

Greg -- Va Tech won yesterday - 17-10 over North Carolina. USF will likely still jump VT -- but not because they lost.

------------------

Here are my rankings (as posted at TheBullsPen):

1 - LSU
2 - USC
3 - California
4 - Ohio State
5 - Wisconsin
6 - Boston College
7 - Kentucky
8 - Georgia
9 - South Carolina
10 - Florida
11 - Oklahoma
12 - South Florida
13 - Virginia Tech
14 - Oregon
15 - West Virginia
16 - Hawaii
17 - Texas
18 - Missouri
19 - Rutgers
20 - Arizona State
21 - Cincinnati
22 - Nebraska
23 - Clemson
24 - Purdue
25 - UCLA

Others receiving votes:
Miami, Kansas State, Florida State, Texas A&M, Michigan, Alabama, Arkansas, Virginia, Penn State, Central Florida, Connecticut, Illinois

[G.A.]

Jim, good catch.

You guys be careful about posting as someone you're not. It's the easiest way to get a post immediately deleted.

[Curtiss Gibson]

A side note on Pat White not being in the game...

First, we put him out of it.

Second, we were owning them when he was in there. There main offensive threat was his replacement.

Complain all you want, say what you want, our D is clearly top ten and I'm confident they are capable of playing with anyone. If our offense gets worked out over the next game or two, watch out.

[Rob]

The Raleigh N&O's writer has a vote in the AP poll this year. He has USF ranked #3.

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/accnow/index.php?title=jp_top_25_sept_30&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

[VOR]

Let cee the "village Idiot" have his say. After all he has proved his football expertise consistently on this blog.

But I digress, USF at a respectable #10. Need to keep them hungry.

[G.A.]

West Virginia's best football was played after Pat White left the game, in yardage, in points, in play. I thought Jarrett Brown played very well. He could start for a handful of Big East teams.

[Ken]

Whether it was adjustments made at halftime, or the superior play of J. Brown, WVU's offense played much better the second half than the first, and Brown was great--I'd think he'd start for a lot of teams around the country.

That writer in Raleigh has been smoking something--#3 sounds nice but we ain't there yet.

[DR]

I agree G.A. Rodriguez has done good with a plan after White, thats for sure. I thought the game was in cruise control after White was hurt, but became more nervous about the game than with White in it. He has a good arm.
As far as the Bulls, I thought the offensive game plan could have been better down the stretch. They tried to finish WV after that turnover, but Grothe threw a terrible INT, throwing off his back foot with no pressure on him whatsoever. After that, they looked to pack it in with conservative play calls for the rest of the game.
Grothe seems to have learned to throw the ball away when he has pressure on him. Hopefully, he can learn from his fundamental mistakes, throwing off the back foot. He has progressed very well so far and thats going to give us a lot to look forward to the next few seasons.

[DR]

Well, that writer had USF ranked 12 last week. Remember, because of the late win over Auburn, USF was left off because most writers already casted their ballot expecting Auburn to pull it out. USF should have been in the top 25 a week earlier.
With the parody in college football, who's to say USF isn't a top 10 or even a top 5 team? These same writers had Michigan ranked 5th before the season started. You might as well throw a bunch of teams in a hat and randomly pick the #3 on down. The BCS rankings will be interesting and hopefully USF will be ranked higher than we expect to get some BCS credit.

[Dav]

Oklahoma must fall more than 3 spots. Colorado would get pummeled by Appalachian State. Florida should be out of the top ten. I say we are between 8 and 10.

Remember, not everyone has us at 18. Some people have us at 15, some at 23. Now everyone, even the low ballers will raise us up as the votes even out.

P.S. UceeF should not be allowed to use the word "we" to describe USF. It doesn't even make sense.

[Griggsy]

And THAT my friends is why the BCS system is completely wack. Check out UF's other games of the year. W Kentucky, Troy, a BAD Tennessee team, and a worse Ole Miss team. USF has beaten #17 Auburn and #5 WVU, but we won't be ranked above them. It's a sad state of affairs I'll tell ya that. Nothing more than biased voters who are "used" to seeing UF up there and not USF, and so something inside them just won't let the rank USF ahead. It's BS. Saying that USF would lose to UF is nothing more than unfounded conjecture. I watched LSU struggle early against friggin Tulane. And I watch the mighty USC Trojans barely pull it off against Washingtn. I guarantee you, USF would have more than a gamblers shot at beating UF.

All those UF fans who thought USF was a "cute little program" are about to change their tune...alot.

[Reality]

Now you know why I like basketball. You have to prove it on the court.......none of this poll crap!

[JRAVARAVICH]

WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT US BULLS FANS WOULD BE TALKING ABOUT RANKINGS LIKE THIS !

THIS IS AWESOME !

GO BULLS !

EMBRACE THE MOMENT !

[Tad]

Everyone,

LEAVE CEE ALONE! His predictions about bulls games are awesome! He has picked USF to be destroyed every week. What (actually) happens is USF keeps winning. Keep it up CEE! If you keep picking us to lose, we might be in the championship game!!!! Go BULLS!!!

[G.A.]

Guys, just to clarify: I don't have an AP ballot. The Times' Brian Landman has one, but I don't. I'm just trying to gauge how I think the poll will look today. It's not what I think of teams, so much as what I think the voters think of teams.

I'd say that I -- and many posters on this board -- have seen much more of USF and Florida than many AP voters outside the Southeast. And based on that, I think they're going to vote the defending national champ (even after a home loss to a currently unranked team) higher than a USF team that wasn't ranked a few weeks ago.

Again, Florida has LSU this week, so they'll be more actively changing the top of the polls than USF this week.

[Adam]

Greg-

I like your logic about UF, and things working themselves out quickly, but what stops a writer/coach from looking at that the opposite way? Drop them out of the top 10, then if they beat LSU, put them back up there. Why would they be given the opportunity to drop themselves rather than the opportunity to redeem themselves?

Obviously I don't have a vote, but that is how I would look at it. I agree Auburn will be back in it soon. They looked inspired last night.

[DR]

Thats a big reason why I hate the voting system. Many voters will rank UF higher based on reputation alone. I can't reasonably asy that this year, UF is better than USF based on the way they are playing. I can argue, however, about common opponents, and USF beat Auburn. I can argue about strength of schedule as well. Like I said, Michigan was ranked high because of reputation and look at them. How many of these teams are ranked higher than they should be? All of them had close games against inferior opponents. This year, USF, as of right now, is a better team than UF. Last year is over with. You can't argue it.
Unfortunately, USF will not be respected. They are the outsider trying to get into the firm. Jim Leavitt has been disrespected by other coaches with lame quotes in the paper. He won't get a fair judgement from other coaches for sure.
Adam is right, why does USF have to keep earning respect while UF is given respect? Its about this year, again, USF has earned respect, UF has beaten nobody and deserves none.

[Griggsy]

I'm no Gator hater. But it's the ignorance of the poll voters that drives me crazy.

Greg I dont think anyone is saying you're part of some Gator conspiracy. Personally, I think you're right about how the polls will come out. I just think it sucks is all.

Oh well, enough belly achin'! Won't let Gators ruin my happiness for this USF team! GO BULLS!

[G.A.]

It's a problem with any balloting system, but it's a Week 6 problem, and in the grand scheme of things, Week 6 problems are terribly insignificant.

Think of it as the opposite of what Jim Leavitt tells his players: look longterm. Rankings will sort themselves out. There are three games this very weekend involving two ranked teams up and around where USF should be. Those will clarify for voters which teams should be where.

As I said, it makes it more imperative for USF that the Bulls not only win the next two games, but win them convincingly. In terms of impressing voters, it's easier to do so facing ranked competition than it is against unranked teams like USF will face in the next two weeks.

[PROUD ALUM]

For the 1st time in school history we now wear the BULLS-EYE !

and it feels great...

[Ari]

Am I the only guy in town that worries about this UCF team that is going to show up??? I know that I am forever negative--- but they have a HECK of a running back -- and pretty much ran it all over Texas..

I hope we don't look past them toward Rutgers.

And Greg -- i think you are right with the polls. I think the Top five is pretty solid with USC, LSU, Cal, Wisconsin, Ohio State.

But how do you keep Florid in the Top 10? They lost at home to Auburn.

I see us as being #9.

But its just a big crap shoot at this point.

[Ken]

I don't see Leavitt looking past any game, or letting the coaches or players do so. Ari is right: UCF has a pretty good team and the potential for an upset is always there.

[BadA$$Bull]

It looks as if Taurus Johnson's about USF being ranked ahead of UF and that its just someone's opinion is amazingingly accurate, would you like to revisit that Ari?

[Brian]

UCF will be a good game, but Texas has shown it isn't all that it was cracked up to be. I think our defense's speed and line will do a better job against their back. If we don't show up for that game though, it could be a tough one.

[Ari]

Somebody explain to me this logic:

When South Florida beats Auburn at Auburn (on the road - packed house -- at night) Auburn is soft and not a very good football team.

When Florida LOSSES to Auburn at HOME - at night - with 90K fans supporting them - with Quentin Groves out the entire second half with a broken foot - Auburn played a great game and is a good team.

If we had a decent kicker -- we would have trounced Auburn
HA! HA!

I am a Gator fan -- but the logic in Gainesville is just hilarious. Just more proof to support my theory about the SEC..

They are like the Dale Earnhardt Jr.
of college football. They have the big sponsor, the nice car, the big names, but when it comes down to it, they aren't that good.

[Griggsy]

UCF's running back is good. But is he Slaton?

And what about UCF's defense?

I hope I dont jinx us, but no way in hell does UCF beat us this year. Not even close. USF by 14 AT LEAST

[Joel]

UCF ran it all over Texas, but we all saw that Texas has problems too.

The big advantage for USF is having UCF here in Tampa. That's what so huge about this year - most of our toughest matchups are at home.

We've won big road matchups recently - WVU last year, Auburn this year - but we've had our problems in road games we should win; think back to UConn, Kansas, Cincinnati.

One thing to keep in mind is that lousy cold weather factor. Fortunately Syracuse plays in a dome, but that last game against Pittsburgh could be far more troubling than it should be.

Leavitt has a heck of a coaching job ahead of him, coaching a team with the pressure of being favored every week. Are we ready for a thousand bad puns in the media about USF having a bullseye on its back?

CBS Sportsline by the way has us playing the Orange Bowl against Boston College, according to their weekly bowl predictions (http://cbs.sportsline.com/collegefootball/bowls/predictions). How cool is it seeing USF and BCS in the same sentence?