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Here is your final blogpoll of the 2012 season:
Hammer & Rails Ballot - Week 15
Rank | Team | Delta |
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1 | Alabama Crimson Tide |
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2 | Oregon Ducks |
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3 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish |
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4 | Stanford Cardinal |
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5 | Florida St. Seminoles |
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6 | Louisville Cardinals | -- |
7 | Texas A&M Aggies |
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8 | Kansas St. Wildcats |
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9 | Georgia Bulldogs |
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10 | Florida Gators |
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11 | South Carolina Gamecocks |
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12 | Boise St. Broncos |
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13 | Northern Illinois Huskies | -- |
14 | Northwestern Wildcats |
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15 | Utah State Aggies |
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16 | Clemson Tigers |
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17 | LSU Tigers |
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18 | Oklahoma Sooners |
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19 | Arkansas St. Red Wolves | -- |
20 | San Jose St. Spartans |
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21 | Tulsa Golden Hurricane |
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22 | Cincinnati Bearcats | -- |
23 | Kent St. Golden Flashes |
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24 | Nebraska Cornhuskers | -- |
25 | Central Florida Knights | -- |
Dropouts: Texas Longhorns, Michigan Wolverines, Oregon St. Beavers, Ball St. Cardinals, UCLA Bruins |
SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "
As always, some notes:
- No Ohio State for the final time. I still say there is no point in ranking them if they are ineligible, especially when a poll system awards a title. It is still frustrating that Purdue probably came the closest to beating them, but if Purdue holds on in that game Danny Hope is likely still our coach and we have the Nordfense. It might be a good trade off. Plus, I think Notre Dame beats an undefeated Ohio State last night.
- I toyed with moving Oregon to No. 1 just to be contrary, but we'll never know how they would have fared vs. Alabama because of that home loss to Stanford. Both Alabama and Oregon had one loss, to a very good two-loss team, at home. Alabama's absolute depantsing of Notre Dame was convincing enough.
- The team that justified itself the most was Louisville, with an impressive win over Florida. This was in a game where Florida was hoping to win enough to earn a possible split title since they did not play Alabama and beat the one team that beat the Tide.
- Purdue's 2013 schedule is not easy. My final poll has Purdue playing Nos. 3, 13, and 22 outside of the Big Ten. That's before getting Nebraska and, of course, an undefeated Ohio State team. We do own the Buckeyes in Ross-Ade though. Also consider this: Purdue's final non-conference game is against an FCS team, but it was the only team to defeat the now two-time FCS champion.
- Was Northwestern the best team in the Big Ten this year? If not for three losses in which they had a late lead it might have been them playing the Irish last night. How bizarre would that have been?