INTERESTING LSU voted to number 2 ranking article.

Highlights from the ballot …

* Slotted Auburn into the top spot for the third consecutive week. Despite a November game against Chattanooga, the Tigers still have the best resume in the land.

* Moved LSU into the 2-hole, up four places (and ahead of Oregon) after its win over Alabama.

The Ducks could very well be the best team in the country. But the rankings aren’t supposed to be projections; they’re supposed to be reflective — hence the AP’s No. 1 voting guideline: base your ballots on results.

And I’ve never cared much for style points, especially when they so often come against second-rate competition. (For instance: New Mexico, Portland State, Tennessee, UCLA, Washington and Washington State, which have a combined record of 14-41.)

As I’ve written many times before, I place heavy emphasis on quality wins — and, to a certain extent, quality losses. That formula has always seemed like the best way to account for what can be extreme differences in strength of schedule.


And LSU has more quality wins than Oregon. Many more.

The Tigers have five victories over FBS teams with winning records (actually, all five are 5-3 or better): North Carolina, West Virginia, Mississippi State, Florida and Alabama.

Meanwhile, Oregon has two victories over FBS teams with winning records: USC and Stanford. (Tennessee, for those who haven’t followed closely, is winless in the SEC.)

And yes, the Ducks are undefeated while LSU has one loss. But that loss was at Auburn, on a touchdown in the final five minutes. (The very definition of a quality loss.)

So LSU has played six teams with winning records — that’s two-thirds of its game to date — compared to two for Oregon.

That huge difference in strength of schedule and quality wins more than offsets the fact that LSU has one loss and Oregon doesn’t … and that Oregon leads the free world in style points.

(Also: Les Miles has clearly made a deal with the Devil. I’m sure not going to risk the wrath of The Hat.)

* I dropped TCU and Boise State one spot each, to No. 4 and 5, respectively — despite quality wins by both. The drop came as the result of LSU deserving to move up and Oregon State losing.

The ballot fate of both TCU and BSU depends heavily on the performance of their AQ foes (Oregon State and VaTech for Boise State; OSU and Baylor for TCU … and Baylor got crushed, by the way).

* The best one-loss teams (excluding LSU) came next, and I gave Wisconsin’s resume a slightly better grade than those of Nebraska and Stanford.

* To the ballot …

1. Auburn

2. LSU

3. Oregon

4. TCU

5. Boise State

6. Wisconsin

7. Nebraska

8. Stanford

9. Alabama

10. Iowa

11. Arkansas

12. Oklahoma State

13. Arizona

14. Michigan State

15. Ohio State

16. Virginia Tech

17. Mississippi State

18. Missouri

19. Texas A&M

20. Utah

21. South Carolina

22. Oklahoma

23. Florida

24. USC

25. San Diego State

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