Soft Pretzel Logic

Here we go again. Last week's number is in parentheses for the local teams. I'm adding Rutgers this week because if State College counts geographically (not to mention Newark and Easton), Piscataway does too. Especially as alumni bases go.

Tell me what you think of this:

32. Rutgers (didn't track last week)
40. Penn State (13)
93. Delaware (77)
107. Villanova (105)
131. Lafayette (143)
139. Lehigh (168)
165. Penn (132)
166. Temple (188)
173. Delaware State (162)
242. La Salle (242)

Well, that's quite a big drop for Penn State. It says a lot about just who they've played (and so does ESPN.com's Pat Forde in this week's Forde Yard Dash, albeit with an actual sense of humor compared to me).

The Nittany Lions should rise again just by playing Michigan, even as bad as the Wolverines are, especially if Morelli and Co. head home from Ann Arbor with a win.

I expect Temple to keep rising, especially once they hit the MAC teams like Akron that do play good teams, and playing Penn State should help a bit too (especially with margin of win/loss not factored in).

If I had to guess, I'd say Temple ends up a shade higher than Villanova but below Delaware. Omar Cuff is going to carry the Blue Hens a very, very long way this year. Don't buy tickets for Chattanooga just yet, but if he keeps playing as well as he has a deep playoff run is not out of the question -- especially if Delaware gets a home game or two.

Villanova could surprise a few people, but they'd have to do something pretty special to stay in the top 125. Much of their current ranking comes from playing Maryland, and I suspect one or two CAA losses will have a pretty big impact on what the computer spits out.

Lehigh and Lafayette might rise a bit more, but I bet Penn doesn't end the season any higher than it was last week. The highest-ranked Ivy in Sagarin is Harvard at 141, and while I think Yale (currently (157) will be above the Crimson when the Elis come to Franklin Field next month, the rest of the Ivy League is ranked below Penn and gets to beat itself up for the rest of the fall.

And some people out there wonder why so few people care about it...

Anyway, here's this week's version of the Top 10 comparison:

Well, the computers and the humans have come closer this week. Sagarin matches at least one human poll in five of the ten slots this week, compared to only one last week.

I actually think the computers might be on to something with Boston College, though I agree with those out there who think it's a bit hard to actually pick 10 top teams in the country at the moment.

But I bet you and I had the same reaction to seeing Cincinnati at Sagarin's No. 7: What the...? (fill in as you like). Well, here's my best guess. The Bearcats' three wins are over Southeast Missouri State (189), Miami-Ohio (80), and Oregon State (13). So the latter two wins are clearly carrying Cincy above its human-voted weight, though the Bearcats did get some votes in this week's AP poll.

Miami-Ohio does have a win over a BCS conference team, even if it's doormat Minnesota, while Oregon opened up its season by beating Utah, which thumped UCLA in Salt Lake City this past Saturday, 44-6. I was convinced that was a typo when I first saw it Saturday evening.

I have a hard time thinking the Bearcats will be in the Top 10 next week though, as they play Marshall at home Saturday. No. 11 Alabama plays Georgia, and if the Crimson Tide go 4-0 I bet even those computers will shake a bit from the noise coming out of Tuscaloosa.