Florida football: The pollsters got this one right for the Gators

After last week’s perceived disrespect of Florida football’s win and the subsequent week off, I decided to make a point to examine each week’s college football poll.

I’ve said it before: sometimes college football polls don’t make any sense to me. They certainly didn’t last week after Florida football DROPPED spots after winning their season-opener and getting a bye week.

And this is coming from someone who used to participate in them at some level or another.

This week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll is out and appears to be a bit better than the previous week.

The Gators dismantled the UT-Martin Skyhawks Saturday, 45-0 behind the better offensive play and a defense that continues to stand out.

This time, the pollsters rewarded the Gators with a two-spot jump to No. 9 overall.

The voters did punish Michigan — who was put ahead of the Gators in the preseason poll despite Florida football thrashing the Wolverines in last season’s Peach Bowl. — by dropping them three spots to No. 10 after a disastrous win against an unranked (and dangerous) Army team … at home!

It was a relatively uneventful weekend in college football (unless you are a Tennessee Volunteer fan) that saw just a few upsets — California got a 17-yard field goal with eight seconds left to beat No. 14 Washington, 20-19 in Seattle.

Speaking of Tennessee fans, check this video for Tennessee misery (but be wary of the swearing … and there’s a lot of it):

As a result, the Huskies dropped eight spots to No. 23.

Maryland housed No. 21 Syracuse, 63-20, Colorado stormed back from 17 down to beat No. 25 Nebraska, 34-31. and Southern California routed No. 23 Stanford, 45-20. All of these upsets were at the home of the winning team.

The result was Syracuse, Stanford and Nebraska were booted out of the poll, while Maryland is in at No. 21 and USC is in at No. 24.

But, in terms of the Gators, at least the pollsters didn’t decide to penalize Florida football for winning a game they were supposed to win at home.

The Poll Treatment

So, who got what I call The Poll Treatment this week?

I would have so say Iowa State.

The Cyclones held on for a 29-26 overtime win at home against Northern Iowa last week. They were idle this week before hosting in-state rival No. 19 Iowa next week.

Their reward for being idle after a single-digit win: voted out the poll entirely.

Poll notes

• The Southeastern Conference has five of the top-10 teams in this week’s poll. Alabama remained at No. 2, but LSU’s bump up followed by Florida getting back into the Top 10 (thanks again Army), gave the conference its current positioning.
• The thanks for losing what turned out to be one of the best college football games of the weekend (unless, of course, you are a fan of BYU, Colorado, Maryland, California or USC), Texas dropped just three spots in the poll to No. 12 after the 45-38 loss at home.

Others receiving votes: I think this section gets overlooked at lot simply because we focus on the top 25 teams listed. Remember, the others receiving votes are the teams poised to jump in after the next upset.

So, Iowa State, California, Mississippi State, TCU, North Carolina, Army, Colorado, Oklahoma State, Memphis, Arizona State, Appalachian State, Syracuse, Kentucky, Boston College and Minnesota, your time could be coming soon.