The Truth WIthout Hype

Completely forgot to write my column this week and watching Gameday reminded me. No time to make it good, so here it is.

25. UTEP

24. West Virginia

23. Wisconsin

22. NC State

21. Stanford

20. Arizona

19. Arkansas

18. Air Force

17. Iowa

16. Florida State

15. Alabama

14. South Carolina

13. Missouri

12. Oklahoma State

11. Nevada

10. Nebraska

9. Utah

8. Ohio State

7. Oregon

6. Auburn

5. LSU

4. TCU

3. Michigan State

2. Boise State

1. Oklahoma

The Truth Without Hype Week 5: Lists Galore

Today is a great day for this column. After a year and a half of ranking the best teams and players, I have finally decided that it is time for some real negativity in this column. This week I kick off my bottom 5 rankings. Yes, just five, bad teams don't deserve any more attention than that. This list will be a little different in that I will openly use some conference bias in ranking the teams. Teams will be ranked based on how bad they are relative to their own conference, otherwise it will just be all MAC and Sun Belt teams every week, and I personally have better things to do with my time than write about teams that would be double digit underdogs to the Idaho Vandals on a weekly basis.

Before we get into ranking the best and worst teams in the country, I also think it is time to start busting out some Heisman rankings, 4-5 games into the season there is now enough material to judge. Since I am breaking in two new lists starting this week I figure it is only appropriate that I just go crazy with lists in general, after all I have been lazy with writing them in general. List madness starts now.

Top 5 Worst Teams

5. Duke -The Blue Devils should be used to sitting close to the bottom by now, but giving up more than 50 points to Wake Forest puts them into some really elite categories.

4. New Mexico/New Mexico State - Technically different teams but there are some similarities. Both are winless, have defenses ranked in the nations bottom five, and have lost games by 59 points or more. The state might want to consider merging the programs to save some money.

3. Eastern Michigan - 0-12 a season ago and off to a great start on repeating that feat again this year.

2. Washington State - The Cougars haven't beaten an FBS team with a win since 2007. They have posted 1 win over a AA team in each of the last three seasons, two of those coming in overtime or in the closing minutes of the game, as well as a win over an 0-11 Washington team two years ago.

1. Western Kentucky - Still looking for that elusive first win as an FBS team. Winning on the way up is tough, but seriously guys, you play in the Sun Belt, two years should be plenty of time.

Top 5 Worst NFL Quarterbacks

5. Derek Anderson - Lost a starting job in three consecutive seasons. I don't who that means is worse, him or his coaches.

4. Jim Sorgi - Once every gets past the hype on this Peyton Manning guy, he'll show us, he'll show us all.

3. Jevon Snead - At least he will be if he ever actually plays.

2. JaMarcus Russell - Still available in 100% of Yahoo fantasy football leagues.

1. Ryan Leaf - He could probably still start for Washington State at least.

Top 5 Comic Book Costumes

5. Ghost Rider - There is a certain amount of respect given to those who can just wear biker gear and call it a super hero outfit

4. Juggernaut - Looks great in orange, but looks even better in the Dolphins uniform my wife photoshopped him into a few months back.

3. Dr. Doom - The mask is perhaps the most iconic item for any villian in all of comics.

2. Spider-Man - You can't tell me the costume has nothing to do with his worldwide popularity.

1. Venom/Carnage - Their costumes are more bad-ass than most characters, baseball players, and all frat boys.

Early Heisman Standings

5. Adrian Clayborn

4. Mark Ingram

3. Kellen Moore

2. Daniel Thomas

1. Denard Robinson

And now the actual top 25 for the week

25. NC State - A tough loss to Virginia Tech knocks the Wolfpack to the bottom of my rankings, but they may still be the best team in the ACC.

24. South Carolina - The Gamecocks took a week off to prepare for a visit from the top ranked Tide. A week after Alabama killed Florida, this is the teams best chance to finally emerge as a legitimate contender in the SEC West,

23. Arkansas - The Hogs stayed home this week to lick their wounds after blowing an upset bid over a number one team in the second half for the second year in a row.

22. Iowa - The Hawkeyes may have the best defense in the country.

21. Air Force - A big win over Navy has the Falcons off to a hot start, with the lone loss coming at Oklahoma by a field goal.

20. Stanford - Getting overwhelmed by Oregon in the second half is nothing to be ashamed of, at least they led for one half, which is better than anyone else has done this year.

19. Miami - After a hard fought win over Clemson, the Hurricanes appear ready to challenge for their first ACC championship.

18. Northwestern - After struggling to beat Minnesota on Saturday, it is pretty clear who the worst team is among the unbeatens.

17. Kansas State - Enjoy your week off and perfect record, Nebraska is next.

16. Missouri - Still undefeated, still with no impressive wins.

15. Michigan - I don't care how good Denard Robinson is, if that defense doesn't get better, the Wolverines will finish in the bottom half of the Big 10 for the third straight year.

14. Utah - The schedule gets weaker every week as this team has not been challenged wince opeing day.

13. Nebraska - Yes, there is no doubt this team is good enough to be in the top 1o, but right now Idaho is the second best team they've played. MAC teams are laughing at that strength of schedule.

12. Nevada - With wins over rival UNLV, BYU, and Cal, the Wolfpack look to stay undefeated until a November visit from Boise State.

11. Oklahoma State - The Cowboys earned a hard fought win over previously undefeated Texas A&M last Thursday. With the way Texas has played and the way Oklahoma's defense has played, don't count the Pokes out of the Big 12 South race yet.

10. TCU - A drop is necessary after struggling to beat a team as bad as Colorado State

9. Arizona - The offense will have to get better than 10 points a game if they want have any chance of hanging with Oregon for the PAC-10 title, especially since they will have to play at Autzen.

8. Auburn - Now that all the non-conference garbage is done with, we can finally see if the TIgers are really good enough to hang with the heavyweights in the SEC.

7. Ohio State - See TCU.

6. Michigan State - The Spartans are undoubtedly the nations most underated team. They are now 5-0 with big wins over Wisconsin and Notre Dame, the Wisconsin game was won without the most key man to any football team: the head coach.

5. LSU - Given the way they keep winning, it is very hard to put them this high, but they have faced a schedule that is probably the second best in the country. They keep winning, even when they don't really deserve to.

4. Oregon - The offense is probably better than any defense in the PAC-10 can realistically hope to stop. The national championship game could very well be in the Ducks future, no one is going to beat them at home this year.

3. Boise State - Silently crushed New Mexico State 59-0 over the weekend, lost in all the hype of Oregon beating a ranked team for the first time this year. Boise State has already beat two.

2. Oklahoma - Most of the wins have been decently ugly and very close, but the fact of the matter is that they never trailed in any of them and have played the nations hardest schedule ot this point.

1. Alabama - After completely dismantling the Gators this weekend, even I would be hard pressed to say the Crimson Tide are not the nations best team until proven otherwise.