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College Football Top 10 2010 October 30

I made a college football top ten week early last week, but I never got around to annotating it because I was away at a conference. So before today’s action here is my last with out comment:

1. Boise State (6-0; Prev 1) (now 7-0 after winning Tuesday)
2. Oregon (7-0; Prev 2)
3. TCU (8-0; Prev 4)
4. Missouri (7-0; Prev 6)
5. Utah (7-0; Prev 5)
6. Auburn (8-0; Prev 7)
7. Michigan State (8-0; Prev 9)
8. Oklahoma (6-1; Prev 3)
9. Arizona (6-1; Prev Unranked)
10. Wisconsin (7-1, Prev Unranked)

College Football Top 10 2010 October 17

Opps… I forgot to publish a top 10 last week. Sorry about that. I had one ready to o but wanted to check on a few things and never got it into the blog. There were a number of upsets in the “Top 25” this weekend. The only one I was really surprised about was South Carolina losing. I sort of thought Ohio State might loose as they didn’t play anyone like Wisconsin yet and they were on the road. At least that will solve the potential of two Big 10(11) teams going through the whole season and not playing each other (what a mess that would be). FWIW: The previous is where I had them two weeks ago since I didn’t publish last week,

1. Boise State (6-0; Prev 1). Virginia Tech’ is rolling through the early part of their ACC schedule, so I still think that was a good win despite some questions about VaTech after their loss to James Madison loss. Although Oregon State lost in Overtime to Washington last not go to 3-3, I still think they are a good team. Losses to Boise, TCU, and Washington won’t get you in the top 10, but they are nothing to be ashamed of.
2. Oregon (6-0; Prev 3). Oregon has scored at least 42 points in every game and has a great second half defense. Although Tennessee isn’t the Tennessee that Peyton Manning played for, credit for playing them on the road is due and a nice win against Arizona have them in my top 2
3. Oklahoma (6-0; Prev 4). Texas shows that they were better than advertised this week by beating Nebraska, thus making Oklahoma’s win against the Longhorns a bit more impressive.
4. TCU (7-0; Prev 9). Texas Christian has out of conference wins against Pac-10 and Big-12 teams. And while SMU isn’t a top 10 (or even 20) caliber team, they aren’t chopped liver so that is another good out of conference win. I’m looking forward to the Utah-TCU game later this season.
5. Utah (6-0; Prev Unranked). Utah’s opening win against Pitt might not be as impressive as it looked at the time with Pitt only being 3-3, but still the get credit for scheduling. That combined with rolling over the rest of their schedules moves Utah into my top 10. BTW: Wow, has BYU dropped down this year.
6. Missouri (6-0; Prev Unranked). Missouri keeps rolling through the early part of the schedule, which included a Big 10 foe (Illinois) and some out of conference schools that are not impressive. At least when they played McNeese State I was in the second week of the season.
7. Auburn (7-0; Prev unranked). Only tough out of conference game was an overtime win at home against Clemson, but they put up 65 this week against Arkansas. I thought the SEC was supposed to have good defense?
8. LSU (7-0; Prev 5). If you pay McNeese State out of conference mid-season and they hang tough with you for a while, you drop. Esp. since my #6 beat the same common opponent by 44. They would have dropped further, but I still giver them credit for scheduling West Virginia.
9. Michigan State (7-0; Prev Unranked). Only good out of conference win was against Notre Dame, but they have looked good in the Big 10(11) conference schedule thus far.
10. Oklahoma State (6-0); Prev Unranked). The Cowboys are going to start facing much tough competition starting next week when Nebraska comes to town.

A History of OCLC’s Ohio Tax Exemption Status 2010 October 14

The Disruptive Library Technology Jester has an interesting look at A History of the OCLC Tax-Exemption Status. As the author points out, it is but one version of the history. However, it is the best one I have seen and worth a look if you are interested in these sorts of things.

College Football Top 10 2010 October 4

Welcome to the first installment of my college football top 10 for 2010. As a reminder, my rankings are based on what you did on the field. Not if you can beat X. If you think you can beat X schedule them and beat them, and I’ll rank you higher. This does mean though that my early top 10 rankings are unlikely to look very similar at the end of the season. Top concern is wins, followed by whom you played with an emphasis on out-of-conference games because that is what you can control. Until the SEC lets all teams join the SEC and share revenue equally, I don’t want to hear how you beat each other up in conference. It is your choice to be in there and your collective choice to keep other teams out. This is especially when you have teams that lose at home to Jacksonville State. That is not to say in-conference games don’t matter, but I am more impressed when you go on the road out of conference to play a tough team instead of playing teams that aren’t even in a FBS conference. However if you play good teams out of conference, if your conference is stronger than someone else’s, you’ll rate favorably. Without further ado, here is my first top 10.

1. Boise State (4-0). Virginia Tech’s lost to James Madison has me questioning how good of a win this was, but since VaTech has won three straight after that, including 2 ACC games, I think the James Madison loss was a hangover from losing the Boise State game, so I’ll give the Broncos credit for playing what was basically a road game against an AP-top 10 ranked team to start the season. They also followed it up with an impressive win over the Pac-10’s Oregon State University.
2. Alabama (4-0). I’m not impressed with Penn State, but give Alabama credit for scheduling them even if it was played in Alabama. A blowout of the ACC’s Duke isn’t that impressive but beating in-conference foe Florida counts for something.
3. Oregon (5-0). Oregon has scored at least 42 points in every game and has a great second half defense. Although Tennessee isn’t the Tennessee that Peyton Manning played for, credit for playing them on the road is due. I’ll also give them a pass for scheduling Portland State since they are another Oregon school. New Mexico as the other out-of-conference game keeps them out of the top 2, however.
4. Oklahoma (5-0). I really didn’t want to put the Sooners this high as with the exception of the Texas game I haven’t been overly impressed by their scheduling (and beating) Florida State and Cincinnati.
5. LSU (5-0). Nice wins against North Carolina and West Virginia out of conference. Both were at home though and UNC was without a bunch of players, but a win is a win and credit for scheduling them is due.
6. Nevada (5-0). Beat California out of the Pac-10 and BYU out of conference. Even though BYU isn’t as good as usual this year, that still counts for something.
7. Nebraska (4-0). Only tough out of conference matchup was against Washington (who just beat USC) but that was a good win and at least San Diego State isn’t the Citadel.
8. Arizona (4-0). I doubt Arizona will stay in my top 10 for long, but a good win against a AP top-10 Iowa gets them on my list. Wins over Citadel and Toledo keep them from being higher.
9. TCU (5-0). Texas Christian has out of conference wins against Pac-10 and Big-12 teams. And while SMU isn’t a top 10 (or even 20) caliber team, they aren’t chopped liver so that is another good out of conference win.
10. Ohio State (5-0). Not really sure what to think of their one good win – an out-of-conference triumph of Miami (FL) – as I don’t know if Miami is as good as some people seem to think they are.