V5 Group of Five Poll, Week One

I told myself when this poll started that I would stick to my guns on how strong I thought the teams were, rather than making knee-jerk reactions based on their Week One performances. Well, Week One has come and gone, and I have totally redecorated the top fifteen based on knee-jerk reactions. Polls are hard, guys. Here's the final poll, and here's the Voodoo Five ballot:

1. BYU
2. C. Florida
3. Marshall
4. Cincinnati
5. East Carolina
6. Western Kentucky
7. UTSA
8. UL Lafayette
9. Boise State
10. Colorado State
11. Navy
12. Northern Illinois
13. Temple
14. Memphis
15. Ball State

- BYU looked twenty times more impressive in beating UConn than Marshall did playing an iffy game against Miami (Ohio)-- possibly the weakest team on their ridiculously weak schedule-- so I'm going to go ahead and pull the trigger on the Cougars as the new number one.

- Despite the loss, I came away impressed with how C. Florida played Penn State in the second half when Justin Holman came in. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

- Even though Houston got whacked by UTSA, I still think the American is in okay shape. C. Florida and East Carolina are gonna have chances to prove themselves this week against Missouri and South Carolina, respectively, and even though I don't think Temple is gonna do much at all this season, a 30-point win over an SEC team is enough to merit a spot on the bottom half of the poll. I also took advantage of Houston, Utah State, Fresno and Bowling Green dropping out to give a vote to my AAC dark horse, Memphis, who thrashed Austin Peay 63-0. This is Memphis' world, and we are all living in it.

- I've mentioned before that the AAC is a total logjam, and Week One reinforced that. Unless East Carolina or Cincinnati turns out to be a lot better than expected-- or C. Florida turns things around with Holman-- there is really no alpha dog here, and any team in the conference might be able to beat any other team on any given week. That's undoubtedly a good thing for USF.