NFL Power Rankings (Week 12)

1. Indianapolis Colts
I'm not quite sure what the whole Marvin Harrison incident was about, but it sure was out of character.

2. San Diego Chargers
Ladanian Tomlinson is amazing.

3. New England Patriots
This team is tough to beat at home, but chances are they won't get home field advantage in the playoffs.

4. Chicago Bears
This team is a lot like the 2000 Ravens, except Rex Grossman makes a lot more mistakes than Trent Dilfer did. That's gonna cost them in the long run.

5. Baltimore Ravens
I certainly didn't expect them to shut out the Steelers. Very impressive.

6. Dallas Cowboys
Even though I am a huge Bledsoe fan, it's hard not to like a guy as classy as Tony Romo.

7. Seattle Seahawks
It was a tale of two halves on Monday Night, but Seattle could make a late run if they can stay healthy.

8. New Orleans Saints
It seems whenever people start doubting them, they go out and play their best football. That's probably a good sign.

9. Kansas City Chiefs
If Trent Green gets into a groove, this team could be very dangerous.

10. Denver Broncos
I think Jay Cutler is going to be a good quarterback, but I'm still not completely sure I would put him in just yet.

11. Carolina Panthers
Does this team like to make their own lives difficult or what?

12. Cincinnati Bengals
Their offense is playing as well as we thought they would, but it's the defense that is finally stepping it up.

13. Jacksonville Jaguars
This team lacks mental toughness.

14. New York Jets
They're very inconsistent, mostly due to a lack of a running game, but when they're on, they're a solid team.

15. New York Giants
That was embarassing.

16. Miami Dolphins
This team has a shot to make it to the playoffs. Keep up the good play, Joey.

17. Philadelphia Eagles
Their defense sure looked pretty spotty on Sunday, to put it nicely.

18. St. Louis Rams
That was a big win, but lets see what they do from here.

19. Minnesota Vikings
They still have an outside shot to make the playoffs in the weak NFC. I don't see it happening.

20. Buffalo Bills
They are playing hard and they have their best player back. I wouldn't want to play this team.

21. San Francisco 49ers
This team is not quite there yet, but they are fun to watch. They should be a playoff contender next season.

22. Atlanta Falcons
This team has offically fallen apart.

23. Washington Redskins
I have no idea how they won this week, but they did. Why doesn't their defense always play that well?

24. Pittsburgh Steelers
I don't know what went wrong this year, but they should have a good draft pick in April.

25. Green Bay Packers
Will this be Brett's last year?

26. Tennessee Titans
That game showed this team has a lot of promise, but will they live up to that?

27. Houston Texans
Will this franchise ever be good?

28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
I think they need to draft some offensive players.

29. Cleveland Browns
Braylon, what are you doing?

30. Arizona Cardinals
The passing game is starting to click, but Edge has been a bust as predicted by this guy.

31. Detroit Lions
I still think they're better than the Raiders.

32. Oakland Raiders
The race is on for the first draft pick.

NFL Power Rankings (Week 11)

1. Indianapolis Colts
They finally lost, and to be honest, I think that it was good for this team. They won't have the pressure of the undefeated season and they can focus on the goal of finally winning a Super Bowl.

2. Chicago Bears
Their offense is starting to look like the Bears of old. Can Rex Grossman step up to the challenge this week against the Patriots? We shall see.

3. San Diego Chargers
Ladanian Tomlinson has my vote for MVP. He is one of the greatest players I have ever had the joy of watching.

4. Baltimore Ravens
They took care of business against a desperate Falcons team. Jamal Lewis seems to be playing better.

5. New England Patriots
Tom Brady's first trip to Lambeau was a memorable one as the Pats ended their two game skid.

6. Dallas Cowboys
Tony Romo definitely has the talent to last in this league for a long time.

7. Denver Broncos
Amazing how a team doing as well as the Broncos could have a quarterback controversy. I still say it is partly the conservative playcalling.

8. Carolina Panthers
Shutting out the Rams is no easy task. This team is starting to believe they can win the Super Bowl this year.

9. Jacksonville Jaguars
This team is so inconsistent. They control their destiny as far as the wild card spot goes.

10. Kansas City Chiefs
They haven't been winning pretty, but they're winning. Trent Green still seems a little rusty.

11. New York Giants
That looked like a team that looks like it is giving in to their injuries.

12. New Orleans Saints
Their defense better step it up if they want to make it to the playoffs.

13. Seattle Seahawks
Just when I thought their defense was playing well, they let up over 200 yards to Mr. Frank Gore.

14. Cincinnati Bengals
Their defense is pretty bad, but they made some big plays this week. If they can keep that up they may have a shot at a wildcard spot.

15. New York Jets
Chad Pennington can't make those mistakes. They should have beat the Bears.

16. San Francisco 49ers
I'd be rooting for this team a little more if they didn't already have a handfull of Super Bowl rings in their franchise history.

17. Atlanta Falcons
I've never been a fan of Vick or Mora.

18. Pittsburgh Steelers
Could this team give the ball away any more times?

19. Philadelphia Eagles
I probably have them too low, but in a couple weeks they'll be down pretty low. Trust me, I've seen what Jeff Garcia can do.

20. Miami Dolphins
Nick Saban needs to learn how to get his team to win games at the beginning of the year.

21. St. Louis Rams
The Rams offense is starting to struggle, and with the talent they have, I have to wonder how good the play calling has been.

22. Minnesota Vikings
Their offense still stinks and it's too bad because their run defense is pretty awesome.

23. Buffalo Bills
Who would have thought J.P. Losman would hold any kind of passing record?

24. Cleveland Browns
This team somehow just hangs in every game. I thought they were going to pull that one off on Sunday.

25. Green Bay Packers
Brett Favre sure didn't look good before the injury. We'll see how he plays after it.

26. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
This team still plays hard, but I'm not sure how many more games they'll win.

27. Houston Texans
This franchise just seems to be going nowhere.

28. Tennessee Titans
Travis Henry is the reason for this teams success lately.

29. Washington RedskinsI gotta admit, Jason Campbell played pretty well without his two best players.

30. Arizona Cardinals
Edge still can't get 100 yards in a game.

31. Detroit Lions
As bad as they've played the last two weeks, I still couldn't put them dead last.

32. Oakland Raiders
They played tough in Kansas City, but they still aren't very good.

NFL Power Rankings (Week 11)

1. Indianapolis Colts
They finally lost, and to be honest, I think that it was good for this team. They won't have the pressure of the undefeated season and they can focus on the goal of finally winning a Super Bowl.

2. Chicago Bears
Their offense is starting to look like the Bears of old. Can Rex Grossman step up to the challenge this week against the Patriots? We shall see.

3. San Diego Chargers
Ladanian Tomlinson has my vote for MVP. He is one of the greatest players I have ever had the joy of watching.

4. Baltimore Ravens
They took care of business against a desperate Falcons team. Jamal Lewis seems to be playing better.

5. New England Patriots
Tom Brady's first trip to Lambeau was a memorable one as the Pats ended their two game skid.

6. Dallas Cowboys
Tony Romo definitely has the talent to last in this league for a long time.

7. Denver Broncos
Amazing how a team doing as well as the Broncos could have a quarterback controversy. I still say it is partly the conservative playcalling.

8. Carolina Panthers
Shutting out the Rams is no easy task. This team is starting to believe they can win the Super Bowl this year.

9. Jacksonville Jaguars
This team is so inconsistent. They control their destiny as far as the wild card spot goes.

10. Kansas City Chiefs
They haven't been winning pretty, but they're winning. Trent Green still seems a little rusty.

11. New York Giants
That looked like a team that looks like it is giving in to their injuries.

12. New Orleans Saints
Their defense better step it up if they want to make it to the playoffs.

13. Seattle Seahawks
Just when I thought their defense was playing well, they let up over 200 yards to Mr. Frank Gore.

14. Cincinnati Bengals
Their defense is pretty bad, but they made some big plays this week. If they can keep that up they may have a shot at a wildcard spot.

15. New York Jets
Chad Pennington can't make those mistakes. They should have beat the Bears.

16. San Francisco 49ers
I'd be rooting for this team a little more if they didn't already have a handfull of Super Bowl rings in their franchise history.

17. Atlanta Falcons
I've never been a fan of Vick or Mora.

18. Pittsburgh Steelers
Could this team give the ball away any more times?

19. Philadelphia Eagles
I probably have them too low, but in a couple weeks they'll be down pretty low. Trust me, I've seen what Jeff Garcia can do.

20. Miami Dolphins
Nick Saban needs to learn how to get his team to win games at the beginning of the year.

21. St. Louis Rams
The Rams offense is starting to struggle, and with the talent they have, I have to wonder how good the play calling has been.

22. Minnesota Vikings
Their offense still stinks and it's too bad because their run defense is pretty awesome.

23. Buffalo Bills
Who would have thought J.P. Losman would hold any kind of passing record?

24. Cleveland Browns
This team somehow just hangs in every game. I thought they were going to pull that one off on Sunday.

25. Green Bay Packers
Brett Favre sure didn't look good before the injury. We'll see how he plays after it.

26. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
This team still plays hard, but I'm not sure how many more games they'll win.

27. Houston Texans
This franchise just seems to be going nowhere.

28. Tennessee Titans
Travis Henry is the reason for this teams success lately.

29. Washington RedskinsI gotta admit, Jason Campbell played pretty well without his two best players.

30. Arizona Cardinals
Edge still can't get 100 yards in a game.

31. Detroit Lions
As bad as they've played the last two weeks, I still couldn't put them dead last.

32. Oakland Raiders
They played tough in Kansas City, but they still aren't very good.

NFL Power Rankings (Week 10)

1. Indianapolis Colts
They aren't blowing out the weaker teams like they usually do and for some reason I feel that is a good thing.

2. Chicago Bears
Chicago's Super Bowl chances will depend on Rex Grossman.

3. San Diego Chargers
Just imagine if this team had a better receiving group.

4. Denver Broncos
This is by far the worst offense I've seen on a Denver team in a long time.

5. Baltimore Ravens
The offense is starting to click, but I still feel this team is very beatable.

6. New England
These last two losses had to have really hurt.

7. New York Giants
All of their injuries are certainly not going to help them with their extremely tough schedule ahead.

8. Seattle
This team pretty much has a free pass to the playoffs.

9. New Orleans
This may be the most fun team to watch, but the defense has to start stepping it up.

10. Carolina Panthers
The first half was brutal, but the real Panthers came out in the second half.

11. Philadelphia Eagles
Those close losses could very well be the reason this team doesn't make the playoffs.

12. Dallas Cowboys
Tony Romo is putting up some nice numbers, but I think they need to let Julius Jones run the ball more because I am a greedy Fantasy Football coach.

13. Atlanta Falcons
Losing to the Lions and Browns in back to back weeks isn't exactly a good sign.

14. Kansas City Chiefs
It's starting to seem like this team is a one man show.

15. Jacksonville Jaguars
Why can't this team beat the Texans?

16. Cincinnati Bengals
Well, I'm gonna go ahead and say their defense is a problem.

17. New York Jets
That was a huge win for this team. Let's see what they do with it.

18. St. Louis Rams
This team could still be playoff bound but I can't see them going very far.

19. Pittsburgh Steelers
With that win, they still have a little bit of hope in Steel Town, but how long will it last?

20. Green Bay Packers
It's weird how Brett Favre is getting less attention now that he's playing well.

21. Minnesota Vikings
I think this team is going to draft some offensive players in April.

22. Miami Dolphins
Did they finally wake up?

23. San Francisco 49ers
I knew this team would be tough, but I sure didn't think they'd have 4 wins at this point of the year.

24. Buffalo Bills
They're still playing hard, but Losman needs to be a lot better than what he has been.

25. Washington Redskins
I think this team can throw in the towel. Jason Campbell will stink.

26. Houston Texans
I bet this team wishes they played Jacksonville more often.

27. Cleveland Browns
I thought the offense would be better by now, but I guess losing three centers may have hurt a little.

28. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Cadillac Williams is sure having a sophomore slump. Michael Clayton must think it's still his second year too.

29. Detroit Lions
Just when you think this team is turning the corner, they lose to the 49ers at home.

30. Tennessee Titans
Even I will admit that the throw Vince Young made was pretty cool.

31. Oakland Raiders
I feel bad for Lamont Jordan and the defense.

32. Arizona Cardinals
The Lions at home may be just what this team needed. Hopefully not.

I actually LIKE the BCS

Disclaimer: I am an unabashed U of M fan and recent alum.

The latest BCS Standings have just come out, in case you didn't notice. A number of things jump out at me, the first being that Michigan has a near-perfect score from the computers. That's right, 5 of the 6 computers have Michigan in first, with the other one having Michigan a close second. There are two reactions to this discrepancy with the human polls, in which Ohio State has all but one of the 63 first place votes in the coaches poll:

1) Omigod, the BCS is B.S., why do we have stupid computers deciding who goes to the Championship game? Just let humans pick them, I don't trust computers to decide the champion, even though I trust them for virtually everything else in my life.

2) No one may want to admit it, but the coaches poll and the AP poll are biased, and the computers, are not (to my knowledge)

Why do I think this? And why will no one else say this? First of all, computers are an easy target, as they cannot respond to criticism. If a team like Rutgers is number 2 in the polls but doesn't play in the title game, their coach and fans could blast computers, and there will be no response. It is an easy excuse. When they are the victim of a biased pollster, they are less likely to bash it, but are more justified to do so, since while the computer formulas are not perfect, they at least are applied equally to every team.
So let's run down some of the ways in which the human voters let emotions, prejudices, or just plain stupidity get in the way that computers do not:

1. "It's better to get your loss in early than to lose in November." I'm so sick of hearing announcers say this. Why should it matter when you lose? If Michigan loses to Ohio State, is that loss any worse than when Texas lost to them? Of course not, but in the current system, pollsters appear to slot teams and move them up or down each week by comparing the last week's ranking, so if you lose early, you have an advantage as you can move up each week after that loss. Teams that lose in the last week are bound to drop a few spots, and have no time to catch back up. Michigan is guaranteed to drop a couple of spots if they lose to Ohio State, but if there is no other undefeated team, and they have only lost to the number one team on the road, shouldn't they be the number 2 team? Especially considering they are the team that gave Notre Dame and Wisconsin their only losses this year?
2. Pre-season polls matter too much. This is related to point number one, as a team that starts off the season high in the polls has an advantage over the other teams before a game is even played. If Michigan had been the number one team going in, they would be number one right now, no question in my mind.
3. Emotions get in the way. Any Michigan fan can tell you that they were robbed the undisputed championship because coaches were sentimental about it being Osborne's last year. Sometimes they play politics and put teams lower than is reasonable to try to influence the results.
4. Name Recognition. Teams like Notre Dame and Texas are sometimes ranked higher than the Arkansai of the world because they have been dynasties. This is not fair.

What would I do to fix it? For starters, I don't think a single poll should be released until the non-conference season is over. This will help to mitigate the bias towards teams at the top. Also, I think the voters should start with a clean slate every week, and not be afraid to move a team up too high after a big win or down too low after a big loss. Or in the case of this year's U o M/OSU game, not at all.

Why do people keep complaining about the BCS? In the absence of a playoff, this system is as good as it gets in my opinion. The polls are a factor, along with unbiased computer formulas. It is a system of checks and balances, much like our federal government. Sure, it seems ridiculous that someone like Katherine Harris can have a vote in Congress, just like it seems ridiculous that Ohio State is number 5 in one of the computer formulas, but for every Katherine Harris there is a John Conyers, so it all balances out.

NFL Power Rankings (Week 9)

1. Indianapolis Colts
I don't think there's any debate over this selection. They've beaten the Giants, Broncos, and Patriots all on the road.

2. Chicago Bears
Rex Grossman can't have any more games like he did on Sunday.

3. Denver Broncos
They're defense has shown holes in the last couple weeks, but Javon Walker is proving to be a huge acquisition.

4. New York Giants
This team is going to have to overcome their many injuries to beat the Bears this weekend.

5. New England Patriots
New England misses Deion Branch.

6. San Diego Chargers
Their offense is almost unstoppable. This weekends matchup against the desperate Bengals should be an interesting one.

7. Baltimore Ravens
This team is playing solid, but I think the offense still lacks the necessary firepower.

8. New Orleans Saints
Drew Brees may be my midseason MVP if it weren't for Peyton Manning.

9. Atlanta Falcons
We'll see how this team bounces back after that poor performance.

10. Kansas City Chiefs
I wouldn't want to play this team right now.

11. Jacksonville Jaguars
Byron Leftwich still has a bright future in the NFL, it just may not be in Jacksonville.

12. Seattle Seahawks
This team should have no problem winning their division, even with the injuries.

13. Carolina Panthers
We'll see if the bye week brings out the Super Bowl caliber team that many thought they were.

14. Cincinnati Bengals
One more loss and they may be done.

15. Dallas Cowboys
Not quite sure how they blew that game, but their two offseason acquisitions were big reasons why.

16. Philadelphia Eagles
I'm curious to see what this team can do in the second half.

17. St. Louis Rams
Marc Bulger is playing phenomenal, but that defense still can't stop anyone.

18. Minnesota Vikings
The defense is much improved, but the offense is almost Raider bad.

19. New York Jets
Big game for Eric Mangini against his mentor.

20. Washington Redskins
That win kept them alive for at least another week or two.

21. Pittsburgh Steelers
This team makes a ton of mistakes for a team that just won the Super Bowl 9 months ago.

22. Buffalo Bills
Well, they finally win and McGahee and Reed both go down. It's been that type of year.

23. Tampa Bay Buccaneers
The offense has to be more productive.

24. Green Bay Packers
Brett Favre has always been streaky, but this year he seems to be more than ever.

25. San Francisco 49ers
Playing the Vikings may have just been what their defense needed.

26. Detroit Lions
If there was one team I wanted the Lions to beat this year, it was the Falcons.

27. Miami Dolphins
Well, they sure shocked the world this weekend. Let's see if they can finally live up to some of their potential.

28. Cleveland Browns
This team seems to always hang in there, but they just aren't good enough to beat a lot of the teams in this league.

29. Tennessee Titans
Vince Young is still yet to impress me.

30. Houston Texans
Andre Johnson better make the Pro Bowl.

31. Oakland Raiders
Let's pray the Raiders aren't on Monday Night Football for awhile.

32. Arizona Cardinals
You know, most teams would kill for the talent this team has on offense.