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Lots of action in this week's poll, beginning with the new ruling by the AP that you could indeed put a I-AA team in the poll. A week earlier, I definitely would have put App State into the poll, probably around No. 25. But by the time the ruling came around, I just wasn't ready to make that leap. One, Michigan got the snot beat out of it at home for the second straight week, which kind of took the shine off Appy's win in the Big House. Two, App's strength of schedule wasn't exactly helped by playing Lenoir-Rhyne this week. As I've said before, one of the big factors in ranking these teams is to judge their body of work. Beating the mighty Bears of Hickory didn't seem like much work for the Mountaineers. Three, there were a few other I-A teams that merited inclusion in the poll this week.

Dave Goren of WXII, one of the the other AP voters in North Carolina, along with Joe Giglio of the N&O, clearly didn't have the same reservations. He voted App State No. 13 in his poll. Was he making a statement? Was he shamelessly currying favor with his viewers? Or does he really think Appy is the 13th best team in the country? I don't know. What I do know is that Dave was also the only man to put N.C. State in his preseason AP poll. Do with that information what you will.

Seriously, my feeling is that Dave probably put App up so high because he senses, correctly, that the rest of the nation still doesn't get just how good the Mountaineers are. So he feels like he needs to weight his poll accordingly.

Let's move on to the rest of the items of interest in the poll.

Oklahoma (No.2 in my poll, No. 3 in the national poll) - Am I feeling good about my decision to move Oklahoma up to No. 2 in my poll a week ago? After the Sooners destroyed The U 51-13, yes, yes I am.

The strong performances turned in by Oklahoma and LSU (48-7 winners over Va. Tech. Let's hear it for the ACC!) did make me wonder about moving someone up to the top spot in the poll. Nineteen of my fellow voters did that this week. Originally, again going with the body of work measure, I'd decided that if there was a convincing winner of the LSU-Va Tech game, I'd put that team at No. 1. But after watching Va Tech struggle to beat ECU while ECU was playing musical QBs, I backed off that plan. Am I totally sure that USC should be No. 1? Honestly, I don't know.

Wisconsin (No. 9 in my poll, No. 7 in the AP Poll) - I know that you can't judge teams purely by scores. That's why I didn't move Cal down after they only beat Colorado State by six. Two of those scores came in garbage time. But if I'm going to stick with my plan to not be married to my stab-in-the-dark preseason poll, I've got to be willing to move teams around early on after they turn in shaky performances. Needing a touchdown in the final two minutest to beat UNLV qualifies as shaky in my book. That's why I dropped the Badgers down from No. 6 to No. 9.

Ohio State (No. 15 in my poll, No. 10 in the AP Poll) - I'm not picking on the Big Ten - seriously, I swear I'm not - is a lackluster 20-2 win over Akron really worthy of top 10 status? I say no. Apparently the other pollsters disagree. Genius is never understood in its own time ...

Georgia Tech (No. 10 in my poll, No. 15 in the AP Poll) ... which may explain why I've got a higher opinion of the Yellow Jackets than most of the other pollsters. Am I an ACC homer? Or do I just like a team that wins by 30 on the road (I know, it was only Notre Dame, but that Charlie Weis guy is a genius. Haven't you heard?)? A team that can run the ball, defend like crazy and has clearly made a major upgrade at QB. By the way, can anyone tell me why exactly Reggie Ball started for four years?

Arkansas (No. 24 in my poll, No. 16 in the AP Poll). The Razorbacks benefited from a lot of losses above them in the poll that allowed them to move up. I'm not really big on bumping a team up just because it had a bye week. Plus, I'm not really big on the Razorbacks. Darren McFadden is awesome, but there's a reason why they keep having him throw the ball as well as run it - no one else on this team can play quarterback. Eventually, that's going to be a problem.

South Carolina (No. 18 in my poll, No. 17 in the AP Poll). I'm preparing for a season's worth of struggle with my inner child, which grew up a fan of the Gamecocks. Now? I'm feeling very vindicated for having the Chickens in my pre-season poll (I didn't drop them in my Week 2 poll ... that never happened, you hear me?) and I'm feeling a bit stunned that the other pollsters actually put the Gamecocks a notch higher in the poll than I did.

South Florida (No. 19 in my poll, unranked in the AP - first in the receiving votes category). Speaking of vindication, I was the guy who put the Bulls at No. 21 in my initial poll (yeah, I dropped them a week later, but please allow me some self-congratulation, all right?) They go on the road, survive four missed field goals and still manage to knock off No. 17 Auburn. So why aren't they in the poll? I know my readers often turn to me for the answers to the mysteries of life, but I just can't answer that one. I really can't.