USC and Michigan St. were penalized, and the teams that beat them, Stanford, who moved way up, and Notre Dame, who was added to the top 25, were rewarded. Alabama gets the nod as the best team in the country.

Here's how it shook out to me this week:

Building The Dam Ballot - Week 3

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama Crimson Tide	1
2	Oregon Ducks	1
3	LSU Tigers	1
4	West Virginia Mountaineers	1
5	Oklahoma Sooners	1
6	Florida St. Seminoles	1
7	Georgia Bulldogs	1
8	South Carolina Gamecocks	1
9	Clemson Tigers	4
10	TCU Horned Frogs	1
11	Kansas St. Wildcats	1
12	Stanford Cardinal	4
13	Florida Gators	--
14	Michigan Wolverines	3
15	Texas Longhorns	--
16	USC Trojans	-15
17	Ohio St. Buckeyes	-3
18	Louisville Cardinals	--
19	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	--
20	UCLA Bruins	--
21	Nebraska Cornhuskers	--
22	Michigan St. Spartans	-12
23	Boise St. Broncos	--
24	Arizona Wildcats	--
25	Wisconsin Badgers	--
Dropouts: Virginia Tech Hokies, Arkansas Razorbacks

SB Nation BlogPoll College Football Top 25 Rankings "

Virginia Tech dropped out, and so to did Arkansas, who probably isn't as bad as they seem, or wouldn't be if they were closer to a 100% healthy team.

The Utah schools are busy beating each other up, and some teams I'd like to move up, like UCLA and Boise St., didn't face tough enough opponents. That's about to change, however, as BYU will visit the Broncos Thursday, and Oregon St. goes into the Rose Bowl to battle the Bruins Saturday night.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com