Week 2 College Football Rankings

There is no change in the top 16 of this week's power rankings.  Alabama holds the No. 1 spot after going to Happy Valley and easily beating Penn State.  LSU remains at No.2 with Oklahoma at No. 3, Florida State at No. 4 and Boise State at No. 5.

The game of the week is without a question Oklahoma going to Florida State.  I have them ranked three and four so should be a thriller in Tallahassee.  The Seminoles went to Norman last season and got beat up on 47-17.  I expect a different story this year and give the edge to FSU by two points over the Sooners.  Now without further ado here are my week 2 power rankings.

Ranking	School	Record	LW	Next Game
1	Alabama	2-0	1	Sep. 17 vs. North Texas
2	LSU	2-0	2	Sep. 15 @ 23 Mississippi State
3	Oklahoma	1-0	3	Sep. 17 @ 4 Florida State
4	Florida State	2-0	4	Sep. 17 vs. 3 Oklahoma
5	Boise State	1-0	5	Sep. 16 @ Toledo
6	Texas A&M	1-0	6	Sep. 17 vs. Idaho
7	Stanford	2-0	7	Sep. 17 @ Arizona
8	Oklahoma State	2-0	8	Sep. 17 @ Tulsa
9	Oregon	1-1	9	Sep. 17 vs. Missouri State
10	South Carolina	2-0	10	Sep. 17 vs. Navy
11	Ohio State	2-0	11	Sep. 17 @ Miami
12	Arkansas	2-0	12	Sep. 17 vs. Troy
13	Wisconsin	2-0	13	Sep. 17 vs. Northern Illinois
14	Virginia Tech	2-0	14	Sep. 17 vs. Arkansas State
15	Nebraska	2-0	15	Sep. 17 vs. Washington
16	USC	2-0	16	Sep. 17 vs. Syracuse
17	Florida	2-0	19	Sep. 17 vs. Tennessee
18	Michigan State	2-0	18	Sep. 17 @ Notre Dame
19	West Virginia	2-0	21	Sep. 17 @ Maryland
20	Auburn	2-0	NR	Sep. 17 @ Clemson
21	Texas	2-0	22	Sep. 17 @ UCLA
22	Michigan	2-0	NR	Sep. 17 @ Eastern Michigan
23	Mississippi State	1-1	17	Sep. 15 vs. 2 LSU
24	TCU	1-1	NR	Sep. 17 vs. Louisiana-Monroe
25	Arizona State	2-0	NR	Sep. 17 @ Illinois
Next Five: South Florida, Notre Dame, Penn State, Georgia, Missouri

Week 1 College Football Power Rankings

The Week 1 edition of my college football power rankings has Alabama holding on to the No. 1 spot with its dominating win.  LSU moves up one spot to No. 2 after beating up on Oregon in the Cowboys Classic.  Despite a convincing win Oklahoma drops one spot to No. 3, while Florida State remains at No. 4 and Boise State moves up one spot to No. 5 after thoroughly beating Georgia in Atlanta.

Ranking	School	Record	LW	Next Game
1	Alabama	1-0	1	Sep. 10 @ 24 Penn State
2	LSU	1-0	3	Sep. 10 vs. Northwestern State
3	Oklahoma	1-0	2	Sep. 17 @ 4 Florida State
4	Florida State	1-0	4	Sep. 10 vs. Charleston Southern
5	Boise State	1-0	6	Sep. 16 @ Toledo
6	Texas A&M	1-0	7	Sep. 17 vs. Idaho
7	Stanford	1-0	9	Sep. 10 @ Duke
8	Oklahoma State	1-0	8	Sep. 8 vs. Arizona
9	Oregon	0-1	5	Sep. 10 vs. Nevada
10	South Carolina	1-0	11	Sep. 10 @ 25 Georgia
11	Ohio State	1-0	12	Sep. 10 vs. Toledo
12	Arkansas	1-0	13	Sep. 10 vs. New Mexico
13	Wisconsin	1-0	14	Sep. 10 vs. Oregon State
14	Virginia Tech	1-0	15	Sep. 10 @ East Carolina
15	Nebraska	1-0	16	Sep. 10 vs. Fresno State
16	USC	1-0	18	Sep. 10 vs. Utah
17	Mississippi State	1-0	19	Sep. 10 @ Auburn
18	Michigan State	1-0	20	Sep. 10 vs. Florida Atlantic
19	Florida	1-0	21	Sep. 10 vs. UAB
20	Notre Dame	0-1	10	Sep. 10 @ Michigan
21	West Virginia	1-0	23	Sep. 10 vs. Norfolk State
22	Texas	1-0	24	Sep. 10 vs. BYU
23	Missouri	1-0	25	Sep. 9 @ Arizona State
24	Penn State	1-0	NR	Sep. 10 vs. 1 Alabama
25	Georgia	0-1	22	Sep. 10 vs. 10 South Carolina
Next Five: Auburn, TCU, Michigan, South Florida, Arizona State

2011 College Football Power Rankings

Here are my preseason power rankings for the 2011 college football season.  My preseason rankings are derived by a combination of where teams finished last season, how many returning starters they have, their recruiting class and a numerical formula I came up with.

I have Alabama leading off this season as the No. 1 team in my rankings followed very closely by Oklahoma.  According to my formula they are clearly the top two teams in the country and there is a pretty decent step down after them.  LSU came in at No. 3, but I did these rankings prior to the suspensions they recently received so next week they could easily falter.  Florida State is my surprise at No. 4 then Oregon rounds out the top five.

Ranking	School	Record	LW	Next Game
1	Alabama	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. Kent State
2	Oklahoma	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. Tulsa
3	LSU	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. 5 Oregon
4	Florida State	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. Louisiana-Monroe
5	Oregon	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. 3 LSU
6	Boise State	-	-	Sep. 3 @ 22 Georgia
7	Texas A&M	-	-	Sep. 4 vs. SMU
8	Oklahoma State	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. Louisiana-Lafayette
9	Stanford	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. San Jose State
10	Notre Dame	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. South Florida
11	South Carolina	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. East Carolina
12	Ohio State	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. Akron
13	Arkansas	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. Missouri State
14	Wisconsin	-	-	Sep. 1 vs. UNLV
15	Virginia Tech	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. Appalachian State
16	Nebraska	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. Chattanooga
17	TCU	-	-	Sep. 2 @ Baylor
18	USC	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. Minnesota
19	Mississippi State	-	-	Sep. 1 @ Memphis
20	Michigan State	-	-	Sep. 2 vs. Youngstown State
21	Florida	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. Florida Atlantic
22	Georgia	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. 6 Boise State
23	West Virginia	-	-	Sep. 4 vs. Marshall
24	Texas	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. Rice
25	Missouri	-	-	Sep. 3 vs. Miami (OH)
Next Five: Penn State, Miami, Auburn, Michigan, Arizona State

Technology Abstinence

I initially began my technology abstinence during spring break.  My wife, son and I were in Ohio on a short trip to see where my wife served her mission.  She was in the Ohio Cleveland Mission and served at the Kirtland Historic Sites as well.  Since she knew where we were going I figured that would be a perfect time to do a 48-hour technology fast.

I was about 24 hours into the fast when I ran into some problems that eventually caused me to use my computer and cell phone.  It's a long story between there and the end result, so I'll skip right to it.  My wife had an ectopic pregnancy while on our trip and had to have emergency surgery almost as soon as we got home.  Because of that I used my computer to help her look up symptoms and my phone to work on getting a hold of our doctor here in St. George.  So my first attempt at technology abstinence failed, but I still had time to do it.

I have been the baseball team's beat writer for the Dixie Sun and was struggling to find a time to do the abstinence because they play on weekends and I needed my computer for school during the week.  I ended up having to do the last weekend possible, Easter weekend.  The last two days I have been technologically fasting and it really wasn't too hard.  I was up in the mountains on Saturday, so my phone didn't work and I didn't take my computer.  My stake had stake conference this weekend though and Saturday night they announced a lot of changes with the boundaries and added two wards to our stake.  I was gone Saturday when they announced it and I found out on Sunday.  I really wanted to look up the changes on the stake website, but was able to refrain.  I did get a lot of texts and emails that I had to pilfer through, but that was no big deal.

Overall I didn't really care for the abstinence because I mainly wanted to use it to keep up on the sports world.