Now in its sixth year, the Blog Poll is a weekly effort of dozens of college football-centric Web sites representing a wide array of schools under the oversight of founder/manager/guru Brian Cook at MGoBlog, and now appears on SB Nation. This week, the Doc is counting down his preseason ballot, from No. 25 to No. 1. Schedules were strongly considered in an effort to predict the landscape at the end of the regular season: This is not a power poll.

25. Arkansas. Ryan Mallett is the best quarterback in the SEC, and proud owner of the most dangerous downfield cannon in the nation. No one denies this. His top five targets all return, four of whom averaged more than 16 yards per catch. Four of five starting offensive linemen, too, and four of the top five rushers, etc.

Defensively, though, the Razorbacks are still mostly the same crew that brought up the bottom in the SEC in total and pass efficiency D – a year after an almost completely different crew brought up the bottom in every major defensive category in 2008. In all, the Razorbacks gave up at least 300 yards through the air in five different games last year, in the least pass-happy conference in the nation. Assuming his foot is somewhere near 100 percent (still an uncertain proposition at this point) Mallett can sling it with the best of them in high-scoring, back-and-forth barrages, but even with some improvement from a more seasoned secondary, it’s hard to see a schedule that includes seven or eight likely bowl teams yielded fewer than four losses – unusually entertaining losses, but still.

24. Pittsburgh. 2009 was arguably Pitt’s best effort since the halcyon Marino-Green-May days in the early eighties, a 10-3 campaign that came within 35 seconds of the Big East title in the regular finale. And by Big East standards, the Panthers easily lead the league in star power: The offense returns the conference’s most feared playmakers at running back (Dion Lewis) and receiver (Jonathan Baldwin) and a pair of All-Big East-caliber pass rushers (Greg Romeus and Jabaal Sheard) from the most sack-happy defense in the nation. The overall talent and general trajectory of the Dave Wannstedt era seem to point to this as the year for a breakthrough to the BCS.

The headliners have made the Panthers runaway Big East favorites in the wake of Brian Kelly’s exit from the burgeoning conference overlord at Cincinnati, but they also mask critical holes all over the lineup: Along with the totally inexperienced quarterback, Pitt will be breaking in new starters in the interior of the offensive line (the center and both guards), the interior of the defensive line (both defensive tackles), middle linebacker and both cornerbacks –