It's been hailed as "the definitive guide to the current state of college football." Order Stewart Mandel's Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls: Tackling the Chaos and Controversy that Reign Over College Football.

MAILBAG Submit a question or an opinion to Stewart. Your name: Your e-mail address: Your home town: Enter your question:

Just a comment ... I'd love to see your reasoning for your final AP ballot. It's great you show it to us, but I'd also love to hear you give your reasons.
--Dan, Sacramento

The top five spots seemed pretty clear-cut to me. LSU, Georgia and USC all finished with dominant bowl performances. I briefly considered moving West Virginia up to fourth following its Fiesta Bowl masterpiece, but the Mountaineers did still lose to Pittsburgh just one game earlier, while Ohio State lost to the national champion.

The most vexing issue was what to do with the three Big 12 teams that came next -- Oklahoma, Missouri and Kansas. If you went strictly by record, the order would be Kansas (12-1), Missouri (12-2), then Oklahoma (11-3). However, the Sooners beat Missouri twice. I don't know how you could rank the Tigers ahead of Oklahoma when the issue of which team is better was pretty clearly decided on the field. And by the same token, I couldn't put Kansas ahead of Missouri for the same head-to-head reason.

Clearly, my AP brethren felt differently. Not only did they rank both Missouri and Kansas ahead of Oklahoma, they kept Florida a solid five spots ahead of Michigan despite the fact both finished with the same 9-4 record and the Wolverines beat the Gators in Orlando. I put Michigan 15th, Florida 16th.

OK, I'm a biased BYU graduate, but come on! Ranking the team with the longest winning streak in the country, who definitely did not play a patsy schedule, 25th?
--Thad LeVar, Tooele, Utah

The way I looked at it, the Cougars didn't play a top-25 team all season. In their bowl game, they needed a blocked field goal to survive a 6-6 UCLA team (which they lost to previously). Much like Hawaii, they never offered any discernible proof that they're one of the 25 best teams in the country, but I gave them a token nod for winning 11 games.

Let us know how many angry e-mails you get due to your placing of Ohio State at No. 2 for next year's preseason top 10.
--Jarod Hart, Columbus, Ohio

I have a short attention span. There's no way I could concentrate long enough to count that high.

The fact is, that list will change significantly once all the all underclassmen make their NFL decisions, and if the Buckeyes get hit particularly hard -- James Laurinaitis, Vernon Gholston, Malcolm Jenkins and Alex Boone are all potential defectors -- they won't be quite as high on my ballot come August.

But as of the time that list was compiled, in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, I was looking at a team that, when it comes down to it, exceeded all reasonable expectations in winning 11 games to begin with this season and, as of now, returns a staggering 20 starters. I know in the aftermath of Monday's game most of you would prefer to see Ohio State (and Oklahoma for that matter) abolished from poll consideration all together, but the fact is if we eliminated from consideration every team that embarrassed itself at some point this season, there wouldn't be anybody left to vote for.

Sometimes I wonder how you ever graduated from elementary school. Looking at your final AP ballot, this is one of those times.
--Aaron Beddes, Kuurne, Belgium

You know -- I mostly got good grades in elementary school, but the teachers always drilled me on two subjects: penmanship and poll voting.

And so, we reach the end of another season, and it's with a hint of sadness that I sign off on the final Mailbag of 2007-08. We had our share of fun throughout this wacky season. At various points over the past four months, we discussed everything from Appalachian State beating Michigan (still hard to believe that really happened) to USF's national-title credentials (hah!) to Dennis Dixon's Heisman candidacy (still sad the way it ended) to enough Big Ten-SEC debates to fill an entire book.

Speaking of which, this was an extra-special season for me in that it coincided with the release of my first book. I'm sure many of you got tired of the relentless self-promotion, and I thank you for continuing to come back in spite of it.

But mostly, I want to thank all of you out there who not only read the book but took time to send me your feedback (which, thankfully, was almost entirely positive). It seems a lot of you received Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls in your Christmas stockings, because the amount of e-mails increased tenfold over the past couple of weeks. Since I can't reply to every one of you, just know that I read them and that they meant the world to me after devoting 2 1/2 years of my life to that project.

It also feels like this season took about 2 1/2 years to complete, so you'll have to excuse me if I disappear for a couple of weeks. I think Jordana and I might take the time to unwind together at a remote island resort somewhere.

Just like I think next year's national title race will resolve itself without a single hitch.