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BabyBladder Ballot for 2016 Preseason

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Aug. 26, 2016, 12:19 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Since pre-season polls are garbage, I use mine as a fun way to predict end of season standings. After the first week of play, I then use my poll as a mix of expectations, eye test, SoS, and performance statistics. The weight of these change as the season goes on, but my pre-season poll will probably look drastically different than after a week of football, as expectations and schedule play a much larger role than my actual poll.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide 14-1 National Championship winners, only loss to Texas A&M.
2 Ohio State Buckeyes 13-2, losses to Bama in the NCG. Other loss is @Wisconsin. (Will overlook them compared to Oklahoma, MSU, Michigan, which are all circled)
3 Clemson Tigers 13-2, losses to FSU and OSU in the playoffs. Watson will win Heisman.
4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 11-2, loss to Stanford in the regular season. Will be embarrassed by Alabama like MSU last year. 2 big national games in the first 3 weeks of their schedule, and then a nice national prime time game against USC to end that serves as their play-in. (Top 4 are playoff contenders teams, dropping them below others after is stupid).
5 Michigan State Spartans 11-2. Remember 2014 when MSU lost to the 2 teams who played in the NCG (Oregon and Ohio State)? This year they lose to ND and Ohio State, while beating Michigan. They'll end their season by defeating Stanford in the Rose Bowl. Maybe a bit of a homer pic, but if the QB situation is good this is a top 5-10 team.
6 LSU Tigers 11-2, win the sugar bowl. Losses to Auburn (a shock) and Alabama keep them out of the SECCG.
7 Stanford Cardinal 11-3. Pac-12 canalization continues. Losses to USC and Oregon in the regular season keep Stanford out of the Playoff discussion, but a win over UCLA in the PAC-12 CG sends Stanford to a Rose Bowl where they play a nail biter against the Big 10 runner-up (MSU)
8 Oklahoma Sooners 9-3. Oklahoma loses to both Houston and Ohio State in OOC play, before going on to a record of 8-1 in the Big 12 to win it, only losing to Oklahoma State at the end. 
9 Michigan Wolverines Michigan will go 11-2 in the end, an understandable but disappointing 2nd year for Harbaugh. Having both MSU and OSU on the road does no favors, nor does having their 3rd DC in 3 years. There will be a few QB issues, and while the team will take advantage of their easier schedule and defeat a great Georgia team in the Outback Bowl, they'll be unable to defeat their rivals.
10 Georgia Bulldogs 11-3. Will be 11-1 going into SECCG before losing to Bama. Then lose a disappointing game to Michigan in the Outback bowl after being passed by LSU for the Sugar. This rounds out our top 10 and my more detailed predictions. Big 10 ends with 3 top 10 teams, SEC with 3 top 10 teams, PAC 12, Big 12, ACC, and independents with 1 each.
11 TCU Horned Frogs
12 Florida State Seminoles
13 UCLA Bruins
14 Houston Cougars
15 Texas A&M Aggies
16 Texas Longhorns
17 USC Trojans
18 Iowa Hawkeyes
19 Oregon Ducks
20 Florida Gators
21 Pittsburgh Panthers
22 Wisconsin Badgers
23 Oklahoma State Cowboys
24 Western Michigan Broncos
25 Washington Huskies This ends my pre-season Top 25, predicting the end of season polls. If you'd like to laugh at my predictions last year, feel free! https://poll.redditcfb.com/ballot/15885/ Notably I undersold Oklahoma big time, Undersold Alabama unlike this year, and didn't have Michigan as finishing in the top 25 (but really, who did?). This year I'm under-valuing Tennessee and Ole Miss, while over-valuing Georgia, Notre Dame, MSU, and Texas compared to the AP pre-season poll.By the way, this is way harder to do than it looks, I see why most media outlets go with pretty safe predictions.

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