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T-Thugs Ballot for 2016 Preseason

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Aug. 29, 2016, 9:52 a.m.

Overall Rationale: I based this preseason poll entirely on who I think is the best team. I don't consider who I think will have good records because playing nobody is embarrassing and not something to be encouraged. Even though my vote means absolutely nothing to college football teams, that's how I would vote if I had a real vote and wish AP voters would vote that way. I'll throw it out completely and start from scratch each week, evaluating who each team has played and beaten. 

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide Defending champs. Still loaded. An opening weekend win over USC will keep the Tide on top or near the top.
2 Clemson Tigers National Championship runners up, bring back lots of talent. Love the opener with Auburn. 
3 Ohio State Buckeyes Lost a lot of talent but Ohio State is like Alabama in the ability to just reload with new talent. Still have JT Barrett. Should be very good. I'll be dropping them pretty far after week 1 and they won't really have a chance to move back up until week 3 when they play Oklahoma. 
4 Stanford Cardinal Christian McCaffrey should have won the Heisman. I'm not sure if this team will take a step backwards, but having the best player on the field is always a good sign. We should know where Stanford stands pretty early on.
5 Florida State Seminoles Week 1 vs. Ole Miss should tell us a lot about the Noles. 
6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Offense should still be loaded. Defense may be a little shaky. Will either be top 5 or unranked after week 1 matchup with Texas. 
7 Oklahoma Sooners Week 1 matchup with Houston is huge for the Sooners. Will tell us if this is a playoff caliber team.
8 LSU Tigers Fournette is a freak and a scary man. Give the man the ball. Expecting LSU to roll Wisconsin in week 1. 
9 Houston Cougars A win over Oklahoma in week 1 would have Houston sitting very high in my poll, possibly number 1. 
10 Ole Miss Rebels Week 1 game with Florida State should be a great game and could start some Chad Kelly heisman hype. 
11 TCU Horned Frogs Will drop in week 1, but could move back up by beating Arkansas in week 2. Hopefully can avoid the injury bug.
12 Michigan Wolverines I had a hard time ranking them above Michigan State, but MSU lost a lot more to the draft. Will drop and not move back up my poll for a long time because they don't play anybody and won't deserve to be ranked highly. 
13 Michigan State Spartans MSU will hang out near the bottom of my top 25 until week 3 when they play at Notre Dame. 
14 USC Trojans A win over Alabama in week 1 would make the Trojans #1 overall in my book. I don't see that happening, though. 
15 Iowa Hawkeyes I don't think the Hawkeyes will have quite as good of a season as last year. They also will not be high in my poll until later in the year because they don't really play good teams.
16 North Carolina Tar Heels A week 1 win over Georgia could show this team deserves to be ranked higher. Would jump them up quite a bit.
17 Georgia Bulldogs Love the week 1 matchup with UNC. A win would move them up quite a bit.
18 Tennessee Volunteers I'm not completely sold on Tennessee yet. Unfortunately Virginia Tech isn't very good so I don't think we'll really know much about them until they hit SEC play. 
19 UCLA Bruins Josh Rosen should be really good. Week 1 with Texas A&M will give us a better idea of what to expect this season.
20 Oregon Ducks They had a down year last year, but they've been consistently good enough to expect wins. 
21 Texas Longhorns Should be much improved, although they may still be 1 year away from being a true competitor. A win over Notre Dame in week 1 would jump them up in my poll. 
22 Louisville Cardinals Now I'm just guessing. They were solid last year. 
23 Florida Gators Meh.
24 Miami Hurricanes Kaaya is supposed to be a stud. I don't really buy into the hype yet but maybe Richt will have this team playing at a higher level. 
25 Oklahoma State Cowboys Week 3 against Pitt is the first time we'll see anything really about the Cowboys.

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