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MrTheSpork Ballot for 2016 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 6, 2016, 12:04 p.m.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide I don't even think I need to explain. Alabama's damn good. I don't expect them to fall out of the top five this year.
2 Clemson Tigers Not an amazing performance against Auburn, but a win's a win, especially an opening game at a hostile foe. There's not been anything to merit dropping 'em nor has there been a statement game for someone to jump.
3 Ohio State Buckeyes Poor Bowling Green, that was a hard game to watch. On the plus side, OSU doesn't look like they've lost as much as the returning numbers would imply, and they're likely going to roll through the vast majority of their schedule.
4 Florida State Seminoles First half FSU is top 15. Second half FSU is top 3-ish. I think that second-half team will appear more often than not, so I've bumped them up even relative to other top ten losses.
5 Michigan Wolverines It's difficult to say where Michigan actually is, steamrolling a team that may not win three games this year, but I don't think there's reason enough to doubt yet. It's early in the year and there's not enough data for a fully reasoned, er, reason.
6 Houston Cougars Houston is coming. They outplayed what I still consider a top-ten team, looked great on offense, and held against a QB that rivals their own. There's a minor concern about the ground game, but there's a chance they'll end up top five very soon.
7 Stanford Cardinal I'm undecided on Kansas State which means that game could be either a solid win or an unexpectedly close matchup. Right now, there's some benefit of the doubt coupled with McCaffrey being himself, so it'll be a week or two before we have an idea.
8 Michigan State Spartans Michigan St8 is back, helped by a couple losses above them. The Spartans played closer than expected against Furman, mostly due to costly fourth-down conversions that resulted in 10 points, but I'm going to chalk that up to first-game jitters more than anything. Next game up should tell us more.
9 Tennessee Volunteers Yes, Tennessee did not look great against Appalachian State. Yes, there are questions about the team in general. But, for now, a win's a win and losses by top five teams absolutely help them maintain their top-ten position. It's a situation similar to Michigan: there's just not enough information yet.
10 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma's a good team, regardless of losses, and Mayfield's going to light up any team they face - he was arguably the better QB in the Houston game, but the team came up short. There's nobody below Oklahoma that I reasonably can move up so #10 they are.
11 TCU Horned Frogs Here we begin my issues. I don't think TCU is the 11th-best team in the country - they gave up 40 points to an FCS team - but there's nobody I can rank this high without having bigger issues. Louisville's close, but for now TCU needs more data.
12 Louisville Cardinals Louisville absolutely crushed a bad team. There's only so much information I can glean from that. The Cards will put up points on anyone, certainly, but it'll take until the Sept. 17 matchup against FSU to see where they really are.
13 Washington Huskies Like Stanford, the opponent's quality is still in question. Unlike Kansas State, Rutgers is either mediocre or bad. I gave Louisville the edge mainly due to the overwhelming offensive output, but really 11-12-13 could be any order.
14 Wisconsin Badgers Wisconsin's in an awkward spot. LSU looked mostly one-dimensional, with LF7 gaining 176 of LSU's 257 yards, but it's hard to tell if that was due to Wisconsin's defense or LSU's offensive scheme. The Badgers are in a holding pattern until late September, barring a major upset.
15 Oklahoma State Cowboys I think Oklahoma State will improve on last year. There's nothing huge to be learned from their week one win, but the Cowboys could be a surprise team in the Big 12.
16 Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa, Iowa, Iowa... what do I do with you? I think you were helped mightily last year, between luck and schedule, but part of being lucky enough to go 12-0 is being good to start with. I don't think there's going to be a huge dropoff, but who knows, and rolling a bad MAC team isn't proving anything.
17 Texas Longhorns Hello Texas! Welcome to the top 25! It's been awhile, but in a game that 30 years ago would have been a tie they proved themselves against what's been a known entity for a few years. Whether this level will continue is kinda up in the air, but for now a slot just inside the top 20 seems reasonable.
18 Ole Miss Rebels First half Ole Miss is top ten. Second half Ole Miss is maybe not top 25. Like the team that beat them, I'm erring on the side of improvement and might be a bit low right now, but I also can't put a team without a win too high - with one notable exception.
19 Utah Utes I might be high on the Utes, but Troy Williams looked solid in his first start at Utah and a shutout's always nice, even against an FCS team. The Holy War should give a better idea.
20 Notre Dame Fighting Irish I can't have Notre Dame and Texas separated by too much, logically, so this is as low as they'll get. Notre Dame's still good, they've got potential to crash the playoffs, but this game definitely hurt. Reloading to play Michigan State in a couple weeks will be a good deciding game for both teams.
21 LSU Tigers Oh, LSU... such high expectations, such average play. It was basically an away game, so you get some credit for that, and I still absolutely think you're top 25, but it's gonna be hard to claw your way back up without domination in the next several games. We'll see.
22 Georgia Bulldogs I did not have Georgia or UNC ranked last week but will give UGA a "wait-and-see" slot after that game. Chubb's solid, Smart picked up his first win pretty handily, and there's some serious upside to the team. We'll see.
23 Boise State Broncos Benefit of the doubt. Mauled an average ULL, contesting their typical MWC slot, and played well throughout. There's really not a game that Boise State should be the underdog in for the rest of this year - both a good and bad thing, there's going to be little to prove in many games.
24 Oregon Ducks Started slow against UC Davis, but eventually rolled to a big win. Prukop looked sharp but the Duck's defense looked average. The Border War should be interesting, though the matchup against Nebraska could decide Oregon's fate.
25 Texas A&M Aggies Trevor Knight looked good, not great, and excepting the fourth quarter the Aggies's defense was sharp. With the West appearing down it could be a prime opportunity for TAMU to compete, but they've got a huge, huge roadblock to win the division.

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