Back to poll results >>

MrTheSpork Ballot for 2016 Week 3

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 12, 2016, 10:49 a.m.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide Another week, another win. A bit closer, but for Alabama a "bit" means four touchdowns instead of six.
2 Ohio State Buckeyes Tulsa was meant to put up points, running a Baylor-derived offensive scheme. Tulsa did not put up points.
3 Florida State Seminoles Hard to say much playing a self-decimated Charleston Southern, but FSU looked good in the game. Really just the middle part of a bloc moving up.
4 Michigan Wolverines Not nearly as dominating as Ohio State, but not too distant. May have to wait a couple weeks to get a good sense of where Michigan is, playing pretty bad teams in their first two weeks, but the potential is definitely there.
5 Houston Cougars Weather delays make things weird, but a shutout is nice. I do not want to play Houston. 
6 Louisville Cardinals The Cards will score a lot on anyone. And I mean "on anyone." Fantastic chance for a statement game this week, so we'll see if this spot is truly deserved or if there'll be some soul-searching afterwards.
7 Stanford Cardinal I'm torn on what to do with Stanford. They've been good every year this decade and it'd be folly to expect anything else, but they had a bye AND the only team they've played also had a bye. I still don't know where Kansas State stands and thus don't have a good sense for the Cardinal.
8 Clemson Tigers Troy? Really?
9 Michigan State Spartans Mostly "see above" for this one, except that Furman lost to The Citadel which really doesn't help Michigan State. Again, it's that weird early-season "performance vs. potential" transition, and the Spartans don't have a second data point.
10 Wisconsin Badgers A statement win two weeks ago and a completely dominant win this week. Akron's not going to be *bad,* they'll likely compete for the MAC East, and that game was never close. 
11 Washington Huskies Washington's yet to snag a statement win, but they've been rock solid against one bad team and one terrible team (I'll let you pick which is which). Like a lot of people this is more a measure of trust in experience and in coaching than truly on performance, but for me that means it's likely the Huskies need three more weeks to move into the top ten (Portland State, @Arizona, Stanford) unless major losses upend the poll.
12 Oklahoma Sooners No hangover here, Oklahoma ran their Sooner Schooner over ULM. There's certainly little question OU's the #1 1-loss team (only Notre Dame will be like "HEY!") and they still appear to me a top-ten-ish team.
13 Texas Longhorns Dominant win over a UT-system school and Texas is looking good. Red River Shootout will be great. Meanwhile, the 'Horns have a couple tough road tests that'll be very interesting.
14 Tennessee Volunteers The Appalachian State game may have been an aberration, but Tennessee did exactly what they need to against Virginia Tech. The biggest issue: much of their success came on TOs, which, while a part of the game and certainly a defensive strategy, doesn't speak to team ability as much as a clean, but close, win. 
15 Ole Miss Rebels No real sense of where the Rebels are. We'll see what happens when they somehow beat Alabama again.
16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Hard for me to put ND too far down from Texas, considering the circumstances of their loss. Good win against a middling MWC team is fine, but Notre Dame really needs a win next week. Two close losses to top-15 teams is a moral victory, which counts for nothing.
17 Iowa Hawkeyes I really still don't know what to do with Iowa. Rivalry games can get weird, so it's impressive they looked as good as they did, but NDSU next week will probably be a tougher game - and still won't say enough about the team for me to get a good sense of them. Miami's loss to EIU hurts, but that game wasn't close, either. It may take until late October before there's enough to say "Iowa is a great team," unless every game before Wisconsin is a blowout.
18 Texas A&M Aggies The Aggies have one of the three best wins in the SEC and had their second string in just after halftime in a shutout. They're looking like one of the best teams in the SEC, but I'm not sure if that's third-best or fifth-best, so, fourth.
19 LSU Tigers "Hey Auburn, see? See how that's done?"
20 Arkansas Razorbacks Two OT against a team that's juuuust out of my top 25 means Arkansas gets a slot somewhere, but they're kinda in the same situation as TAMU. Luckily the 18-19-20 mess should get sorted out in short order.
21 UCLA Bruins OT loss @Texas A&M shouldn't penalize UCLA much. They handled UNLV well and still have a shot at being the best team in the Pac-12 South. It'll take getting past their next three games for me to definitively say that, though.
22 Oregon Ducks An FCS win and an FCS-caliber win. Not a whole lot to see here yet.
23 Nebraska Cornhuskers Wyoming and Fresno State are not going to be great this year. They're also not going to be bad. Nebraska made them look it. Next week's a low-key ranked matchup against one slot up, so there's certainly some potential for movement.
24 Baylor Bears Baylor's talent is there, but they've not been able to showcase it (what else is new). SMU's improved, so that's something, but this feels more like a "I have to have these guys ranked" than anything. Then again, there's not a great alternative.
25 Florida Gators Slot #25 is always going to be a struggle. Florida looked average against UMass but great against Kentucky. Miami crushed an HBCU and rolled an average in-state team. USC rebounded well after a miserable performance. USF looked good in both their games. Boise State is Boise, but barely beat chaos god Washington State at home. There are more. I'm going with Florida, for now, because that Kentucky win was solid as any this week, but #25 could become a revolving door of barely ranked this year.

Back to poll results >>