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T-Thugs Ballot for 2017 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 5, 2017, 9:48 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Each week I start my poll over and take a look at who you have played and who you have beat. Until we learn more about teams, I generally start the season with the idea that P5 wins are better than others, and that wins over FCS teams are basically non-games. Since I only weigh resumes and not expectations, my poll usually starts the season among the most controversial, but merges more into the standard rankings as the season continues and teams that were expected to be good actually prove they are good.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide Win over Florida State is the year's best so far.
2 Maryland Terrapins Texas defense looked absolutely terrible, so this win may not end up meaning much, but a road win at Texas still means something, especially when compared against wins over FCS teams and directional schools. 
3 Virginia Tech Hokies Got a win over ranked West Virginia to start the year. 
4 California Golden Bears Opened up the year with a road win over North Carolina. I don't expect to sed Cal ranked here for long. 
5 Michigan Wolverines I don't think the Florida win was super impressive, especially when Florida had a bunch of guys suspended, but week 1 didn't include many wins over teams that mean more than Florida.
6 UCLA Bruins Epic comeback to knock of Texas A&M gets the bruins a good start in my poll. 
7 Tennessee Volunteers Quite the comeback as well. Tough to comeback against a ball control offense like Georgia Tech. 
8 Ohio State Buckeyes Opened up the year with a road win over Indiana. They struggled early but ended up winning big. Indiana looked like they may have a decent team, at least a decent offense. Buckeyes can solidify themselves near the top of the poll if they beat Oklahoma next week.
9 South Carolina Gamecocks Started the season with a win over NC state. 
10 Louisville Cardinals Purdue looked like they might actually have a pulse this year. If they end up winning some games, this could be a decent win for Louisville. I didn't rank them higher because Purdue was one of the absolute worst P5 schools last year. Hard to know what that game is worth yet. 
11 Washington Huskies Washington started the season with a road win at Rutgers. Rutgers was pretty bad last year, but that is a road win over a P5 school. Until we get a bit more data, this counts as a decent win in my book.
12 LSU Tigers BYU isn't a P5 school, but they were already 1-0.
13 Clemson Tigers Clemson starts my list of teams that beat up nobodies. The reigning champs looked very good once again. 
14 Penn State Nittany Lions Absolutely crushed a MAC team. Penn State looked like they will continue on last year's success. 
15 Stanford Cardinal Destroyed Rice in Australia. They have a big matchup with USC next. Winner should jump pretty high up the rankings. 
16 Wisconsin Badgers 59-10 beatdown of a Mountain West opponent. 
17 Oklahoma Sooners Dominant in a win over a conference USA opponent. A win over Ohio State next week would jump the Sooners up to the top 2. 
18 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Dominant in win over American conference opponent Temple. A win over Georgia next week can jump them up the rankings.
19 Oklahoma State Cowboys Scored 59 on Tulsa. Likely will drop next week since they play Southern Alabama but they'll get a chance to move up again after that. 
20 Georgia Bulldogs 31-10 victory over Sun Belt opponent Appalachian State. 
21 UCF Knights 61-17 win over Conference USA opponent florida international.
22 Navy Midshipmen 42-19 over a conference USA opponent. 
23 Michigan State Spartans 35-10 win over Bowling Green from the MAC.
24 Iowa Hawkeyes 24-3 win over Mountain West opponent Wyoming.
25 USC Trojans Struggled with Western Michigan but still ended up winning 49-31. 

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