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Bill3ffinMurray Ballot for 2017 Week 3

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 10, 2017, 5:38 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Okay, so this one will be a bit weird - especially if you look at it in relation to my last two polls. But we're getting to the point in the season where I'm starting to get enough data to compare resumes. So I'm starting to look at and compare the resumes of teams (in terms of Sagarin ratings, opponent Sagarin ratings, margin of victory, wins over top 10, top 25, road wins, etc...). All of this is done with some respect to my preseason poll (I know, I know, they shouldn't be done. But I did one and so I should at least respect it a little). Nevertheless, you'll see some weird jumps in rankings - both up and down - for some teams (Georgia). Those teams will have plenty of opportunity to prove they deserve those rankings, and the next couple of weeks will still see some wild changes. 

Rank Team Reason
1 Oklahoma Sooners I think Oklahoma is the best team in the country right now. A 15 point win in Columbus is the best win by any team in this young season. 
2 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama is very good and if they can get that offense rolling, I suspect they won't be #2 for very long. 
3 Clemson Tigers So long as Clemson has that defense, they won't need to get much from their freshman QB. 
4 USC Trojans USC has beaten both Western Michigan (Sagarin ranks at 63) and Stanford (who Sagarin ranks at 16) by 18 points. 
5 Georgia Bulldogs So this one will take some explanation and again, Georgia will have plenty of opportunity to prove they deserve this ranking. Georgia started off the year by beating App State by 21 and then knocking off Notre Dame in South Bend by 1. That's a top 25 road win, which is more than most teams have on their resumes at this point. 
6 Penn State Nittany Lions A win against Pittsburgh and the Nittany Lions drop? But rankings this early in the season shouldn't matter too much - Penn State will have plenty of opportunity to leap frog other teams with games against Michigan and Ohio State. 
7 Michigan Wolverines The Wolverines will need to find a bit more of a heartbeat on offense - especially at QB - if they are to be a serious contender this year. 
8 Ohio State Buckeyes The young secondary was exposed against a talented QB. I wasn't too surprised to see Oklahoma win last night, but I was surprised to see JT Barrett struggle as much as he has this season. It might be a time for a QB change in Columbus. 
9 Florida State Seminoles No game, so don't have anything else to add other than it'll be interesting to see how the Noles perform without Francois. 
10 Washington Huskies Got a road win against Rutgers and then a relaxing walkthrough in Husky Stadium against FCS Montana. Not going to move the Huskies up at all, but they'll have plenty of opportunity to prove they're just as good as last season. 
11 LSU Tigers The Tigers have allowed just 10 points on defense this year. It's been against BYU and Chattanooga, but I've seen teams give up more to similar teams. 
12 Louisville Cardinals Louisville has two good wins over relatively quality teams in North Carolina and Purdue. Up next is a hopefully thrilling rematch with the Tigers. Lamar Jackson looks just as good, if not better than last season. 
13 Wisconsin Badgers Kind of a struggle against Florida Atlantic, but that isn't the reason why Wisconsin dropped this week, which had much more to do with other teams moving up by beating better teams. 
14 Oklahoma State Cowboys Again, same reason as Wisconsin. They didn't fall not because of anything they did - because the Cowboys looked spectacular against South Alabama, but it was South Alabama. There's plenty of quality in the Big XII, and if the Pokes can beat them all, they should find themselves in the Playoff. 
15 Auburn Tigers Yes, I moved Auburn up even though they lost to Clemson. I'm sorry. 
16 Stanford Cardinal The Cardinal just kind of fell flat against USC. They're a good team, but it wasn't their best week. 
17 TCU Horned Frogs TCU had a dominant win over an FCS team and then went and had a dominant win on the road against Arkansas. The Frogs look good and will present a challenge to both Oklahoma and Oklahoma State
18 Virginia Tech Hokies
19 UCLA Bruins Josh Rosen is the real deal, and the Bruins look the real deal after their debacle in the first half against A&M. 
20 Oregon Ducks When the Ducks offense is clicking it is a sight to behold. They had 42 in one half against Nebraska, but then they had 0 in the second half. They'll have plenty of time to figure themselves out, but if they do, they could make some noise in the Pac 12 North. 
21 South Carolina Gamecocks Like Louisville, South Carolina has two pretty quality wins against NC State and Missouri. Not many teams have two better wins than that. 
22 Maryland Terrapins For now, the Terps will be ranked. That'll probably change the moment they lose. But they haven't yet, and so they'll stay ranked. 
23 Utah Utes
24 Iowa Hawkeyes
25 Michigan State Spartans

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