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BabyBladder Ballot for 2017 Week 7

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 9, 2017, 5:13 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Overall rationale for the post is an entirely arbitrary mix of eye test and resume. The question I personally use when approaching my poll is: So far in the season, based on talent, resume, and statistics, who do I think think the best teams are.It is far from a perfect approach, but early in the season I'm concerned with what teams have actually done, and how they've looked doing it.Notably, I attempt to come at the poll each week without previous poll bias. Naturally, this is impossible to truly fulfill, but it is my goal to not use previous weeks in determining rankings. Preseason polls are not inherently bad, only the way in which we commonly use them is. Avoiding poll inertia legitimizes early season rankings merely as predictors and expectations. This leads to wild over reactions and jumps in my poll, but helps avoid the trend of teams who get over-rated at the start of the season taking many weeks to drop.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama and Clemson are interchangeable and if we used a "points" based system I would have them tied.
2 Clemson Tigers Would be #1 if I could split points between Alabama/Clemson. At this point how can you doubt their chances of making another playoff, with great odds to go back to back national championships.
3 Penn State Nittany Lions I've been waiting for Penn State to slip up all season. I was not convinced they had the depth to survive a poor performance. Their star RB and probably heisman winner had a down game, on the road in Evanston. Any Big 10 fan knows how dangerous that can be. The fact they still dominated in such a way highlights the strength of the team. 
4 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia has looked great. Expect them to talk into their matchup @Auburn on November 11th an undefeated team looking to make a statement.Even with a loss to Auburn, Georgia is a playoff contender, as winning the SEC is all it will take. The only concern I have with Georgia is that their schedule is looking fairly light given the poor performance of other SEC schools. So far their only truly impressive win was @ND. It's fairly likely Georgia ends up playing 2 of their 12 regular season games against top 25 teams. Beyond their control and no influence on their current ranking for me, but something worth keeping in mind when it comes playoff discussion time.
5 Auburn Tigers IMO the team with the best loss in the country, and for some reason extremely under-rated in the national discussion. The better Clemson looks offensively, the more impressive holding them to 14 becomes.Will they stumble again on offense like in the Clemson game? I tend to think it was more of a matchup nightmare given that Clemson D-line being able to eat away at Malzahn's offensive style.I'm putting a 5-1 good looking Auburn team who lost to a 1/2 team in Clemson on the road over some undefeated teams who played nobodies in their OOC schedule. 
6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish There's a fairly reasonable chance that I have ND higher than any human voter. Here's why: 1 point loss to a top 5 Georgia team, and likely playoff contender. 20 point victory over a Michigan State team that belongs in at least the top 25 (higher IMO). Scored 49 points against Temple and Boston College, and 52 against Miami Ohio. Not an amazing victory against North Carolina, but a calm and in control victory.They are loaded with talent on both sides of the ball. If they weren't coming off a 4-8 season, they'd be a top 10 team right now. They look fantastic, and they're top 20 in terms of Scoring offense and defense.If they beat USC after their bye week on October 21st, it's time they seriously enter the playoff discussion.Why I could be wrong and fall on my face: This rating is contingent upon both Georgia and Michigan State being as good as I think they are. If so, ND is legit. If they're both about to collapse, then I could totally be misreading ND. Still, they scheduled tough opponents and performed well against them, which is a reward in my book.
7 Washington Huskies Hard to find much to critique them about in their play. However, they've played a very light schedule so far. I'm not on the Washington top 4 hype train, but it's entirely possible the best team in CFB. I look forward to seeing how they do against good teams another few weeks from now.
8 Wisconsin Badgers Honestly no idea how good this team is, I don't think anybody truly does at this point. They've played nobody that we can actually use to measure their performance. Solid offensive performance each week, 30+ points every game so far. Yet big asterisk thanks to that strength of schedule.I'll just frame it this way. If (and I don't think this will happen), Michigan falls outside the top 25, then it's very possible Wisconsin plays all 12 of their regular season games without playing a ranked opponent.
9 TCU Horned Frogs I'm probably under-rating TCU, I'll admit that. I'll have to re-evaluate them on a weekly basis, largely contingent on OSU's results as well if I'm being honest. Both TCU and OSU might be top 10 teams, making TCU a top 5 team, but oklahoma state felt like a lot of hype with little substance. Still, #9 at this point in the season is good and I'll quickly move them up if they keep it up.
10 Washington State Cougars I'm not sold on the Cougars, I think USC was extremely overrated, and their close game with Boise St. has me worried a bit. That's not to say they're bad, I just see WSU being more of a ~15ish type team in the long run. Still, they're 6-0, so top 10 they go.
11 Miami Hurricanes
12 Michigan State Spartans
13 Oklahoma Sooners
14 Ohio State Buckeyes
15 Oklahoma State Cowboys
16 Virginia Tech Hokies
17 NC State Wolfpack
18 San Diego State Aztecs
19 USF Bulls
20 Navy Midshipmen
21 Michigan Wolverines
22 USC Trojans
23 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
24 Texas Tech Red Raiders
25 Troy Trojans

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