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T-Thugs Ballot for 2017 Week 7

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 8, 2017, 10:51 a.m.

Rank Team Reason
1 Clemson Tigers The defending champs have the best resume right now with wins over Auburn, Virginia Tech, and Louisville. Beating Auburn matches up with basically anyone else's best win. Also, having multiple quality wins really sets them apart. 
2 Georgia Bulldogs I feel a little weird about putting them here, because Alabama has looked so good, but if I stay true to ranking based on who you beat, I had to move Alabama down. Georgia's win over ND is looking really really good this week. Meanwhile, Alabama's win over Florida state keeps losing meaning. 
3 Alabama Crimson Tide Tide moved down a spot in my poll due to FSU's loss. I still give Bama a little credit for that win since Francois played against them but has not played since.
4 Washington State Cougars Washington State has good wins over USC and Oregon. They looked especially dominant against Oregon. The Cougars should roll through the next three weeks before playing Stanford, Utah, and Washington. That Washington matchup is looking like a huge game right now.
5 TCU Horned Frogs Undefeated horned frogs beat West Virginia this weekend. They also have a good win over Oklahoma state. 
6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Irish make a huge jump in my poll this week thanks to Michigan State's big win. MSU jumps high on my list of 1 loss teams and Notre Dame stomped them in East Lansing. 
7 Penn State Nittany Lions Penn State beat Northwestern soundly this weekend, and Iowa beat Illinois so that's good. The Nittany lions have a bye week and then hit the meat of their schedule. Three games in a row against Michigan, Ohio State, and Michigan state. If they can come out of that slate with 1 or 0 losses, they would be in great shape. 
8 Washington Huskies Huskies dominated Cal this weekend. They continue to win in impressive fashion, but the quality of their wins is lacking. Their best wins are over 3-3 Cal and 3-3 Colorado. 
9 Miami Hurricanes The Hurricanes are undefeated and look like the favorites in the Coastal. They have wins over Duke and Florida State. Unfortunately for them, their win over FSU puts the Seminoles at 1-3 on the year, making it tough to argue its a real quality win. I had the Blue Devils ranked a couple weeks ago, but after getting blown out by Miami, Duke followed that up with a loss to Virginia. Not good. The Hurricanes play Georgia Tech this week. 
10 Michigan State Spartans The Spartans make a huge jump from unranked to top 10 in my poll with their win over Michigan. They changed the whole narrative of the Big Ten in one weekend. Their only loss is to Notre Dame, and now they have a very good win. I had Michigan 5th last week. Although, that resume really fell apart this weekend. Their win over Iowa was more impressive than Penn State's, mostly just because they never trailed. This could be a really good team. 
11 USC Trojans The Trojans only loss is to Washington State, which isn't bad. They have a quality win over Stanford. 
12 Auburn Tigers I have a hard time ranking Auburn right now. Their only loss is to Clemson, and they played them tough. I struggled with keeping them this low, but their best win is over Mississippi State and I don't think that team is as good as Stanford, so I had trouble putting them above USC. This could be a top 5 team. They play both Georgia and Alabama in the last few weeks of the season, and could put themselves in the playoffs with wins against those two. Sadly for the Tigers, they have little room for error with a loss already in the books. 
13 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma drops far in my poll after getting beat at home by Iowa State. That's a really bad loss. The teams I have above them all are undefeated or have losses to quality opponents. Oklahoma does stay somewhat high though thanks to their very good win on the road at Ohio State. 
14 Oklahoma State Cowboys I made a mistake and forgot to include the cowboys in my poll last week. Oklahoma State's only loss is to TCU and they have a decent win over Texas Tech. 
15 San Diego State Aztecs Aztecs are 6-0 with good wins over Stanford and Arizona State. 
16 NC State Wolfpack NC State has a really bad loss to South Carolina but they have a good win over Louisville now. They also beat Florida State. I'm unsure how to weigh that one. 
17 Ohio State Buckeyes Buckeyes unfortunately get hurt in my book from Oklahoma's loss. Their best wins on their own are over Indiana and Maryland, neither of which are exactly awesome. Indiana does have a win over Virginia, which is okay. 
18 Virginia Tech Hokies Their only loss is to Clemson, and they have a decent win over West Virginia.
19 UCF Knights UCF's win over Maryland lost some luster this weekend after the Buckeyes laid an absolute smackdown on them. They still have a pretty nice win over Memphis, though. 
20 Wisconsin Badgers The badgers remain lower on my list than the general consensus because their schedule is so bad. This team has an embarrassingly bad schedule. Their best wins are over 2-3 Northwestern or 3-3 Nebraska (who lost to northern Illinois). Yuck. It's hard to know if this team is great or nothing special. They play Michigan later in the year, but they don't have to play Ohio State, Penn State, or Michigan State. 
21 USF Bulls Lots of blowouts against bad opponents. 
22 Michigan Wolverines This brings me great joy to drop the Wolverines so far. Before you quickly point out that I'm an ND fan who hates Michigan and that must be the reason for this, you can see from my previous polls that I grudgingly ranked the Wolverines top 5 when it looked like they had a solid resume. That all fell apart this weekend. Their win over Florida lost a lot of luster after the Gators got beat by a pretty bad LSU team. Also, they got beat at home by Michigan State. Michigan has a good defense, but it's offense is just bad. 
23 Stanford Cardinal Stanford's win over Utah gets them back into my poll. They are the only 2 loss team I have ranked currently. They have a tough schedule the rest of the way with games against Washington State, Washington, and Notre Dame remaining. 
24 Navy Midshipmen The midshipmen are 5-0. They have really big games the next two weeks against Memphis and UCF. 
25 Texas Tech Red Raiders Texas tech is 4-1 with their only loss to Oklahoma state. They have a win over Arizona State.

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