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T-Thugs Ballot for 2017 Week 9

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 23, 2017, 2:15 p.m.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs  Undefeated. Has blown out everyone on their schedule not named Notre Dame. The ND win might be the best win in the nation. 
2 TCU Horned Frogs Undefeated. Quality wins over Oklahoma State and West Virginia. Dominating the bad teams. Their two quality wins put them over PSU and Bama for me. 
3 Penn State Nittany Lions I move Penn State up for blowing out a team I had ranked. Penn State is undefeated with a dominating performance over Michigan. Alabama doesn't have a win on their resume like that one. A win over Ohio State this weekend will lock Penn State in up near the top of the rankings until they lose and would jump them over TCU and maybe Georgia.
4 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama looks like a really good team, but they just don't have the quality wins. Florida State stinks. None of the teams they've played in conference are any good. They kill all of them, but they don't have a team to point at and say, "we beat X" like Georgia, TCU, or Penn State. 
5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish The Irish laid a beat down on a pretty good USC team this weekend. They also have a very good win over Michigan State. Boston College is looking better and better. A win over NC State this weekend would further boost this resume. 
6 Clemson Tigers Clemson has a very good win over Virginia Tech. Also a decent win over Auburn and Louisville (not great). Boston College win is looking better. If Bryant isn't healthy, this team is in trouble, but for now I'm keeping them here. 
7 Miami Hurricanes Miami is undefeated but lacking in real quality of wins and they keep playing close games. They play Virginia Tech in two weeks and Notre Dame in 3. Wins in those games would jump Miami up really high. 
8 Oklahoma Sooners Sooners have a loss to Iowa State which isn't great, but they also have a huge win over Ohio State. If the buckeyes beat Penn State this week, that would definitely help Oklahoma. A loss would take away a little from their resume. They have a big matchup against Oklahoma State in a couple weeks that could help bump them up again. Their loss to Iowa state is also looking better and better. I've got Iowa State ranked now. 
9 Virginia Tech Hokies Virginia Tech's only loss is to Clemson and they have a nice win over West Virginia. Also an okay win over Boston College. They killed UNC this past weekend. Hokies have a huge matchup with Miami in 2 weeks. 
10 Michigan State Spartans Spartans only loss is to Notre Dame. I dropped them below Va Tech this week because the Michigan win is not quite as impressive as it was before. 
11 Washington State Cougars Washington State's best win (USC) fell apart a little this weekend. I still have USC ranked though, so that's a win over a ranked team where Ohio State doesn't have one. 
12 UCF Knights Knights had a solid win over Navy this weekend. They also have a win over Memphis who I have ranked.
13 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State hasn't played anyone since their loss to Oklahoma. I think this team is better than the ranking I've given them. Should be a pretty great game this weekend vs Penn state. Winning that one would jump the Buckeyes high in my poll. Losing would bump them down pretty far.
14 Oklahoma State Cowboys Cowboys only loss is to TCU. They're lacking in the quality win department right now, but that could change in a hurry because they play West Virginia next week and Oklahoma the week after. 
15 NC State Wolfpack rough loss to South Carolina to start the season, but NC State has looked okay since then. Louisville is an okay win. Big games coming up against Notre Dame and Clemson. 
16 USF Bulls Undefeated. Playing nobodies. They play Houston this week. Could be 11-0 when they play UCF at the end of the year. 
17 Wisconsin Badgers undefeated. Plays nobody. Putting them next to an undefeated USF shows what value I hold for their undefeated record. I may move them up to 10 if they beat Michigan in a few weeks. I think there are probably 5-10 teams that would beat Wisconsin by multiple touchdowns. 
18 Washington Huskies Zero impressive wins for huskies, but they only have one loss. 
19 USC Trojans I considered dropping USC out after that whooping, but Michigan State also received a whooping from ND. What keeps USC in the top 20 for me is that I was going to put Stanford here, but USC whooped Stanford. With the same number of losses, and with SC's only coming against ranked opponents, I'm putting the Trojans here. 
20 Stanford Cardinal Stanford has losses to USC and San Diego State (yikes), but they have wins over Utah, Arizona State, and UCLA. 
21 Memphis Tigers Memphis's only loss is to UCF. They have wins over UCLA, Navy, and Houston.
22 West Virginia Mountaineers Losses to Virginia Tech and TCU aren't bad. They don't really have much in the win category, though. Best win is over Texas Tech, then maybe ECU? They play Oklahoma State and Iowa State in the next couple weeks.
23 Iowa State Cyclones Their win over Oklahoma is really impressive. They also laid a whooping on Texas Tech this weekend (WVU's best win.) However, Iowa State has a couple pretty bad losses to Iowa and Texas. They're playing better football now, but those will hurt them. 
24 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Georgia Tech has two one point losses, to Tennessee (bad) and Miami (not bad). They play Clemson this weekend and could make a push for the ACC if they win that. 
25 Toledo Rockets 6-1. Only loss is to Miami. Wins over a bunch of nobodies, though. 

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