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T-Thugs Ballot for 2017 Week 10

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 30, 2017, 10:23 a.m.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs Undefeated. Win over Georgia is the best win in the nation. 
2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Irish are destroying quality opponents and might be the best team in the country right now. I have to keep them below Georgia since Georgia did beat them in South Bend and is undefeated. 
3 Oklahoma Sooners I struggled to measure where to place OU, Clemson, and Ohio State. Sooners get a boost because Iowa State is significantly better than Syracuse and also because they kicked Ohio State's butt in Columbus. 
4 Clemson Tigers The reigning champs have a really good win over Virginia Tech and also have a solid win over Auburn, but their loss to Syracuse really hurts. 
5 Ohio State Buckeyes The buckeyes have a quality win over Penn State, but that's their only win. They also lost to Oklahoma at home, so that keeps them behind the Sooners. 
6 TCU Horned Frogs TCU has a good win over Oklahoma State, but has a loss to Iowa State. Also have an okay win over West Virginia.
7 Alabama Crimson Tide I have had Alabama high, but it really goes against my ranking theory to keep them there. Years of dominance say they should be #1 or #2, but if we are looking only at what they have done this year, they just don't belong at the top. They have been crushing everyone but have played a terrible schedule to this point. They are probably one of the best 2-3 teams, but their resume just doesn't support them being at the top anymore. They will sort themselves out, though. They have games against LSU, Auburn, and likely Georgia (SEC title game) coming up. Winning those without a loss would put them at #1. 
8 UCF Knights Undefeated. Best win is over Memphis. Also beat Navy.  Rest of the schedule is a little weak .
9 Penn State Nittany Lions Penn State blew their big chance this weekend. A win over Ohio State would have put them in the driver's seat. Now they need the Buckeyes to lose twice to make the Big ten championship game. Penn State doesn't really have many chances to move up, though. Best win is over Michigan. 
10 Miami Hurricanes Undefeated, but lacking in quality of wins. Surprisingly, Toledo looks like an okay win. If they beat Virginia Tech this weekend, that would go a long way in proving they belong. They have Notre Dame following that. 
11 Oklahoma State Cowboys Cowboys have a huge game against Oklahoma this weekend to determine which Oklahoma team has a shot at the playoffs. Only loss is to TCU. Best win is West Virginia. 
12 Virginia Tech Hokies Only loss is to Clemson. Best win is Virginia Tech, but Oklahoma State beat them by more. Beating Miami this weekend would jump the Hokies up the poll. 
13 Iowa State Cyclones Iowa State is my top 2 loss team, even though both their losses are pretty rough. They just have great wins. They beat both Oklahoma and TCU. I was considering ranking them higher, but have a hard time judging what to do with a team that lost to Iowa and Texas. 
14 Wisconsin Badgers Undefeated against terrible schedule. Best win is Northwestern. 
15 Washington Huskies Washington only has one loss (to Arizona State) but lack impressive wins. 
16 USC Trojans USC has two losses, one of which was a butt whooping from Notre Dame. They do have some good wins, though. They killed Arizona State this weekend, after the Sun Devils were looking better. They also have a big win over Stanford. 
17 Stanford Cardinal Stanford squeaked by Oregon State this weekend, but Bryce Love didn't play. They have a really tough finish to the season playing both Washingtons and Notre Dame in 3 of their last 4. We'll know soon where Stanford belongs. 
18 Memphis Tigers Memphis's only loss is to UCF. They also have solid wins over Navy, Houston, and UCLA.
19 Washington State Cougars Washington State is free falling. Dropping 2 of their last 3 in ugly fashion. I still have them ranked thanks to their win over USC. Also have a decent win over Boise State.
20 South Carolina Gamecocks South Carolina is 6-2 and is in second in the SEC east. They have a nice win over NC State. They have a couple rough losses, though. They play Georgia this week. They also have a game against Clemson to finish out the year.
21 Auburn Tigers Auburn has a nice win over Mississippi State. Losses to Clemson and LSU. They're hard to figure out. They play Texas A&M this week, but play Georgia and Alabama to finish out the year. They could move themselves way up. 
22 NC State Wolfpack NC State got rolled by Notre Dame this weekend, but they are actually in first place in the ACC Atlantic. Their impressive wins from early on, Florida State and Louisville, don't appear to mean a whole lot right now. They play Clemson next week, though. The winner will likely play in the ACC championship. Beating them would jump NC State back up my rankings.
23 Toledo Rockets Toledo only has 1 loss (Miami) but has rung up a bunch of wins on MAC nobodies. 
24 Arizona Wildcats Arizona had a really impressive win over Washington State in their last game. They play USC this weekend, and winner is in the driver seat for the South. 
25 Michigan State Spartans Michigan State had a really bad loss to Northwestern this weekend. I considered dropping them out of my rankings, but their win over Michigan keeps them here. Mostly because Michigan was one of the other teams I considered for this spot. My other considerations were Kentucky and LSU. I think LSU has the best win of the bunch, but they lost to Troy and that's really really bad. 

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