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TheFlyingBoat Ballot for 2017 Final

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Jan. 9, 2018, 6:12 p.m.

Overall Rationale: General things we learned from the bowls that informed my poll:1) The SEC at the top is strong2) The B1G is better than I thought throughout (but not as good as CFB thinks, more on that below)3) The Pac 12 is trash4) UCF is legit5) The Big 12 was also a very deep conference as they went perfect (5-1 with an OU loss in bowls) after a rough start with Chuganov (WVU's backup) proving that WVU has the biggest gap between starter and backup in CFB this season and Texas Tech doing Texas Tech things. Despite the memes that may exist, the Big 12 does in fact play defense.6) Overreaction to how good the B1G was is high right now. While the B1G played well this year, I think it's important to note a few things that damper the parade just a tad. Their "great" NY6 wins were anything but. Miami was in a tailspin at this point. Before Wisconsin beat them by 10, Clemson beat them by 35. Pitt beat them by 10. And perhaps most shocking, Virginia was within 3 with 4 minutes left in the 4th. They were on a two game losing streak and had played poorly in every game since Notre Dame. Live by the Richt, die by the Richt.Washington played nobody OOC and still ended up with two losses in a dismal Pac-12 conference.USC struggled OOC, getting blown out by Notre Dame and then barely scraping by a middling Texas team (god that hurts to say) and a mediocre Western Michigan (don't let garbage time scores deceive you) before proceeding to struggle in the previously mentioned terrible Pac-12, losing to Wazzu and barely escaping the mediocre teams. Undoubtedly still a good team, but not one that lived up to the hype.Kentucky was the one ultra-obvious overmatch based on record and standing that still played NW (Wisconsin's best win before Miami) very close.After that you have two more wins over the worst conference in the P5, and a win over Boston College (imo a very underrated 7-6 team).All that being said, I think they're the 2nd best conference.7) P5 Conference rankings:Tier 1: SEC>B1G>Big 12Tier 2: ACCThird Tier Trash: Pac-12Comments in teams that I didn't cover above and may be interesting.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide
2 Georgia Bulldogs
3 Clemson Tigers
4 Oklahoma Sooners
5 UCF Knights It was a pleasure watching them play. In my view they have the 3rd best offense after OkSt and just before FAU and a good enough defense to beat the 3rd best team in the SEC. Proud of what they accomplished and it's good enough for the 4th spot in my rankings.
6 Ohio State Buckeyes
7 Wisconsin Badgers
8 Penn State Nittany Lions
9 TCU Horned Frogs A very much underrated team. Two losses to OU (#3 in my poll) and a loss to titan-killer Iowa St. Picked up a win against Stanford that had early issues but finished the season strong. They had a convincing win over Notre Dame, but losses to a questionable (but still decent) USC and also losing to an okay SDSU team does dampen its value somewhat.
10 Auburn Tigers
11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish I am proud to have predicted that Notre Dame would have been good this year over the concerted voices of /r/CFB in the preseason
12 Oklahoma State Cowboys Despite hailing from the conference that "doesn't play defense", they held the Hokies to 21. They have without a doubt the best WR corps in the country; couple that with the 2nd best QB and a consensus first team all-conference RB and you have the 2nd strongest offense in the country after OU.
13 USC Trojans
14 Northwestern Wildcats
15 Michigan State Spartans
16 Miami Hurricanes
17 Stanford Cardinal
18 Washington Huskies
19 LSU Tigers
20 Mississippi State Bulldogs
21 NC State Wolfpack
22 Virginia Tech Hokies
23 USF Bulls
24 Boise State Broncos
25 Memphis Tigers

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