Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Aug. 19, 2018, 5:15 a.m.

Overall Rationale: I thought about doing a prediction of the end of the season rankings here this year,  but decided to just do a straight-forward power ranking instead. Scandals at Ohio State and Maryland have knocked them down from where I originally had them, and opened up a new spot in the top 25 for a team that I find promising.  After almost giving it to a number of teams, I decided on Purdue.  They were impressive on defense last season and I expect a lot of improvement on offense this year as well; a dark horse for a division title.Some will take exception to how high I am on Michigan.  I believe they could have the best defemse in the nation this year, and they finally have a serviceable QB.  The sky is the limit for them this season.Lastly, I am obviously very high on the top half of the SEC this year.  I can't help but see major promise with every SEC team I ranked to be the best version of themselves in quite a while, if not ever.  This includes Alabama, which is very scary for the rest of us.

• Ballot
• Analysis

Rank	Team	Reason
1	Alabama Crimson Tide
2	Georgia Bulldogs
3	Ohio State Buckeyes
4	Clemson Tigers
5	Auburn Tigers
6	Michigan Wolverines
7	Oklahoma Sooners
8	LSU Tigers
9	Wisconsin Badgers
10	Washington Huskies
11	Mississippi State Bulldogs
12	Penn State Nittany Lions
13	Notre Dame Fighting Irish
14	Florida State Seminoles
15	Michigan State Spartans
16	Oregon Ducks
17	UCF Knights
18	Florida Gators
19	Miami Hurricanes
20	Texas Longhorns
21	USC Trojans
22	FAU Owls
23	South Carolina Gamecocks
24	TCU Horned Frogs
25	Purdue Boilermakers

Teams Ranked:

Rank	Team	Unusualness
1	Alabama Crimson Tide	0.00
2	Georgia Bulldogs	0.15
3	Ohio State Buckeyes	0.13
4	Clemson Tigers	-0.55
5	Auburn Tigers	0.59
6	Michigan Wolverines	0.89
7	Oklahoma Sooners	0.00
8	LSU Tigers	3.19
9	Wisconsin Badgers	-0.16
10	Washington Huskies	-0.12
11	Mississippi State Bulldogs	1.27
12	Penn State Nittany Lions	-0.05
13	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	0.00
14	Florida State Seminoles	1.34
15	Michigan State Spartans	0.00
16	Oregon Ducks	2.62
17	UCF Knights	0.00
18	Florida Gators	6.63
19	Miami Hurricanes	-1.33
20	Texas Longhorns	0.83
21	USC Trojans	-0.65
22	FAU Owls	0.76
23	South Carolina Gamecocks	0.00
24	TCU Horned Frogs	-1.16
25	Purdue Boilermakers	0.06

Omissions:

Team	Unusualness
Stanford Cardinal	2.13
West Virginia Mountaineers	0.62
Virginia Tech Hokies	0.75
Oklahoma State Cowboys	0.44
Boise State Broncos	0.31

Total Score: 26.73