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nickknx865 Ballot for 2018 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 5, 2018, 5:11 a.m.

Overall Rationale: nan

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide It's fairly obvious at this point that Alabama is the best team in college football, unfortunately. Louisville may end up being an alright team though, which is the scariest thing about it.
2 Ohio State Buckeyes My power rating system put Ohio State at #1. I don't agree with it, but I don't disagree with it by a whole hell of a lot. Even without Urban Meyer, they're still the Big Ten title frontrunner.
3 Georgia Bulldogs My preseason ratings had the Dawgs #1. Perhaps they'll live up to that, but Austin Peay doesn't really tell you a lot, even with as good of a job as Will Healy has done there.
4 Oklahoma Sooners The FAU game, in hindsight, had probably a little too much expectation for the Owls. Yet, even grading on that scale, I don't know how to rate Oklahoma's performance in that game as anything but impressive. A total pummeling from start to finish.
5 Clemson Tigers Like with any top team playing an FCS squad, we've learned little about how good they actually are.
6 Wisconsin Badgers Defaulting to my computer rating here since I wasn't able to catch much of the Western Kentucky game but 34-3 seems like the most Wisconsin scoreline ever against an overmatched opponent.
7 Auburn Tigers them Barners pulled out a really great opening day win against a Washington team that is the heavy favorite to win the Pac-12.
8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish My preseason projections had ND 5th. Perhaps they're overrated, but I thought they looked good against Michigan, and while I caution myself to say "Notre Dame is a national title contender," I can't help but think it this early on.
9 Washington Huskies Dropping teams in the rankings very far for losing a really tough game against a really good opponent 2,000 miles away is bad. This is still a national title contender even with the loss.
10 LSU Tigers Is LSU that good or was Miami that overrated? Probably both, but since we did think Miami was as good as they were, I can't help but move LSU into the top 10 for now. The other reason for the high ranking is that I can't find another team that I think actually belongs here.
11 USC Trojans I really struggled with this one. UNLV kept it close with them till half when they pulled away, and I thought about dropping them below the top 15. This is a default "I don't know who else to put here it's week one" ranking.
12 Michigan Wolverines lel Jam Hardballz is 0verat3d talk started up after they lost to Notre Dame. It's week 1, that happens, but keep in mind that Michigan was an 8.5 point underdog. They weren't actually expected to keep it as close as they did if you include the late TD. Mostly, they just ran into a better team than them, and I think a large drop would not take into account the actual quality of the side, which has problems but is still a Big Ten East contender.
13 Stanford Cardinal Stanford struggled with SDSU in the 1st half. They couldn't get anything going if their lives depended on it, but they kept going on, and avenged last year's loss by a 21-point margin.
14 Oklahoma State Cowboys The Pokes looked pretty good against Missouri State, but something would have been wrong if they didn't.
15 Penn State Nittany Lions Full disclosure, I was not able to watch a single second of PSU's game against Appalachian State. My computer ratings still think they'll end up being a top 10-12 team, and App State's weird offense is tough for a lot of teams to defend, especially in an opener. A bit of a drop is needed though, I think.
16 Miami Hurricanes Part of me thinks that the LSU game fiasco had to do with the fact that they let the game get away from them. They rallied after LSU had already checked out to at least cut the score to a sorta 2 possession game. I keep saying it, but it really is Week 1 and dramatically overreacting to one game isn't the best idea.
17 Michigan State Spartans Watching the USU-Michigan State game, I noticed something -- USU was able to keep up with Michigan State's players athletically. That doesn't bode well for the Spartans, but I have faith in Mark Dantonio to correct things and keep the Spartans in at least fringe Big Ten East contention.
18 West Virginia Mountaineers Will Grier and WVU's big ass receivers lit Tennessee's defense up like a Christmas tree. That might have been an impressive achievement even 2-3 years ago, but the Vols were playing 3 freshmen in a new scheme. Defensively, Kenny Bigelow is an impact guy who will give a lot of interior linemen a bunch of headaches. Still, it's hard to say how good they actually are after a game like that. Consider this a "wait and see" ranking.
19 Virginia Tech Hokies Extremely impressive defensive showing by Va Tech on Monday night against the Seminoles. Their defense was very quick laterally on most of FSU's quick passes outside, and they will probably still be haunting Francois's nightmares in the coming days.
20 Boise State Broncos Boise State might actually be the best G5 team, crushing another great G5 from last year in Troy by an impressive 56-20 score.
21 Mississippi State Bulldogs Still am not entirely sure where Mississippi State stands. They beat Stephen F. Austin to a stone cold pulp, but that's not a stunner.
22 UCF Knights UCF did well against UConn, but...it's UConn. After South Carolina State, they've got 3 decent opponents to see where things will shake out with them.
23 Northwestern Wildcats The Evanston eggheads went down and notched a Big Ten conference win on the road at Purdue, and looked pretty decent in the process. My composite rating actually likes them at 21st, but we'll be cautious for now.
24 TCU Horned Frogs This is a total "I didn't watch your game, so I can't put you any higher," rank. A 55-7 win over Southern is exactly what a team in the top 25 should do.
25 Oregon Ducks Winning 58-24 against Bowling Green puts them in my 25th slot. They were down 10-0 late in the 1st, but rallied to go up 37-10 by the end of the 2nd.

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