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stripes361 Ballot for 2018 Week 3

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 10, 2018, 11:57 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Abbreviated commentary this week due to the 25 hours of driving I did this weekend.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide Saw this team in person this weekend. Every part of the operation was perfectly in sync against a solid Arkansas State team.
2 Ohio State Buckeyes
3 Clemson Tigers Making more of an effort this year to overcome my latent poll inertia, especially early in the season. A road win against a tough A&M team is a valuable piece of the Tigers' resume and may be underrated by quite a few people right now. However, I'm just not quite as sold on Clemson's QB play as I am on Hoskins for OSU right now, so I'm bumping Clemson down a spot. Still a definite playoff-caliber team though.
4 Georgia Bulldogs
5 Auburn Tigers
6 Washington Huskies
7 Oklahoma Sooners
8 Wisconsin Badgers
9 Penn State Nittany Lions
10 Stanford Cardinal Stanford jumps a couple teams for their impressive win over USC.
11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Wimbush has not impressed me so far. Ball State is a terrible team as well and I'm still a little tentative on the exact value of the Michigan win.
12 Mississippi State Bulldogs
13 LSU Tigers
14 Michigan Wolverines Michigan's loss to Notre Dame looks worse after Notre Dame's struggles against Ball State. I am very uncertain about having the Wolverines this high right now.
15 Texas A&M Aggies Yes, Texas A&M gets to jump Oklahoma State (despite losing) because the Aggies' actual performance outperformed their expected performance.
16 Michigan State Spartans Deferring to FPI for now on the Spartans. Both performances so far have been underwhelming. If they fail to impress in the future, they will continue dropping.
17 Oklahoma State Cowboys
18 Virginia Tech Hokies I said this last week and I'll say it again. FSU is a paper tiger. VPI will achieve a lofty ranking this season due to the Seminoles' preseason rank and a soft schedule that should abound in easy wins. Meanwhile, their marquee victory will struggle to attain bowl eligibility.
19 TCU Horned Frogs
20 Boise State Broncos Hard to tell how much a blowout of UConn is really worth but this potent Bronco attack has impressed me sufficiently to jump them a couple spots in the polls.
21 Miami Hurricanes
22 Oregon Ducks
23 West Virginia Mountaineers
24 Iowa Hawkeyes
25 Duke Blue Devils Honorable Mention: Arizona State. I really wanted to put the Sun Devils here but my uncertainty over Michigan State's true quality combined with Duke's big advantage in the computers so far, as well as the Blue Devils' comprehensive victories over solid Army and Northwestern outfits, give David Cutcliffe's men the narrow margin at this point in time.

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