Ballot Type: Computer

Submitted: Oct. 15, 2018, 7:35 p.m.

Overall Rationale: About halfway through last season, I finally accomplished my goal of creating a computer poll that isn't a dumpster fire. This year, I somehow made it worse by making it more comprehensive??? Idk man, but MAJOR CHANGE ALERT I went back to last years formula this week. My poll starts with all FBS teams tied for a clean slate. From there, teams are ranked "down" (where number 1 is the best team) and "up" (where number 130(sum of FBS teams) is the best team). Then each week if you beat a team, you gain their "up" rank or lose their "down" rank. For example, let's say Alabama is ranked 1 and TAMU is ranked 17. if TAMU beats Alabama, they would gain Alabama's "up" rank (130 points) to their score. If TAMU loses to Alabama this weekend, they would lose Alabama's "down" rank (-1 points) to their score. It follows that if Alabama loses, they lose TAMU's "down" rank (-17 points) and if Alabama wins, they gain TAMU's "up" rank (114 points). This means teams who win against higher ranked opponents are highly rewarded, but teams who lose games to higher ranked opponents don't lose too many points (Q U A L I T Y L O S S). It follows that teams who beat low ranked opponents don't gain many points, and teams who lose to low ranked opponents are punished hard. Byes are 0 points, and any FCS team is ranked the same as the last place team. A team's total score is then divided by the number of games played, so schools who play less games in a season aren't punished (re:Hurricane Florence). FIRST FIVE OUT: Army (29.000), Washington (26.714), Virginia (25.833), Oregon (25.667), Mississippi St (23.667)

• Ballot
• Analysis

Rank	Team	Reason
1	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	76.571
2	LSU Tigers	68.571
3	Clemson Tigers	63.667
4	Ohio State Buckeyes	63.000
5	Alabama Crimson Tide	60.143
6	Georgia Bulldogs	59.714
7	Oklahoma Sooners	59.500
8	Texas Longhorns	57.857
9	Kentucky Wildcats	55.333
10	Florida Gators	55.143
11	Michigan Wolverines	54.857
12	Stanford Cardinal	45.833
13	Iowa Hawkeyes	44.500
14	Duke Blue Devils	44.333
15	NC State Wolfpack	44.200
16	Texas A&M Aggies	39.714
17	Michigan State Spartans	37.000
18	UCF Knights	36.667
19	USC Trojans	36.500
20	San Diego State Aztecs	35.833
21	South Carolina Gamecocks	35.250
22	Cincinnati Bearcats	32.333
23	West Virginia Mountaineers	29.833 Tied with USF
24	USF Bulls	29.833 Tied with WVU
25	Texas Tech Red Raiders	29.167

Teams Ranked:

Rank	Team	Unusualness
1	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	0.71
2	LSU Tigers	0.86
3	Clemson Tigers	0.00
4	Ohio State Buckeyes	-0.40
5	Alabama Crimson Tide	-2.94
6	Georgia Bulldogs	0.34
7	Oklahoma Sooners	0.30
8	Texas Longhorns	0.00
9	Kentucky Wildcats	0.64
10	Florida Gators	0.00
11	Michigan Wolverines	-1.06
12	Stanford Cardinal	5.02
13	Iowa Hawkeyes	1.00
14	Duke Blue Devils	4.23
15	NC State Wolfpack	0.00
16	Texas A&M Aggies	0.00
17	Michigan State Spartans	1.62
18	UCF Knights	-1.20
19	USC Trojans	3.10
20	San Diego State Aztecs	4.70
21	South Carolina Gamecocks	4.23
22	Cincinnati Bearcats	0.00
23	West Virginia Mountaineers	-1.51
24	USF Bulls	0.00
25	Texas Tech Red Raiders	0.00

Omissions:

Team	Unusualness
Oregon Ducks	2.42
Washington Huskies	1.41
Penn State Nittany Lions	0.87
Washington State Cougars	0.35
Mississippi State Bulldogs	0.23
Wisconsin Badgers	0.20

Total Score: 39.32