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stripes361 Ballot for 2018 Week 9

Ballot Type: Hybrid

Submitted: Oct. 23, 2018, 8:23 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Performance/team quality ranking, based primarily on ESPN's FPI and Football Outsiders' S&P+ rankings. Not intended to be a resume ranking. Teams moved up and down from their spots in the computer rankings based on eye test, coaching, QB play, and other subjective factors.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide
2 Clemson Tigers Clemson might be the only team in the country that could become a 1(B) to Alabama's 1(A), assuming that Alabama's flawless season doesn't come to an end in Death Valley next weekend.
3 Georgia Bulldogs
4 Michigan Wolverines
5 Oklahoma Sooners
6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish I have the Irish slightly overrated compared to their metrics (9th in FPI and 7th in S&P+) at a time when most people are feeling down on this team. Notre Dame had what FPI considers to be their worst performance of the season (even more so than their single-digit win against Ball State) in a 19-14 win against Pitt, meaning that current sentiment has slightly cooled on Brian Kelly's squad. However, they are still #3 in the win-loss driven AP Poll and should stay there late into the season, as a trip to Northwestern may be the closest thing they have to a tough game before closing the season against arch-rival USC.
7 LSU Tigers LSU is only 10th in FPI and 15th in S&P+, so I likely have the Tigers overrated along with the rest of the country. (Interestingly, LSU is 2nd nationally in Strength of Record, so from the point of view of a "resume poll" voter they are actually underrated in the AP Poll.) It's hard to ignore how they've looked at home against Georgia and Mississippi State the past two weeks. Have they really improved or is this just unwarranted recency bias?
8 Ohio State Buckeyes
9 Penn State Nittany Lions
10 Washington Huskies Washington is actually 8th in FPI and 6th in S&P+, so I have them knocked down a couple pegs here. While the Huskies had a legitimately impressive performance in an early-season 21-7 road win at Utah, their close losses to Auburn and Oregon this year are the latest iteration of the general trend where statistically impressive Washington teams can't quite get over the hump against top opponents. This team will need to dominate Stanford or Washington State in order to start changing my mind.
11 Florida Gators
12 Texas A&M Aggies
13 Iowa Hawkeyes
14 Wisconsin Badgers
15 Mississippi State Bulldogs
16 Miami Hurricanes
17 Fresno State Bulldogs
18 Utah Utes
19 UCF Knights
20 Texas Longhorns
21 Kentucky Wildcats
22 Utah State Aggies
23 West Virginia Mountaineers
24 Texas Tech Red Raiders
25 Missouri Tigers Missouri's road win against Purdue keeps getting better and better. Honorable Mention: Auburn, Appalachian State, Stanford

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