Ballot Type: Computer

Submitted: Nov. 4, 2018, 3:21 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 (29.333), Duke (28.667), Syracuse (27.222), Texas A&M (26.667), Buffalo (26.111)

• Ballot
• Analysis

Rank	Team	Reason
1	Georgia Bulldogs	70.944
2	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	70.111
3	Michigan Wolverines	69.056
4	Clemson Tigers	67.611
5	Alabama Crimson Tide	67.556
6	LSU Tigers	63.778
7	Oklahoma Sooners	63.389
8	Kentucky Wildcats	53.500
9	West Virginia Mountaineers	52.813
10	Washington State Cougars	44.056
11	South Carolina Gamecocks	42.438
12	Mississippi State Bulldogs	41.833
13	NC State Wolfpack	40.500
14	Ohio State Buckeyes	39.944
15	Michigan State Spartans	39.056
16	Florida Gators	38.167
17	Penn State Nittany Lions	37.278
18	Iowa State Cyclones	35.813
19	Texas Longhorns	35.056
20	UCF Knights	34.563
21	Iowa Hawkeyes	32.944
22	Utah Utes	32.667
23	Washington Huskies	31.250
24	Stanford Cardinal	31.056
25	Auburn Tigers	29.889

Teams Ranked:

Rank	Team	Unusualness
1	Georgia Bulldogs	2.82
2	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	0.06
3	Michigan Wolverines	0.36
4	Clemson Tigers	-1.04
5	Alabama Crimson Tide	-3.14
6	LSU Tigers	0.63
7	Oklahoma Sooners	0.00
8	Kentucky Wildcats	1.05
9	West Virginia Mountaineers	0.00
10	Washington State Cougars	0.00
11	South Carolina Gamecocks	13.98
12	Mississippi State Bulldogs	1.02
13	NC State Wolfpack	1.22
14	Ohio State Buckeyes	-1.48
15	Michigan State Spartans	1.44
16	Florida Gators	0.46
17	Penn State Nittany Lions	0.17
18	Iowa State Cyclones	0.87
19	Texas Longhorns	0.00
20	UCF Knights	-2.40
21	Iowa Hawkeyes	1.53
22	Utah Utes	0.25
23	Washington Huskies	0.00
24	Stanford Cardinal	1.16
25	Auburn Tigers	0.00

Omissions:

Team	Unusualness
Syracuse Orange	1.69
Utah State Aggies	1.65
Fresno State Bulldogs	1.63
Boston College Eagles	1.38
Cincinnati Bearcats	0.17

Total Score: 41.60