Ballot Type: Computer

Submitted: Nov. 11, 2018, 7:12 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: Syracuse (29.500), Boise St (28.100), Auburn (27.100), Duke (27.100), Iowa (27.000)

• Ballot
• Analysis

Rank	Team	Reason
1	Georgia Bulldogs	77.500
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	72.700
3	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	69.400
4	Clemson Tigers	68.600
5	Oklahoma Sooners	64.800
6	Michigan Wolverines	63.300
7	LSU Tigers	59.000
8	West Virginia Mountaineers	54.778
9	Ohio State Buckeyes	51.000
10	Florida Gators	49.600
11	Penn State Nittany Lions	47.200
12	Kentucky Wildcats	45.400
13	Washington State Cougars	43.000
14	Texas Longhorns	40.400
15	Utah Utes	39.700
16	Iowa State Cyclones	39.556
17	UCF Knights	39.222
18	Michigan State Spartans	38.100
19	South Carolina Gamecocks	36.778
20	Texas A&M Aggies	36.000
21	Northwestern Wildcats	33.700
22	Stanford Cardinal	33.500
23	Mississippi State Bulldogs	33.400
24	Missouri Tigers	33.300
25	Washington Huskies	30.800

Teams Ranked:

Rank	Team	Unusualness
1	Georgia Bulldogs	2.82
2	Alabama Crimson Tide	-0.09
3	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	0.00
4	Clemson Tigers	-1.07
5	Oklahoma Sooners	0.45
6	Michigan Wolverines	-1.02
7	LSU Tigers	0.72
8	West Virginia Mountaineers	0.00
9	Ohio State Buckeyes	0.00
10	Florida Gators	1.34
11	Penn State Nittany Lions	0.82
12	Kentucky Wildcats	2.13
13	Washington State Cougars	-1.32
14	Texas Longhorns	0.00
15	Utah Utes	0.86
16	Iowa State Cyclones	0.12
17	UCF Knights	-1.60
18	Michigan State Spartans	6.72
19	South Carolina Gamecocks	6.21
20	Texas A&M Aggies	4.84
21	Northwestern Wildcats	0.37
22	Stanford Cardinal	3.08
23	Mississippi State Bulldogs	0.00
24	Missouri Tigers	0.73
25	Washington Huskies	-1.16

Omissions:

Team	Unusualness
Syracuse Orange	2.66
Utah State Aggies	2.20
Cincinnati Bearcats	1.11
Boise State Broncos	0.33
Boston College Eagles	0.35
UAB Blazers	0.03
Army West Point	0.08

Total Score: 44.23