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T-Thugs Ballot for 2019 Week 3

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 8, 2019, 11:14 a.m.

Overall Rationale: I remake my poll each week based on what each team has accomplished so far. For this reason, teams with nice wins early will be ranked highly in my early season polls, even teams that we generally know are not as good as some of the other programs they are ranked above. My poll is usually on most controversial early in the season but ends up looking more and more like everyone else's once the season progresses and we have a larger set of games to judge from.

Rank Team Reason
1 Clemson Tigers Reigning champs easily handled Texas A&M. 2-0 with wins over two p5 opponents. 
2 LSU Tigers I struggled with deciding to put LSU at #1 or #2. Winning at Texas was an incredible win and LSU looked very impressive in doing so. 
3 USC Trojans USC delivered a beatdown on Stanford this weekend, who defeated Northwestern already this year. Stanford was without Costello, but that's a really nice win this early in the year. 
4 Auburn Tigers Auburn didnt look quite as impressive against Tulane this week, but their win over Oregon is still very good. 
5 California Golden Bears Winning at Washington is one of the most impressive wins of the early season. Only time will tell if this is a one off upset or if Cal is legit, but with limited resumes, Cal stacks up very well. 
6 Maryland Terrapins Maryland got an impressive early season win by destroying Syracuse. Maryland's offense currently looks unstoppable. They've got Temple next and should be 3-0 heading into what now looks like a pretty big game against Penn State. 
7 North Carolina Tar Heels The Tar Heels are 2-0 with wins over South Carolina and Miami. Really solid start to the year. Neither of those teams are very good, so UNC's ranking may slide as other teams get a few more real wins under them. 
8 Wyoming Cowboys Wyoming's win over Missouri looks even better this week after Missouri's blowout victory over West Virginia. 
9 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama is probably the second best team in the country until proven otherwise, but since I base my ranking only on resumes I think they deserve to be here for now. Their best win is over Duke. They have won only in blowout fashion.
10 Hawai'i Rainbow Warriors Hawaii is 2-0 with wins over 2 pac-12 teams in Arizona and Oregon State. Those teams aren't exactly world beaters but they aren't playing FCS opponents. 
11 Memphis Tigers Memphis had a blowout win over a terrible team, but their win over Ole Miss looks a bit better this week with Ole Miss getting a win over fellow SEC opponent Arkansas.
12 Ohio State Buckeyes Buckeyes completely dominated a Cincy team coming off a win over UCLA. I thought this was a better win until UCLA got beat again. Ohio State looks like the team to beat in the big ten. Not sure anyone can compete with them. 
13 Utah Utes Utah beat a bad team this weekend, but BYU beating Tennessee makes that first win look a little better.
14 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Irish have only played 1 game. their win was over Louisville. Louisville blew out a terrible team this weekend. ND plays New Mexico next week so they dont really have any opportunity to move up. They have a huge showdown with Georgia looming behind that, though. Winner of that game likely will be up with Clemson and LSU.
15 Virginia Cavaliers Virginia stomped William and Mary but their win over Pittsburgh in week 1 is what keeps them here. Pitt beat Ohio this week.
16 Boston College Eagles 2-0 with a win over Virginia Tech.
17 Colorado Buffaloes Huge win for the buffs. I ultimately don't think Colorado is actually this good because I think Nebraska will struggle this season, but their comeback win against the Huskers was a big game. 
18 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia stomped a nobody. their win over Vanderbilt is a bit less impressive with Vanderbilt getting blown out by Purdue. Georgia will move quickly back up the rankings in a couple weeks if they knock off Notre Dame.
19 Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa in another blowout win over a bad team, but this one was 1-0 big ten team in Rutgers. That won't mean much as other teams get into conference schedules, but Iowa looks like the only threat to Wisconsin in the big ten west.
20 Florida Gators Florida's win over Miami drops in stature this week since Miami also lost to North Carolina. They blew out a nobody this week. They get Kentucky next week.
21 Oklahoma State Cowboys Oklahoma State, like Florida, lost some value on their p5 win with Oregon State's loss to Hawaii. They are 2-0 with a win over a p5 team, though.
22 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma has looked dominant, but against who? Houston at least got a win this weekend. 
23 Wisconsin Badgers Blowing out terrible teams.
24 Penn State Nittany Lions blowing out terrible teams. 
25 Mississippi State Bulldogs Blowout wins over terrible teams. A game against Kansas State next week could solidify the Bulldogs in the rankings. 

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