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_Brazenhead_ Ballot for 2019 Week 4

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 15, 2019, 10:19 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Third time trying a Binary Sort. Began with last week's poll plus fringe teams BYU, Virginia, Kansas State, and Boise State. Michigan State and Maryland dropped out due to exceptionally poor performances. Kansas State and Boise State jumped in. After the sort, Washington State was ranked a tad high so manually moved them down. Army ended up out so had to put them manually back in around the same spot they were before, which pushed BYU out of the 25 spot.

Rank Team Reason
1 Clemson Tigers Struggled early with Syracuse, but it was a road game and Syracuse just simply plays well against Clemson. The final score was enough of a blow out to keep them in the top spot over Alabama.
2 Alabama Crimson Tide Blew out an inferior opponent as expected. No reason to move them ahead of Clemson, who played a better opponent.
3 LSU Tigers Looked sluggish early against an inferior opponent similar to Clemson, but turned it on early and blew them out in the end.
4 Ohio State Buckeyes Blew out an opponent that was inferior but not awful on the road. Again looked balanced on offense and defense. No reason to move them down or up.
5 Georgia Bulldogs Moved ahead of Oklahoma because they look better on defense than them. Blew out and shut out an inferior opponent.
6 Oklahoma Sooners Blew out a bad UCLA team but let them score as much as San Diego State and Cincinnati so their defense does not look to be much better than it has been in recent years. Moved them behind Georgia for this reason.
7 Texas Longhorns Blew out an inferior opponent. No reason to move up or down.
8 Texas A&M Aggies Blew out an inferior opponent. No reason to move up or down.
9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Blew out an inferior opponent. Moved them ahead of idle Wisconsin because they have performed similarly through two games each but Notre Dame appears more balanced offensively.
10 Wisconsin Badgers Idle. Moved behind Notre Dame because they appear more balanced offensively through two games each versus inferior opponents.
11 Auburn Tigers Blew out an inferior opponent. Moved up due to shaky performances from some teams ahead of them. Jumped idle Michigan because their offense looks much better.
12 UCF Knights Blew out an inferior but not awful opponent that has (at times) cracked the top 25. This team seems like they'd be able to beat the teams behind them.
13 Michigan Wolverines Idle. Jumped by some teams that had good performances, especially offensively. Michigan's offense will have to show some life to climb ahead of these teams.
14 Utah Utes Handled an inferior opponent. It is looking like Utah will be the banner-carrier for the Pac-12 but will have to run the gauntlet to keep climbing. The conference just looks weak this season.
15 Florida Gators Yeah they beat Kentucky on the road, but also lost their starting quarterback, and their defense doesn't look as formidable as recent years. I just don't see them as a top-ten team and haven't yet this season. They were jumped by teams that had otherwise good performances this week.
16 Penn State Nittany Lions Shaky performance at home against an inferior but not awful opponent. I know rival games can be weird, but teams that jumped them had good performances.
17 Washington State Cougars Solid road performance against an inferior but not awful Houston. Looks like they won't miss a beat at QB but can they play defense well enough to compete for a conference title? Yet to be seen.
18 Oregon Ducks Given the lack of defense in the Pac-12 thus far, Oregon sits behind Utah and WSU because I think even in a shootout, those teams could beat Oregon. We'll see how it plays out.
19 California Golden Bears Not a great win, buy a win nonetheless and the teams they jumped fell back due to bad performances.
20 Washington Huskies Looked back on track this week on the road. Still behind Cal due to the head-to-head.
21 Army West Point Kept good momentum after the emotional game at Michigan last week. Fell one spot simply due to teams from better conference having good performances.
22 Iowa Hawkeyes Much like Penn State, struggled against an inferior opponent but it was a rivalry and it was a road win. Don't see any reason to move up or down.
23 Cincinnati Bearcats Got back on track after a blow out loss the previous week. Based on opponent, don't see any reason to move up or down.
24 Kansas State Wildcats Blew out two inferior opponents to begin the season and then went on the road to a very good SEC defense and scored 31 on them to win. That'll get my attention.
25 Boise State Broncos 3-0 but against pretty poor competition. I'm not really high on Boise State but I think they're probably better than the other fringe teams I was considering (Virginia and BYU).

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