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_Brazenhead_ Ballot for 2019 Week 5

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 22, 2019, 9:42 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Initial binary sort ended up with things all over the place and required a lot of manual swapping. To be fair, I almost completely re-arranged everything. Some of the losses teams in the mid-ranks took made things really hard to analyze. Re-thinking how I'm ranking the top teams in the SEC compared to previous weeks. Thankfully my method is to re-start every week and not base movement up or down based on previous weeks. I've decided to stop using such "move up or down" terminology in my reasonings as a result.

Rank Team Reason
1 Clemson Tigers Again blew out an inferior opponent. They still appear to be the top dog. Everything looks easy.
2 LSU Tigers Best team in the SEC. Has a win over a top-ten team. Burrow continues to look like the real deal.
3 Georgia Bulldogs Beating a top-ten team in Notre Dame means they have demonstrated more than Alabama.
4 Auburn Tigers Two wins against, what I rank as, mid-ranked opponents. I really struggled with whether or not to rank them ahead of Alabama or not, but just trying to remain logically consistent here.
5 Alabama Crimson Tide Continued to blow out inferior opponents. LSU and Georgia both have beaten top-ten teams, and even Auburn has two wins over mid-ranked teams. So being ranked as 4th best among SEC teams is sort of a result of the way the early season schedules have played out. Until Alabama plays somebody of note, I can't really consider their blow outs of bad teams to be worth much, especially since the other SEC teams have done the same.
6 Ohio State Buckeyes Sleepy start against Miami but scored at will once they flipped the switch. Continue to look well balanced on both sides of the ball.
7 Texas Longhorns Good win over a mid-ranked opponent and a good showing against, what I rank as, an excellent LSU team is enough to make me believe they're better than Oklahoma.
8 Wisconsin Badgers Came off of a bye and man-handled a mid-ranked opponent. Looks like they can play with the best in the Country at this point.
9 Oklahoma Sooners Blown out inferior opponents and on a bye this week. Yeah they look great but I am not so sure they'd beat Texas, considering.
10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Had a good showing on the road against a highly-ranked Georgia team. Have demonstrated they can play with the better teams in the Country.
11 Texas A&M Aggies Yes they have two losses but they were to teams that were top-ranked. I don't believe in Florida or Oregon enough to believe they'd be beaten by them.
12 Florida Gators Undefeated thus far but have not played any great competition. A close win against Kentucky isn't enough to make me believe they could beat Texas A&M, considering how the Aggies played against top-ranked teams.
13 Oregon Ducks Blown out inferior opponents and had a good showing early against a top-ranked opponent in Auburn. They'd need a win over a good opponent before I'd think they could beat Florida or Texas A&M but they'd probably give them a game either way.
14 Oklahoma State Cowboys I hadn't ranked Oklahoma State before this week because they hadn't given me a reason to. This week's showing against what I consider to be a top-ten Texas team showed me I was wrong not to consider them earlier. Even with a loss, they've shown me more than Penn State, Iowa, and Michigan that sit behind them.
15 California Golden Bears It's hard for me to believe I am ranking Cal this highly, but they do have a win over what I consider to be a ranked team. Their showings against inferior opponents prevents me from ranking them more highly than the teams right in front of them. All of a sudden, Cal finds itself as the banner-carrier for the Pac-12.
16 Washington Huskies Washington feels sort of attached-at-the-hip to Cal at this point given the one-point game the two played head to head. They've blown out their other opponents, including BYU this weekend, which is enough to get me believing in them more than the group of Big Ten teams they now sit in front of.
17 Penn State Nittany Lions Bye this week. Haven't really shown me much but I think they could probably beat Iowa and Michigan based on what we've seen thus far. This is really the end of the I'm-A-Believer line. But just barely.
18 Iowa Hawkeyes I feel the same about Iowa as I do about Penn State. On a bye this week, escaped an early-season rivalry game by the skin of their teeth. Really only ranked this highly due to the volatility of the teams behind them.
19 Michigan Wolverines If they'd had a better showing against Wisconsin, I'd be putting them in the same bucket with Oregon and Oklahoma State, but instead they went out there and got completely manhandled. At this point, given the dysfunction of their offense, I cannot be confident they can beat either of Penn State or Iowa. So here they be. 
20 Kansas State Wildcats On a bye this week but have had a good showing to begin their season. Lack of a loss is enough to make me think they're better than the teams behind them.
21 Utah Utes Took a loss to what I believe is a non-ranked team. Really bad. I considered putting them behind Washington, but couldn't rightly put them ahead of 3 teams without a loss, and a team that at least went out and played a top-ten team.
22 UCF Knights Much like Utah, took a very bad loss this week. Between the two, they are similar teams, but Utah's loss is less bad, I think.
23 Army West Point Blew out another inferior opponent. Given their remaining schedule, I suspect I'll be keeping them ranked in this area as long as they continue to win. Could be helped by teams in front of them being beaten and by Michigan rectifying their season.
24 Cincinnati Bearcats Bye this week. Still think they're good enough to have a spot here despite their getting blown out in Columbus.
25 Virginia Cavaliers I still don't think they're very good given their close game with Florida State. But they are 4-0 and would probably have competitive games with these fringe teams. ACC playing bookends with their best and second-best teams.

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