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_Brazenhead_ Ballot for 2019 Week 6

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 30, 2019, 5:07 p.m.

Overall Rationale: The normal binary sort actually pretty much got everything where I felt comfortable with it. Fringe teams this week were Boise St, USC, Wake Forest, SMU, Arizona State, Michigan State, Memphis, and Colorado. Letting Arizona State punk them, Cal was left out this week given the good performances of some of the fringe teams.

Rank Team Reason
1 Ohio State Buckeyes Of the top group of teams, they truly look to be the most complete on both sides of the ball. The emergence of Master Teague this week strengthens the run game.
2 LSU Tigers They don't look quite as balanced on defense as Ohio State does. That's really the only thing giving Ohio State an edge between the two.
3 Georgia Bulldogs
4 Clemson Tigers The top few teams are so tightly matched that their falter on the road at UNC is enough to drop them down to 4.
5 Auburn Tigers Still a better resume than Alabama
6 Alabama Crimson Tide Not as good a resume as Auburn for now
7 Wisconsin Badgers Avoided a let-down after an emotional Michigan game. Just kept rolling.
8 Oklahoma Sooners Still close with Wisconsin but the Badgers have a better defense, I think.
9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Avoided a let-down after an emotional Georgia game last week. Virginia gave them a game but ND showed their defense can win a game.
10 Texas Longhorns
11 Oregon Ducks
12 Florida Gators Even though they sit behind three teams with a loss, Florida doesn't have a good enough win to overrule how well ND, Texas, and Oregon played top teams in those losses. A bludgeoning of Towson doesn't move the needle for me as far as my opinion of Florida being a good team in a conference full of excellent teams.
13 Penn State Nittany Lions After surviving a close call to a spooky rival they got back on track by setting Maryland's hopes and dreams on fire. They've clearly showed that they can play well on both sides of the ball and deserve a fringe top-ten ranking.
14 Oklahoma State Cowboys Handled an early-season surprise Kansas State team. It's looking like they stand to be a solid 10-2 team, and if they can steal one against Oklahoma, catapult themselves into the playoff conversation late in the season. Played top-ten Texas close.
15 Washington Huskies Finally free of the weird Cal loss and again spoiled the come-up from USC. In my opinion they re-established control of the Pac-12 as its best team that just tripped up in a weird game.
16 Iowa Hawkeyes Beat up on an inferior opponent, so didn't really move the needle for me. Still think they're better than Michigan.
17 Texas A&M Aggies Won but played a close-ish game with a terrible Arkansas team. Two losses and struggling with consistency so lack of confidence that they could beat most of these mid-ranked teams.
18 Michigan Wolverines Okay well at least they demonstrated that their offense is capable of putting up points. Got the train back on the racks, so to speak.
19 Utah Utes Defense really making a statement holding Washington State to 13 points. Got their train back on the tracks in a good way.
20 UCF Knights Got their train back on the tracks. Unfortunately, lack of quality competition is only good enough for a bottom rank.
21 Arizona State Sun Devils They knocked Cal down back to earth and have quietly shown they can play with some good teams. Good enough for a lower ranking.
22 Kansas State Wildcats Lost to a mid-ranked team in Oklahoma State but I'm not ready to just throw them straight out of my top 25. They did hold OSU to their lowest point total thus far, lower even than Texas. So they still have a decent squad there in Manhattan in my opinion.
23 Army West Point
24 Cincinnati Bearcats Yes they only beat Marshall, but they pretty much bludgeoned them. Once again showing, I think, that they're a pretty decent squad and will likely challenge UCF for their conference title as long as they continue to take care of business against their weak remaining schedule.
25 Michigan State Spartans I wanted to put Cal here, but given Arizona State's ranking, and close game they played with them, I couldn't not at least rank MSU. The roller-coaster of inconsistency, though, is what is preventing me from ranking them above the likes of Kansas St, Army, and Cincinnati.

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