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hokies220 Ballot for 2019 Week 6

Ballot Type: Hybrid

Submitted: Sept. 29, 2019, 9:41 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Every week so far has been pretty cut and dry and I've been able to follow my formula with only a few outliers and changes. This week though? What a mess. If I just listed teams by point totals I ended up with some ridiculous shit which just reiterates again how there's no perfect way to rank teams. Human bias is a bitch, poll inertia sucks, eye tests can fail, and pure stats don't tell the whole story. So, here's what I came up with this week. Trying to keep head-to-head as the difference maker for teams with identical records made part of the poll weird. ASU had the most points out of Pac-12 teams, but had to keep Colorado ahead, while MSU had more points than ASU, but had to keep them behind. Ditto with Washington and Cal. Anyways.

Rank Team Reason
1 Ohio State Buckeyes I've had them at #1 for three weeks now, and I stand by that. Auburn has played a tougher schedule for sure, but OSU is steamrolling everyone AND the teams they're steamrolling are winning other games. Except Indiana, but I mean come on.
2 Auburn Tigers Didn't see that game coming, but still respect the SOS. 
3 Clemson Tigers Struggled unexpectedly and could definitely say they were lucky to escape with a win, but here we are. Would still be third even without the anchor that is GT weighing down their SOS.
4 SMU Mustangs Clemson struggling and SMU not actually narrowed the gap to .5 points between them. However UNC>>USF. And once again I don't think SMU is the 4th best team, but 5-0 with three road wins and winning handily I gotta respect it enough to leave them here.
5 Alabama Crimson Tide And once again I'll repeat how I will never rank two teams from the same conference in the top four as those games will always be decided on the field. Even though Bama was 3rd overall in points. 
6 Wisconsin Badgers A one spot jump that was helped more by LSU and UGA having byes than by beating NW.
7 Wake Forest Demon Deacons A uh, large jump helped by winning and lots of teams ahead having byes. Had UNC beaten Clemson it might've pushed them up even higher. Quietly though Wake is putting together a decent set of wins. Utah St is good, but we'll find out how good against LSU, Rice is much much improved over last year despite the record, which actually hurts Wake, UNC has proven they'll play to the level of competition no question.
8 Iowa Hawkeyes Beat up a CUSA team, but still a win jumps them while others were idle.
9 Georgia Bulldogs Stayed here and gained a few points even on a bye with ND, Vandy, and Arkansas St all winning.
10 LSU Tigers Bye week drop because they LT winning but Georgia Southern losing canceled each other out and Texas didn't play either.
11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Big bounceback win. Well done.
12 Texas Longhorns Win over OK State looks a lot better. Dropped a tad on a bye week.
13 Colorado Buffaloes Ugh. OK. Here's where things get really messy because of my principles. Colorado beat ASU straight up and have the same number of losses. I have to rank Colorado ahead.
14 Arizona State Sun Devils ASU had more points than Colorado, but less than MSU. But due to head to head results I have to rank ASU ahead.
15 Michigan State Spartans Head to head has to matter if both teams are 4-1 and ASU beat them at home.
16 California Golden Bears Head to head has to matter if both teams are 4-1 and Cal beat them at home. I think had Garbers been able to play the whole game, and subsequent games, Cal would still be undefeated and looking good going forward. 
17 Washington Huskies Head to head has to matter if both teams are 4-1. Without Garbers I think Washington is easily the better team, but unfortunately for Washington, he was there when they played.
18 Boise State Broncos Dropped on a bye week. FSU and AF winning helped, Marshall getting slaughtered did not.
19 Virginia Cavaliers Dropped a bit, but still played well on the road against ND.
20 Oklahoma State Cowboys Welcome back, nice win over KSU. 
21 Penn State Nittany Lions Welcome to my top 25 for the first time this year. Just in time for Purdue and then..oh. At Iowa. At night probably.
22 Utah Utes Figure your shit out Pac-12. Had Utah beaten USC and/or Washington beaten Cal they'd both probably be in the top 10.
23 UCF Knights Welcome back. 
24 Oklahoma Sooners Welcome to my top 25 for the first time all season. The SOS is still awful, but I feel relieved to at least finally be able to put OU in here.
25 Appalachian State Mountaineers Big win over a solid Coastal team. A failed two point conversion from being able to say they're transitively better than Clemson. 

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