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hypercube42342 Ballot for 2019 Week 7

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 6, 2019, 10:14 p.m.

Overall Rationale: My ballot places 0 weight on preseason expectations. I redo the rankings from scratch every week. Big movers this week were Florida (+8), Boise State (+5), Baylor (+6), Iowa (-5), and Oklahoma State and UCF (dropping out). Michigan (18), Cincinnati (23), ASU (24), and Arizona (25) enter the top 25 this week. First 5 out are NDSU, Wake Forest, Minnesota, App State, and Missouri in some order.

Rank Team Reason
1 LSU Tigers LSU has one of the better wins of the season in Texas. They picked up another dominating victory this week against a decent Utah State team. +1
2 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State has looked great this season, even though I'm not totally sold on the Michigan State team they destroyed this week. A game against Wisconsin coming up for them soon is likely going to be played for the top spot in my poll ballot. +2
3 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia keeps chugging along with an as-expected (but great) performance against Tennessee. +0
4 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama moves up on the bye. +1.
5 Wisconsin Badgers I wasn't sold on Michigan before. I'm still not 100% sold, but their Iowa win looks good, helping Wisconsin. +2
6 Clemson Tigers Clemson stays put on their bye.
7 Florida Gators I wasn't sold on Florida before this week, but they now have the best win of the season, in my eyes. +8
8 Oklahoma Sooners With the RRS on Saturday, OU is at the pivotal moment of their season. Win, and they're in. Lose, and their weak schedule may keep them out of the playoffs no matter what. +0
9 Auburn Tigers A loss to Florida doesn't have to derail their season if they recover gracefully. They still have one of the best resumes around. -8
10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish I should have pushed them past Texas last week, but didn't have enough time to dive into the stats. They jump Texas, but Florida jumps them. +0
11 Texas Longhorns Texas will need a much better performance next week to beat OU. They're capable of it, but will it happen? Anyways, solid performances move a couple teams past them, -2.
12 Penn State Nittany Lions Penn State keeps chugging along and looking good doing it. -1 (Florida jumps them)
13 Oregon Ducks Gotta figure that Oregon is the Pac-12 favorite at this point. +1
14 Utah Utes ....but Utah is a strong challenger. -1
15 Boise State Broncos Boise State benefits from a lot of losses in the middle of the rankings.  +5
16 Baylor Bears GREAT win this week against K State. They may be serious Big 12 contenders.+6
17 Virginia Cavaliers Virginia pulls out a solid win over bye week. +1
18 Michigan Wolverines I'm still not completely sold on Michigan, and Ohio State at a minimum is going to do bad things to them, but they did win a ranked game this week. They enter the rankings at 18. Would be much higher had they kept it close against Wiscy.
19 SMU Mustangs SMU pulled off a masterful comeback last night. Still undefeated, with a very winnable schedule ahead. A hard next 3 games after the bye coming up, though.+2
20 Tulane Green Wave Quality win against Army yesterday. Tulane has the resume of a top 25 team, and is buoyed a little by the generally weak teams from 15 down compared to an average season. +3
21 Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa doesn't have a great resume, with their only good win being against ISU. They may have been a little overrated before (including by me)... we will certainly find out for sure next week, when they play Penn State. I see another 4 loss season incoming. -5
22 Memphis Tigers Memphis has a lot of fun games incoming. Games against Temple, 20 Tulane, and 19 SMU coming up will make for a really entertaining month for them. Lots of potential to move up in the rankings. +2
23 Cincinnati Bearcats Cincy gets the credit for being the first team in a long time to knock UCF out of the rankings. They enter my ballot at 23.
24 Arizona State Sun Devils ASU suffered this week on their bye from Cal and MSU losing, both of whom I'm not sold on at all, and from their loss (Colorado) falling at the hands of Arizona. That said, they have a decent team, and won their bye week by entering my ballot at 24.
25 Arizona Wildcats This may be my most controversial ranking, so let me explain. I genuinely have no clue how, but this team is alone atop the Pac-12 South, and has the capability to actually make a run for the conference title game if they can take down 1 of UW and @USC in the next two weeks. They are 1 yard away from being undefeated right now. Their other mediocre game (against UCLA) was a win with both their star QB and star RB injured on the sidelines. Their defense has turned a corner, allowing 14, 17, and 30 points in the last 3 games against P5 competition after an abysmal start, and Khalil Tate threw for over 400 yards this week, showing that he can pass as well as run. Bold prediction: they beat Washington in Tucson next week, and start to receive actual hype.

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