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_Brazenhead_ Ballot for 2019 Week 9

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 20, 2019, 8:57 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Binary sort started with last week's top 25 plus fringe teams Missouri, Iowa, Wake Forest, Memphis, Virginia, Iowa State, Temple, South Carolina, Texas A&M, and UCF. Of those, Iowa, Memphis, and Iowa State earned a spot.Sort ended up okay...had to manually switch Utah ahead of Minnesota, Wisconsin back behind SMU, Auburn ahead of Oregon, and Florida ahead of Auburn.Where to drop Wisconsin to was tough, as well as where Baylor should rise up to.

Rank Team Reason
1 Ohio State Buckeyes Still look like the most well-balanced team between offense and defense. Only team in the country to rank top-10 in both.
2 LSU Tigers Still unstoppable offense and a good but exploitable defense at times. Elite but shy of taking the top spot when compared to Ohio State.
3 Oklahoma Sooners Phenomenal offense and decent defense. Very close to LSU but not quite a good enough defense to out-rank LSU.
4 Alabama Crimson Tide Following the trend of excellent offenses with good but exploitable defenses...this offense is more one-dimensional than those of the teams ranked in front of them. Still an elite team that clearly deserves a playoff spot at this time.
5 Clemson Tigers Continued dominance of inferior opponents in a weak ACC. Clemson will be hard-pressed to make a case for a higher ranking without other teams faltering in front of them, like Wisconsin did this week.
6 Penn State Nittany Lions Scored well against an otherwise very tough defense in Michigan. Showed some exploitable weaknesses on defense, but also showed a fair bit of resilience. I am now ready to believe in Penn State as an undefeated threat in the Big Ten.
7 Florida Gators Tough game on the road at South Carolina. They get a bit of a pass considering South Carolina's upset of Georgia. They still won and they did beat Auburn, and their only loss was a competitive one against a top-ranked LSU squad. This spot seems appropriate.
8 Auburn Tigers Back on track blowing out an inferior opponent. Re-thinking how Auburn, Oregon, Texas, Georgia, and Notre Dame all relate to each other, Auburn as a top-10 team seems appropriate.
9 Oregon Ducks Great win on the road against a tough Washington team (albeit one with three losses now). They've been sort of attached-at-the-hip with Auburn most of the season and that continues this week as they both get top-10 rankings.
10 Texas Longhorns Close call against a Kansas team that's been sort of spoiler-alert-team most of the season. Still, only losses were competitive games against teams currently ranked 2 and 3. Top-10 is appropriate.
11 Georgia Bulldogs Good statement shutting out Kentucky. Just outside the top-10 considering the bad loss still. Still in position to grab a playoff spot if they win out.
12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Just behind Georgia considering their head-to-head. No longer top-ten but could still threaten if they win out.
13 Baylor Bears Statement win on the road in Stillwater. Undefeated and deserving of a top-half ranking.
14 Utah Utes Statement win against a surging Arizona State team, holding them to just 3 points. Couldn't justify ranking them higher due to bad USC loss.
15 Minnesota Golden Gophers A surprise undefeated team, but mostly thanks to an exceptionally weak schedule. Still, their consistency deserves a good ranking and they'll have their big tests next month.
16 Cincinnati Bearcats Continued to show they're a solid team with a double-digit win over a decent Tulsa squad. Couldn't justify ranking them ahead of an undefeated team from a tougher conference.
17 SMU Mustangs Earned somewhat of a statement win against a decent Temple squad. They at least showed that they deserve a decent ranking higher than the 20s.
18 Wisconsin Badgers Baaaaaad loss. Couldn't justify dropping them out of the top-25 altogether due to lack of convincing teams near the bottom.
19 Michigan Wolverines Finally showed some offensive life and competed well against Penn State on the road in a very difficult environment, so couldn't justify dropping them out of the top-25 despite the loss. Second-highest ranked team with two losses (Texas).
20 Appalachian State Mountaineers They continue their climb in the rankings by defenestration another inferior opponent.
21 Iowa Hawkeyes Very meh but solid enough for a ranking, considering the losses endured by the teams at the bottom here.
22 Iowa State Cyclones Baylor loss looks less bad now that Baylor has flown up the ranks. Still behind Iowa considering their head-to-head.
23 Memphis Tigers Followed up their close loss with a statement win against a solid Tulane team. The two sort of cancel out enough for a low ranking.
24 Arizona State Sun Devils Really struggled against Utah's defense but couldn't really find anybody to rank ahead of them...
25 Oklahoma State Cowboys Wanted to drop them out of the top 25 but couldn't really justify a team to jump them. And Baylor is, apparently, for real.

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