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_Brazenhead_ Ballot for 2019 Week 12

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Nov. 10, 2019, 5:31 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Binary sort began with last week's top 25 plus fringe teams Wake Forest, Texas, Iowa State, SMU, Washington, Illinois, Virginia, Virginia Tech, San Diego State, Wyoming, and Louisiana Lafayette. Texas and SMU made the cut. Had to manually move Baylor up a few spots, and Navy up one from original Binary sort positions. Where to rank Minnesota was of course, difficult. Oklahoma is devalued, despite winning, as a result of both their own struggles and the struggles of the team that beat them. I also struggled with keeping Penn State highly ranked. It feels like there are a couple of groups of teams that have developed into attached-at-the-hip groups because of their similar performances and head-to-head results.

Rank Team Reason
1 Ohio State Buckeyes Blew out an inferior opponent. Still appear to be the most well-balanced team offensively and defensively, even despite the possible permanent loss of Chase Young.
2 LSU Tigers Huge win on the road against Alabama. Again continuing to prove that they are the best team in the SEC and belong in a playoff spot. Their continued tendency to give up points is the only reason they are not ranked above Ohio State despite what is, at this point, a superb resume.
3 Clemson Tigers Blew out an inferior opponent. Still undefeated and an elite team. Just have not shown quite as much dominance as LSU or Ohio State. Easily deserving of a playoff spot.
4 Alabama Crimson Tide Despite losing, they were very competitive against a top team in LSU even with a QB that is not at 100%. With Penn State losing, Alabama is still deserving of a playoff spot.
5 Minnesota Golden Gophers I really struggled with where to put Minnesota given their huge win over Penn State. They are undefeated, and despite the huge question marks about their early wins, beating a team the caliber of Penn State retroactively validates the past winning they did. Their defense seems to be not very great but they have proven that offensively, they are a force to be reckoned with.
6 Penn State Nittany Lions A good team with some good wins, once thought to be a playoff caliber team. Loss to Minnesota is not as bad as some might think, since I've ranked Minnesota 5th now. It wasn't a blow out loss and was competitive. Given the attached-at-the-hip sense I have of Georgia, Florida, Auburn, and Oregon, it really came down to comparing them head-to-head with Georgia, the head of that series. And Georgia's loss is bad where as Penn State's is to a now-top-5 team.
7 Georgia Bulldogs Beat an average-at-best opponent by a good amount and shut them out. Good balance between offense and defense, but still a bad loss to account for as well as trouble offensively with stretching the field in the passing game.
8 Florida Gators Blew out an inferior opponent. Continuing to improve offensively and demonstrate that Trask is a good quarterback. Head-to-head loss to Georgia when they're comparably ranked dictates them being ranked behind them.
9 Auburn Tigers Bye week. A good team with at least a couple of good wins, but losses to LSU and Florida. Their head-to-head loss to Florida dictates their ranking behind them.
10 Oregon Ducks Bye week. A good team that has continued to take care of business in a conference that has proven to be dubious. Head-to-head loss to Auburn dictates their ranking behind them.
11 Oklahoma Sooners Escaped a close upset at home by a fringe team. Despite the win, I have diminished my opinion of Oklahoma. Both offensively and defensively they seem to be regressing a tad. Still a good team, but not top ten material. Their loss is better than Utah's but worse than Oregon's, so that's where I've ranked them.
12 Utah Utes Bye week. A good team with one trip-up loss to an average-at-best team in USC. Have otherwise taken care of business and would likely be competitive against teams in front of them.
13 Cincinnati Bearcats Blew out an inferior opponent. Despite getting blown out at top-ranked Ohio State, they've taken care of business and continued to show good balance in a conference that is pretty good this year.
14 Baylor Bears Survived a 3-overtime upset bid by not-good TCU. Despite remaining undefeated, they have repeatedly survived close games with teams that a good squad should dispatch convincingly.
15 Wisconsin Badgers Won a close game against an average Iowa team. Good team but doubt they can beat a top team. Their Illinois loss is looking less bad with their continued success, and getting beat badly by Ohio State is as much a pass for teams as are the SEC teams getting beat badly by LSU. Beat Michigan convincingly so ranked ahead of them.
16 Michigan Wolverines Bye week. Best win thus far is Notre Dame so ranked ahead of them but losses to Wisconsin and Penn State so ranked behind them. Good team with questions on offense.
17 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Blew out a bad Duke team on the road. Sort of hitting the reset button on them being a good team after a loss and close call at home. Lost head-to-head to Michigan so ranked behind them.
18 Memphis Tigers Bye week. A good team with a good win over SMU so ranked ahead of them, but a bad loss to Temple so cannot justify a higher rank considering the good-but-still-not-power-five conference they play in.
19 SMU Mustangs A less-than-convincing bounce back win over East Carolina. A good team but a head-to-head loss against Memphis has them ranked behind them.
20 Navy Midshipmen Bye week. A single loss to Memphis is proof that they're a good team that takes care of business, but lack of quality wins means I can't justify a higher rank.
21 Boise State Broncos A close home win over a halfway-decent Wyoming squad. Only loss remains a bad BYU team. Lack of quality wins means I can't justify a higher rank.
22 Texas A&M Aggies Bye week. Lack of convincing options at this level helps Texas A&M obtain this ranking. Their only losses are to teams ranked 3rd, 4th, and 8th this week. They haven't screwed up against a bad team yet but also have not a quality win yet either.
23 Texas Longhorns A decent close win over Kansas State this week. Lack of better options at this ranking level help Texas earn this rank.
24 Oklahoma State Cowboys Bye week this week. Head-to-head loss to Texas dictates their ranking behind them. Bad loss to Texas Tech. Not-bad loss to Baylor. Okay wins over Kansas State and Iowa State. Lack of better options are helping Oklahoma State obtain this low rank.
25 Kansas State Wildcats Loss on the road at Texas this week plus a previous head-to-head loss to Oklahoma State dictate their ranking behind them. Still, a great win against mid-ranked Oklahoma means they're good enough considering the lack of options at this ranking level.

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