Ballot Type: Hybrid
Submitted: Sept. 28, 2020, 8:17 p.m.
Overall Rationale: Right off the bat, I will not be considering teams that have not yet played a game in my poll despite the fact that the other voters voted to include them for some reason. I don't care that other voters are doing it and that it lines up with the AP, I think it's ridiculous to rank a team that hasn't run a single play.My poll is a hybrid poll that is primarily based on a computer poll I developed. After my computer spits out the results, I take the values that are given for each team and break the ranking into tiers. I'll re-rank within tiers to allow for some adjustment for common sense.The computer poll itself has a preseason component and a performance-based component. The preseason component is based on team performance in recent years, recent recruiting, returning production, and coaching stability. This component was the entirety of my preseason poll. The performance-based component introduces winning percentage, points per game difference, and yards per play difference with strength of schedule adjustment. The overall ranking combines these two different components at different weights depending on how many games a team has played. Given the shorter and more uncertain season, I've sped up the rate at which the preseason component is phased out. Teams that have played 3 games are already given equal weight between their preseason and performance components. For this week while re-ranking I generally gave priority to teams that have played more games and have actually won the games they've played.
Rank | Team | Reason |
---|---|---|
1 | Alabama Crimson Tide | Tier Aa 1/1 |
2 | Georgia Bulldogs | Tier Ab 1/1 |
3 | Clemson Tigers | Tier Ac 1/1 |
4 | Auburn Tigers | Tier B 1/2: Auburn had a much better win over Kentucky than Texas A&M did this past weekend. |
5 | Texas A&M Aggies | Tier B 2/2: Behind Auburn for only squeaking by Vanderbilt. |
6 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | Tier C 1/3 |
7 | Florida Gators | Tier C 2/3 |
8 | Texas Longhorns | Tier C 3/3: Barely beating Texas Tech in OT knocks them to the bottom of this tier. |
9 | Oklahoma Sooners | Tier D 1/2: Narrow loss to Kansas State is better than LSU losing handily to Miss. St. They also at least have a win even if it is vs. an FCS |
10 | LSU Tigers | Tier D 2/2 |
11 | Oklahoma State Cowboys | Tier E 1/1 |
12 | Miami Hurricanes | Tier F 1/6: Pitt and Miami get precedence for playing 3 games each. Miami gets nod over Pitt for beating Louisville by 13, while Pitt only beat them by 3. |
13 | Pittsburgh Panthers | Tier F 2/6 |
14 | BYU Cougars | Tier F 3/6: BYU gets precedence over the others for having played 2 games. |
15 | Virginia Tech Hokies | Tier F 4/6: Emphatic win over NC State puts them at top. |
16 | North Carolina Tar Heels | Tier F 5/6: 31-6 win over Syracuse was close until late. UNC looked sloppy and it's been several weeks since we've seen them play so we really don't quite know what to expect from them. Puts them behind VT for now. |
17 | Tennessee Volunteers | Tier F 6/6: Close win over South Carolina puts them below the other teams. |
18 | UCF Knights | Tier G 1/2: Being 2-0 compared with 0-1 South Carolina made this an easy choice. |
19 | South Carolina Gamecocks | Tier G 2/2 |
20 | Cincinnati Bearcats | Tier H 1/3 |
21 | Memphis Tigers | Tier H 2/3 |
22 | Kentucky Wildcats | Tier H 3/3 |
23 | Mississippi State Bulldogs | Tier I 1/3: Would like to put higher for big win over LSU, but this is the highest my poll will let me put them for now given that their ranking is still mostly based on the preseason component. |
24 | SMU Mustangs | Tier I 2/3 |
25 | TCU Horned Frogs | Tier I 3/3: Tiers happened to break off nicely at 25, so no honorable mentions. |
Teams Ranked:
Rank | Team | Unusualness |
---|---|---|
1 | Alabama Crimson Tide | 0.00 |
2 | Georgia Bulldogs | 0.51 |
3 | Clemson Tigers | 0.00 |
4 | Auburn Tigers | 0.81 |
5 | Texas A&M Aggies | 1.59 |
6 | Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 0.00 |
7 | Florida Gators | 0.00 |
8 | Texas Longhorns | 0.12 |
9 | Oklahoma Sooners | 1.53 |
10 | LSU Tigers | 2.20 |
11 | Oklahoma State Cowboys | 0.40 |
12 | Miami Hurricanes | -0.55 |
13 | Pittsburgh Panthers | 0.00 |
14 | BYU Cougars | 0.17 |
15 | Virginia Tech Hokies | 0.70 |
16 | North Carolina Tar Heels | 0.00 |
17 | Tennessee Volunteers | 0.18 |
18 | UCF Knights | -0.79 |
19 | South Carolina Gamecocks | 6.15 |
20 | Cincinnati Bearcats | -0.63 |
21 | Memphis Tigers | 0.00 |
22 | Kentucky Wildcats | 3.09 |
23 | Mississippi State Bulldogs | -1.00 |
24 | SMU Mustangs | 0.00 |
25 | TCU Horned Frogs | 0.24 |
Omissions:
Team | Unusualness |
---|---|
Ohio State Buckeyes | 1.36 |
Penn State Nittany Lions | 1.02 |
Wisconsin Badgers | 0.55 |
Michigan Wolverines | 0.21 |
Total Score: 23.82