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goodnames679 Ballot for 2020 Week 2^3

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 26, 2020, 5:25 p.m.

Overall Rationale: My rationale is based off of a combination of recent consistency, momentum, overall talent as I see it. I try and avoid inertia as much as possible and re-check my opinions on every spot weekly. For any choices I think may be significantly controversial or have major swings from my previous poll, I will provide detailed reasoning, but ones that I think speak for themselves will just be ranked as I believe they deserve. Any time that I think two teams are about a wash in where they should be ranked but one has no evidence, I'll give the edge to the team that has actually played games. (Ballot initially created before AP poll's release on Sunday morning, but adjusted over the next couple days)

Rank Team Reason
1 Clemson Tigers
2 Alabama Crimson Tide
3 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State's offense looked deadly on Saturday, and the defense showed flashes that maybe they could grow into it. So far, though, not enough to put them over Bama or Clemson.
4 Georgia Bulldogs
5 Oklahoma State Cowboys Honestly after OSU's and Notre Dame's respective games, I had trouble figuring out where to place each. I believe the ranked win makes it hard to  let them get passed up, though, especially with Notre Dame's inconsistency this season.
6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish I could probably guess more accurately at how good Notre Dame is by throwing darts than by actually looking at their game results at this point
7 Texas A&M Aggies
8 Cincinnati Bearcats
9 BYU Cougars
10 Wisconsin Badgers
11 Michigan Wolverines don't be good don't be good don't be good don't be good
12 Oregon Ducks
13 Kansas State Wildcats
14 North Carolina Tar Heels
15 Florida Gators Florida was a team I believed was better than their currently-played games would imply, but I have no idea how I can sustain their ranking while they've looked as bad as they have in several games and can't play to disprove it. For now, they're taking a bit of a drop in my rankings - they move up only if they can prove how my gut felt.
16 Miami Hurricanes You can only play so many tight games against middling opponents before people start passing you up.
17 Arkansas Razorbacks
18 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers
19 Marshall Thundering Herd
20 Iowa State Cyclones After a tight game against a team in my top 5, I feel that either Oklahoma State might be overrated in my rankings or Iowa State may be underrated. Absolutely no way I can justify unranking them after that performance, however.
21 USC Trojans This one might look a little inconsistent (I had them ranked near Arkansas last week, neither played, USC stayed similar in rank while Arkansas rose above some teams that lost) but as time goes on I can't really justify raising USC into the mid 10s when I don't believe they'll really be much better than a 20-25 ranked team. I'm honestly starting to question ranking them at all when other teams have more evidence, and honestly next week they may drop off as more teams add a W.
22 Indiana Hoosiers I thought Penn State would be a top 10 team this season and, while I didn't *expect* Indiana to be ranked, I thought they had a shot of landing between 20-25 at the end of the season. That makes ranking them pretty difficult this week, so I'll keep it pretty conservative and let the rest of the season do the talking.
23 SMU Mustangs I put SMU in at 19 in my rankings originally, but they dropped it.
24 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns
25 Liberty Flames

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