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woakley Ballot for 2021 Week 4

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 19, 2021, 5:15 p.m.

Overall Rationale: See below for rationale behind each team. I started with last weeks poll and moved teams based on results. Still can be some large movement in my polls this early in the seasonDropping Out: Arizona State, UCF, Virginia Tech, AuburnComing In: Fresno State, Michigan State, Kansas State (wow lots of states) and Maryland. 

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide They survived a real scare this week. Hope we get to see UF Alabama again later this year in Atlanta.
2 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia still has one of the better wins of the year, though the more Clemson struggles the worse it looks. Solid win against South Carolina this week
3 Oregon Ducks Oregon handily won a cupcake game this week. The rest of the PAC-12 has stumbled, but Oregon has a path to the playoff if they can navigate through the rest of their schedule.
4 Penn State Nittany Lions Wasn't easy from the beginning against Auburn, but Penn State looked good in that win. Early wins against Auburn and Wisconsin mean that Penn State belongs up here.
5 Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa jumped way up for me this week even though they only played Kent State. This was due to a combination of factors, Indiana and Iowa State showed that they're better than I thought, and Oklahoma, Clemson, Cincinnati, and Ohio State all struggled. 
6 Cincinnati Bearcats It's tough after the top 5. Cinci struggled with Indiana, but Indiana is a good team and Cinci lands right behind Iowa in my poll who had a much stronger win against Indiana. Should really be able to tell what we have in Cinci when they play ND next weekend. 
7 Oklahoma Sooners I'm not going to penalize Oklahoma too much for having a close loss to a true rival, but Oklahoma truly has not looked great yet this season. They struggled with a Nebraska team that clearly isn't great, and they had a much harder time with Tulane than Ole Miss did. Those things get them dropped.
8 Florida Gators I know "quality loss" has become a meme at this point, but what Florida did meets that definition. I was unsure what we really had in Florida, but a team that can compete like that against the clear #1 team deserves to be in the top 10. This is probably the first time that I've ever bumped up a team after a loss. They jump Clemson and Ohio State because they lost to #1, Clemson lost to #2, and Ohio State lost to #3. Also Florida has looked better so far this season
9 Clemson Tigers Clemson has struggled so much more than everyone expected early in this season. Yesterday was a strange game with a long rain delay and a improved GT team, but Clemson should not need a goal line stand to beat Georgia Tech. Luckily for Clemson the ACC isn't very good, but they still need to improve. 
10 Ohio State Buckeyes It's hard to tell where Ohio State really is at this point. The score against Tulsa looked like a more comfortable win than it really was, but props to OSU for figuring out a way to get it done with their running game when the passing game wasn't going. Minnesota was a quality win and Ohio state has some more time to figure it out before they really get into their toughest stretch of conference play.
11 Texas A&M Aggies Texas A&M hasn't really done anything wrong yet, but they haven't really impressed either. They have a chance to make their first real statement against Arkansas this weekend. 
12 Wisconsin Badgers Wisconsin didn't play this week, but benefited from Penn State looking strong. I have them and ND right next to each other in my rankings and I'm good with flipping them either way, so we'll see which one is better when they face off this weekend.
13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame has surprisingly struggled against some just okay competition so far this year. They have a chance to show that they're for real over the next few weeks, but if they don't they could have a big fall in these rankings
14 BYU Cougars BYU with a very impressive win against Arizona State. I think people overestimated the impact that Zach Wilson leaving would have on this team.
15 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss made a big jump based on their domination of Tulane. They've soundly beaten a Louisville team that just beat UCF and a Tulane team that hung with Oklahoma. They look legit.
16 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers Costal Carolina had their first real struggle of the season with Buffalo. They won, but still a game that a top 15 team should win more solidly. But with their schedule if they keep winning they'll stay ranked.
17 Arkansas Razorbacks Arkansas moved up based on some teams in front of them losing. They didn't have a tough game last weekend, but they have a chance to make a real statement against A&M this week. 
18 Michigan Wolverines Michigan has looked pretty good throughout this year. It remains to be seen if they'll maintain it when they meet tougher competition, but for now they deserve respect. 
19 Fresno State Bulldogs Fresno state's only loss so far was to Oregon and they had a huge win over UCLA this week. They get a ton of respect for gutting out the win the way that they did. 
20 North Carolina Tar Heels North Carolina had a decent win against Virginia this week, but Virgina Tech losing makes their week 1 loss look a little worse. I haven't seen enough to really shoot them up the rankings yet.
21 Michigan State Spartans Michigan State is 3-0 with 2 wins against P5 teams and a dominating win at Miami. They've been impressive so far and if they keep this up they could make some noise in a tough Big 10. 
22 Liberty Flames Liberty with another win. No tough competition yet, but they will play their first P5 opponent of the year this week. 
23 Kansas State Wildcats Kansas State is 3-0 with a win over Stanford. They haven't played the toughest competition yet, but they've won the games that they've played. 
24 UCLA Bruins UCLA had a tough loss to Fresno, but they still have that early win against LSU and they didn't look bad losing to Fresno, so they still stay in the top 25. 
25 Maryland Terrapins There are so many teams that could be at 25 this week. I went with Maryland because they're 3-0 with 2 wins against P5 teams (even if they aren't the best P5 teams).

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