Back to poll results >>

woakley Ballot for 2021 Week 6

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 3, 2021, 4:31 p.m.

Overall Rationale: What a crazy ass week. This was a tough one to pull together. See below for each team's reasoning. Started with last weeks poll and moved based on my opinion of results. Not sure I've ever had this much of a shift from one week to the next. Coming In:Wake Forest, Pittsburgh, Arizona State, Auburn, Kentucky, Western Michigan, UTSA,Dropping Out: Clemson, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, Fresno State, UCLA, Maryland, Baylor

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide No question clear #1 for me. What they did to that Ole Miss offense should be illegal. 
2 Georgia Bulldogs If I was doing tier rankings, it would be Alabama and Georgia in tier one, then 3 blank tiers, then everyone else. Georgia absolutely shut down Arkansas, and if Bama wasn't so damn good this would be an easy week to make them #1. 
3 Cincinnati Bearcats I could be convinced to put Penn State 3 and Notre Dame 4, but for me the Notre Dame win is more impressive than any of the wins that Penn State has had this far. If Cincinnati goes through the rest of the schedule (which they should) we could have just seen the game that gets us our first G5 playoff team.
4 Penn State Nittany Lions They stick at 4 despite Oregon ahead of them winning just because Cincinnati has the better win, though I will say it seems that Penn State played Indiana better than Cincinnati (their only common opponent). Penn State has a real season defining stretch coming up with two games against top 10 teams over the next 3 weeks. 
5 Iowa Hawkeyes 3 of my top 5 teams have beat Indiana this year. Clear formula, win over Indiana - Top 5 team at some point. Iowa absolutely beat up on Maryland over the weekend who I had as a top 25 team. 3, 4, and 5 could be placed in any order and I wouldn't be too upset, this is just how I have it in my opinion.
6 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma benefits from some teams in front of them losing, they still haven't looked dominant all season, but Kansas State is not a bad team. If they can't clean this up they're not going to be a top 10 team for too long. 
7 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State beat up on a better than expected Rutgers team this week. They seem to have stabilized some after some struggles early, 
8 BYU Cougars BYU also benefits from some teams in front losing. They've played a number of Pac-12 teams this year and they've managed to stay undefeated, which is more than anyone else in the Pac-12 can say. 
9 Michigan Wolverines Michigan beat Wisconsin this week. Wisconsin hasn't been great all season, but they've still played some good teams tight so Michigan gets some credit. I had low expectations for Michigan early on and they have far surpassed them.
10 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame finally couldn't pull one out. Even after repeatedly turning the ball over, they still stayed close with a very good Cincinnati team. That's why they didn't drop too far. 
11 Oregon Ducks Oregon loses to Stanford and takes a pretty big drop down for me. They are really struggling with injuries, but they still haven't looked consistently like the team that beat Ohio State. 
12 Arkansas Razorbacks Arkansas doesn't drop too far for me either. They were very clearly overmatched by Georgia, but to me there are many teams in front of them that would have the same result. I have a hard time really penalizing a team for losing to #2. 
13 Oklahoma State Cowboys Oklahoma State has a big game against Texas in a couple weeks. They have back to back good wins over Kansas State and Baylor, and they haven't lost yet. 
14 Michigan State Spartans Michigan State is still undefeated. They haven't had the hardest schedule so far, but you can't do any better than winning them all.
15 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers Costal has benefited from teams above them losing. I can't move them too much higher than this right now just because they really haven't played a strong schedule yet. They have App State in a couple weeks and App State is fringe top 25 for me, so that may be their chance. 
16 Texas Longhorns Texas beat TCU today, which is something that they haven't done quite often enough. Their only loss so far this season was to a good Arkansas team, but they still have looked pretty good in their wins. Big time game against Oklahoma this week. 
17 Ole Miss Rebels Hard to drop Ole Miss too much here. Yeah they lost convincingly to Bama, but who wouldn't in this top 25? They're still at top 20 team in my mind
18 Kentucky Wildcats Kentucky was already fringe top 25 to me, and the win over Florida just cemented it for me. There was some Florida self destruction in there, but it was still a a good win and this Kentucky team is good. 
19 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Wake has won them all so far. Hasn't played the best ACC or non-conference competition, but when a team keeps winning they earn my respect. 
20 Florida Gators Florida lost to Kentucky this week and kinda self destructed in the process. Florida had a path to the playoff even with a Bama loss, but that's probably gone now. Just a disappointing loss for a team that seems to have a ton of talent. 
21 Arizona State Sun Devils Arizona State's only loss this year is to a very good BYU team, and they just knocked off UCLA this week. Looks like Herm has this team clicking.
22 Auburn Tigers Auburn had to survive against Georgia State last week, but they managed to beat LSU this week with a QB that had just been benched. Their only loss is still Penn State. They play Georgia this week and we'll see how that goes for them. 
23 Western Michigan Broncos Western Michigan's only loss is to a top 10 Michigan team. They also managed to beat Pittsburgh, who I have at 25. 23 - 25 could be any number of combinations for me, this is just how I ended up. 
24 UTSA Roadrunners Meep Meep, UTSA is in the top 25. They've beaten both Illinois and Memphis so far this season and they're 5-0. Good job by UTSA so far. 
25 Pittsburgh Panthers Pittsburgh's only loss this season is to Western Michigan, who I have at 23. They've also managed to beat Tennessee and Georgia Tech, which are decent P5 wins. 

Back to poll results >>