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DataDrivenPirate Ballot for 2021 Week 8

Ballot Type: Computer

Submitted: Oct. 17, 2021, 10:26 p.m.

Overall Rationale: My computer poll is built to only take into account wins, losses, and game margin, and then finds the most efficient set of power rankings for all teams, with a weight adjustment to account for recency and number of FBS games played between the two teams (which effectively handicaps the influence games played against FCS opponents has.) Few things to call out: just by chance, Oklahoma has been relatively isolated from the stronger B12 teams so far (Ok St, Iowa State, and Baylor), so the computer doesn't really know what to do with them yet, which is why they are #23. Another team I really disagree with the computer's handling is Oregon--they are being brutally punished for a bad loss to Stanford, and are ranked #26. If they beat UCLA, expect them to make a big jump.I also think Auburn (#31), Kentucky (#33), and Ok St (#36) are being unfairly punished right now, but the gap between #20 and #40 is about 3.5 points, (about the same as the difference between #8 and #11) so the computer should be able to better differentiate teams like Notre Dame (#19) from teams like Houston (#39).

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