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YellowSkarmory Ballot for 2021 Week 10

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Nov. 1, 2021, 12:49 p.m.

Overall Rationale: I try to rank based on resume, which creates some weird results this early in the season. I do not base my rankings off my previous ones whatsoever, as that just leaves teams with worse resumes higher than they should be. MOV does not play much of a role in my rankings, either.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs Is an explanation even needed? Georgia is easily the best team in the country, by basically any metric you can use.
2 Michigan State Spartans Okay, here we go. First off, if I could just skip #2, I would. But, at #2, I have Michigan State. I'm not really impressed by them whatsoever, but they do have the second best resume in my opinion, after knocking off Michigan at home. They also have a road win against Miami that has been picking up value since Miami has knocked off NC State and Pitt in back to back games. The rest of MSU's resume has wins over some okay teams, which doesn't hurt either.
3 Cincinnati Bearcats Cincinnati sits at #3, with their resume headlined by a great road win at Notre Dame. Their problem is they don't have much depth; they did beat a decent UCF team, but there's really not much outside of that, and they're below MSU because of that.
4 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma grabs the #4 spot this week; they would probably be ahead of one or both of Cinci and MSU, but they don't really have a top win like those two do. Oklahoma's best win is either against Kansas State or Texas, who are definitely not top 25 teams right now. They have some okay wins, but their entire resume is probably not much better than MSU's minus the Michigan win, so they sit below MSU & Cinci. The #2-4 spots really could go any order, though.
5 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama tops the 1 loss teams, with a very solid resume all around, topped by a win over a good Ole Miss team. Road wins against Mississippi State, Miami and Florida are all solid as well, and they also have a home win against Tennessee. If they had beaten Texas A&M, they'd be up there with Georgia, probably #2 but certainly in contention for the #1 spot.
6 Oklahoma State Cowboys Oklahoma State's resume doesn't get enough love in my opinion. They have a very good win against Baylor, and wins at Texas and vs. Kansas State are also very solid. They did lose at Iowa State, but they still have a solid resume.
7 Oregon Ducks Oregon has a great win at Ohio State, and another solid win vs. Fresno, which are very good points for their resume; they also won at UCLA, which isn't bad. However, no matter the circumstances, a loss to Stanford is pretty bad, and that's why they're below Oklahoma State.
8 Baylor Bears Baylor is another team which doesn't get much love; they have a bunch of solid home wins against BYU, Iowa State, Texas and West Virginia. However, they haven't played anyone that good other than Oklahoma State on the road, who they lost to. I'm intrigued for their upcoming games vs. Oklahoma and at Kansas State.
9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame doesn't really have a great win, but a bunch of decent ones. A win at Wisconsin and vs. Purdue are two solid wins, while they have some depth wins at VT and vs. UNC. The home loss to Cinci isn't ideal, but Cinci is still a top 5 team, so it's not that bad.
10 Ohio State Buckeyes Okay, where do I start with Ohio State... I guess their win this week against Penn State? PSU looked pretty solid this week, the best they've looked since Clifford got injured, and that is a solid win. They also have some decent wins at Minnesota and vs. Maryland. I'm still not impressed with them, however, and they did lose at home to Oregon.
11 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Wake has managed to stay undefeated so far, one of 6 undefeated teams left. Their best win is a road win against Virginia, but really, they don't have much of a standout win or really much of a solid win overall. They had to go to OT at Syracuse, which was a scare. I'm not really sure how to evaluate them, especially in comparison to Notre Dame and Ohio State, especially because after their Virginia win, they really don't have anything that good. I do give them respect for being undefeated though, but it's not enough to put them above those two.
12 Auburn Tigers Auburn has a pretty solid resume, with wins at home against Ole Miss and on the road against Arkansas and LSU. However, they did lose twice; at home to Georgia, and at Penn State. I can't really justify putting them above an undefeated Wake Forest, either, when they have 2 losses.
13 Michigan Wolverines Michigan lost at Michigan State, giving them their first loss of the season. They do have a solid win at Wisconsin, but past that, their second best win is probably at home against Northern Illinois. Not exactly the most remarkable second best win, and with only one good win, I can't put them any higher.
14 Iowa Hawkeyes Oh, Iowa... What is going on? They looked really good early in the year, then they trailed Penn State until Clifford got injured, but since then they've looked horrible. Still, a road win against Iowa State and a home win against Penn State are good, and they also did win at a 5-3 Maryland, but they've lost their last two badly, at home against Purdue and at Wisconsin. I don't know what to think of them at this point. Hopefully they can get back on track against Northwestern next week.
15 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss is really ride by Corral and die by Corral, so when he had to be taken out of the game for an injury, it did not look good for them. Luckily, he did come back later on in the game, but they couldn't stage a comeback at Auburn. Still, Ole Miss has some decent home wins against Arkansas and LSU, and a road win against Tennessee, but two losses at Alabama and Auburn keep them this low.
16 UTSA Roadrunners MEEP MEEP! UTSA is still undefeated, and they have a solid shot to stay that way, with their toughest games coming up at UTEP this week and 2 weeks after that a home game against UAB. Being undefeated, I have to give them respect, and I have them above a BYU team that has a rough loss and wins that aren't amazing. Also, UTSA does have road wins against Illinois and Memphis, which are okay.
17 Fresno State Bulldogs Fresno State has looked surprisingly good this season, having just handed San Diego State their first loss, as well as having some other solid resume points with wins at UCLA and vs. Nevada. They also nearly knocked off Oregon on the road early in the season, but they do have a rough loss at Hawaii; however, I don't hurt them as much for that as I would if it was any other team of Hawaii's caliber, since Hawaii is a pretty large distance away from everything else and probably has a better home field advantage than most teams. That rough loss is enough to keep them below UTSA, however.
18 BYU Cougars BYU sits at #18 this week, with a bunch of decent wins; I would consider all of Arizona State, Utah and Virginia at home and Utah State and Wazzu on the road as decent wins. However, the home loss to Boise is not good, and they also lost at Baylor.
19 Texas A&M Aggies Texas A&M's resume is basically "we beat Alabama!". They don't really have another good win, and they did lose at Arkansas and vs. Mississippi State; however, they probably have the best win in the country as of this moment.
20 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns UL-Lafayette lost their first game of the season at Texas, but has won everything since, including easily beating Appalachian State at home. They're slightly better resume-wise than Houston, in my opinion.
21 Houston Cougars Houston took down a previously undefeated SMU this week at home, and they also haven't lost since week one, at home to Texas Tech. They have a pretty similar resume to UL-Lafayette, and sit right below them with a worse loss and a fairly similar win.
22 Kentucky Wildcats Kentucky has two decent home wins against Florida and LSU, and two road losses at Georgia and Mississippi State. I don't think there's too much to elaborate on here; nothing too special either way. No standout win and 2 losses keeps them below 1 loss Houston and UL-Lafayette.
23 Penn State Nittany Lions Penn State looked pretty good at Ohio State this week, which I was not expecting. They still have a good home win against Auburn and a good road win against Wisconsin, but they have lost three in a row, including a loss at home to Illinois in a 9OT game under the new OT rules.
24 Wisconsin Badgers Wisconsin sits right below Penn State due to losing the head to head matchup and having a pretty similar resume. They did beat Iowa at home, and knocked off Purdue on the road, but they do have three home losses, to Penn State, Notre Dame and Michigan.
25 San Diego State Aztecs San Diego State barely holds onto a top 25 spot after losing to Fresno State. The thing is, that's not much of a bad loss, and wins against Utah (in 3OT) and Air Force are decent. It is definitely close between them and some of the first few teams out, however. First 5 out: Arkansas, Appalachian State, Mississippi State, Iowa State, Pittsburgh

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