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bretticus33 Ballot for 2021 Week 14

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Nov. 28, 2021, 3:24 a.m.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs After shutting out GA Tech, the Bulldogs have only allowed 83 points on the season, good for 6.9 per game.  Georgia's defense is legendary and they'll face their most talented test against Alabama, even though the Tide's offense is coming off a poor showing.
2 Michigan Wolverines Michigan catapults to 2nd after the biggest win for the program in years, and one of the biggest of the season by anybody.  The Wolverines are playing great football in the trenches and they'll be a tough out for anybody with how they're playing.  I don't know if anybody will admit it but Jim Harbaugh deserves serious COTY consideration for the turnaround revival and possible CFP run Michigan's had.
3 Cincinnati Bearcats Cincinnati won a tricky road bout against ECU and now gets to play their 2nd biggest test of the season in Houston.  Should Cincinnati win, they should be in the CFP but will still be massive UGA and BU fans this weekend.
4 Alabama Crimson Tide Despite being 11-1, this feels like the most vulnerable Tide team in a while.  Their offense is inconsistent and the secondary has been suspect to better passing teams than Auburn.  If Alabama plays like that against Georgia, the CFP dream will be dead.
5 Oklahoma State Cowboys The Cowboys finally bested OU and announced their legitimate CFP candidacy to the country.  The defense did enough and the offense was able to score, but Spencer Sanders was sloppy with the ball and there's room for improvement in the OSU offense.
6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame is the quietest playoff contender ever.  Had they not lost to Cincinnati, the Irish would be in the Top 4.  After starting slow to the season, they're playing their best football at the end of the season.  ND still needs chaos to happen around them for a CFP chance, which likely includes losses by Cincy, Alabama, and Oklahoma State.
7 Ohio State Buckeyes After dominating the couple months after losing to Oregon and fixing the issues that appeared in that game, those same issues resurfaced and ended Ohio State's Big 10 run and likely their CFP hopes.  They were dominated in the trenches on both sides of the ball and the offense was inconsistent.
8 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss ended their regular season with a win in the Egg Bowl and Matt Corrall should be getting an invite to NYC for the Heisman ceremony.  If this is Lane Kiffin's final season in Oxford, he's done a great job with this team in just 2 seasons.
9 Baylor Bears While Blake Shapen did a fine job, Baylor still missed Gerry Bohanon and scraped by Texas Tech.  However, they did enough and OSU's Bedlam triumph means the Bears get a rematch with the Cowboys for the Big 12 title.  Dave Aranda should be a serious COTY contender after turning the Bears from a 2-7 team into a 10-2 Big 12 contender.
10 Michigan State Spartans Michigan State survived Penn State in the East Lansing snow and get the 10 win season that nobody was expecting.  It's TBD if Michigan State will get a NY6 bowl, but it's been an incredible season for Sparty nonetheless.
11 Utah Utes I'm much higher on Utah than most.  The Utes are winners of 5 straight and 2 of their losses are road games to BYU and San Diego State, both of whom are also ranked.  Their run game is going, Rising is making enough plays, and their defense is a brick wall.  They finished with the best PAC-12 record and will play Oregon for the 2nd time in 3 weeks for the conference title.
12 Oregon Ducks Oregon beat a surprisingly decent Oregon State team to end the regular season and prepare for the PAC-12 title game in a rematch with Utah.  Anthony Brown played one of his best games of the season and he needs to carry that momentum into next Friday because Travis Dye can't do it alone.  The defense also needs to tighten up in the trenches too.
13 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma went into November undefeated but drawing skepticism for playing a weak schedule and failing to impress in many of their games.  In November, they lost their 2 biggest games against the best opposition they played.  Granted, they weren't blown out in either game and both were on the road, but they still failed to do what Oklahoma teams normally do and find a way to win those games.  Now Oklahoma can just hope they can get in as an at-large for an NY6 game
14 Houston Cougars Fun fact: Georgia and Cincinnati are the only teams in the country with longer active win streaks than Houston.  The Cougars are playing like a top Big 12 team and the spotlight will be on them to see if they ruin the hopes and dreams of many-a-G5 fan nationwide when they play Cincinnati for the AAC championship.
15 BYU Cougars BYU is one of the toughest teams to get a read on.  They absolutely have talent and can play with most of the country.  However, they're really inconsistent and at times look like one of the most overrated teams in the country.  They were that way again against USC.  Regardless, BYU pulled out 10 wins for the 2nd straight season and with a much tougher schedule this time around.
16 Pittsburgh Panthers In the chaotic ACC, Pitt rose above and gets to play for the ACC title against Wake with Heisman candidate Kenny Pickett.  I really like this Pitt offense around Pickett and their defense is good enough, but slowing down Wake's offense is no easy feat either.
17 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Despite the 2 losses, this has been a dream season for Wake.  Nobody thought they would be ever reach the Top 10 in November (or any point really) and that they would end up playing for the ACC title.  The defense played their best game in a long time which should be encouraging, but Pitt's offense presents a much tougher challenge. 
18 Iowa Hawkeyes After that 2 game slide, Iowa looks to have stabilized the ship and have won 4 in a row.  And thanks to Minnesota, the Hawkeyes are traveling to Indy to play Michigan for the Big 10 title and could possibly eliminate the Big 10 from the playoff (pending where Ohio State is on Tuesday).  So why is Iowa down here?  Well they don't have any really nice wins.  The Indiana win that catapulted them up means nothing now, the win over PSU is aging poorly and so is the win over Iowa State.
19 NC State Wolfpack They don't get to play for the ACC title, but that shouldn't take away from the great season NC State's had.  They beat Clemson and rival UNC and can hit 10 wins with a bowl win.
20 San Diego State Aztecs SDSU started slow against Boise State and were probably fortunate to be close at halftime after getting dominated in the first half, but they completely controlled the 2nd half and had their best performance in a while.  Already at the most wins in a season in program history, they host Utah State for the MWC title.
21 Minnesota Golden Gophers Minnesota played a great game against Wisconsin and beat their rival, giving themselves the gift of knocking Wisconsin out of B1G title contention as well as the gift of B1G title contention to Iowa.  I still don't know how they lost to Bowling Green, but this is a solid Gopher team that PJ Fleck has.
22 Wisconsin Badgers Wisconsin, one of the hottest teams in the country, went in to Minnesota and had a major letdown game.  Their defense played fine, but the offense reverted back to their early-season form and it cost them the B1G.  
23 Clemson Tigers Clemson is one of the hottest teams in the country and have won 5 straight.  They're finally looking like a top 25 team the last couple weeks and can still hit 10 wins by winning their bowl game, and that's still a disappointing season but a rescued one.
24 Arkansas Razorbacks Arkansas took care of Mizzou like they should have and remain a top 25 team.  For the Razorbacks, 2021 has exceeded expectations and they should get a decent bowl game for it.
25 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns Louisiana had another frustrating win over ULM, a trend that's defined their 2021 season.  They can win the Sun Belt with another win over App State and possibly get a crappy bowl game as a reward.

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