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YellowSkarmory Ballot for 2021 Week 15 & Bowls

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Dec. 7, 2021, 1:59 a.m.

Overall Rationale: I try to rank based on resume, which can create some weird results. 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 Alabama Crimson Tide Well, Georgia losing to Alabama means #1 is interesting for really the first time since the early weeks of the year. I have Alabama at #1, as they have two great wins against UGA on a neutral site and at home against Ole Miss, and solid depth all around to back it up; a home win against Arkansas and a road win against Mississippi State are both solid, and wins against decent Tennessee & Miami squads shouldn't be overlooked either. They do have that loss to Texas A&M and that rough game against Auburn, but I think their wins more than make up for it. However, I could easily see a case for any of 1-4 to be #1 at this point, but in my opinion, Alabama has the best resume.
2 Cincinnati Bearcats Cincinnati can't quite get up to #1 despite being the last undefeated team remaining, as their wins just aren't quite good enough to break through. They have a top tier win at Notre Dame, but after that they have home wins against the likes of Houston, SMU and UCF, and a road win against ECU, which is not exactly impressive depth-wise. I do give them credit for staying undefeated, which all 129 other teams could not do, however.
3 Michigan Wolverines Michigan also has a great top win, at home against Ohio State, but I feel like their depth is more comparable to Cinci's; wins against Iowa in the B1G championship game and at Wisconsin are solid, and they do have a road win against Penn State and a win against MAC champion NIU, but really they just don't have wins that are quite good enough to get above undefeated Cinci. The loss at Michigan State isn't that bad, and is really more of a missed opportunity than anything.
4 Georgia Bulldogs I started to realize last week that Georgia really doesn't have a top win, and that really hurts them after the Alabama loss. Wins against Clemson on a neutral site and at home against Arkansas and Kentucky are solid, but they don't have a top win comparable to my top 3, and that really hurts their ranking. I would say their resume is fairly similar to Michigan if you remove the OSU game from the equation, which is why they're below them.
5 Baylor Bears There is a very significant gap in my opinion between the top four and everyone else, which is neat for the four team playoff. Anyway, Baylor has sneakily been building up a great resume; three great wins against BYU and Oklahoma at home and Oklahoma State on a neutral site are really solid, and honestly up there in the win department with some of the top 4; they also have some decent depth wins at KSU and vs. Iowa State. However, they did lose to Oklahoma State on the road earlier, and they had a really rough loss at TCU, which is probably the difference between them making and missing the playoff. 
6 Oklahoma State Cowboys Oklahoma State dropped the rematch to Baylor on a neutral site, which nullifies any real H2H there (if anything, Baylor has it because OKST's win was at home). They still have the great home win against Baylor, along with one against Oklahoma at home, and honestly their resume feels pretty similar but without the BYU win; wins at home against KSU and at Boise are solid, and they have their somewhat questionable loss at Iowa State, though that's not nearly as bad. The BYU win for Baylor is really the separator here between the two.
7 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State does have a solid top win, when they absolutely demolished Michigan State, but after that they run into the issue of not particularly great depth; wins at home against Purdue and Penn State and on the road against Minnesota are decent, but nothing great. They also have the losses at Michigan and at home against Oregon, but I still think they're slightly ahead of Notre Dame.
8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame has the same issue as Georgia, with the fact that they have no top win, except the problem is that they have even worse wins; a road win against Wisconsin and a home win against Purdue are decent, and then...what else? 6-6 UNC? 6-6 UVA? 6-6 VT? 7-5 Toledo? Yeah...their loss to Cinci isn't bad, but they really just don't have the wins to be any higher.
9 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss has done the thing of picking up a bunch of decent wins, with wins at home against Arkansas and Texas A&M, and road wins against MSST and Tennessee being all solid. They lost to #1 Alabama on the road, which isn't bad at all, but they did lose at Auburn, which doesn't look all that good now.
10 Michigan State Spartans Michigan State has a great win at home against Michigan, but there's not too much else there; home wins against Penn State and at Miami are their next 2 best wins, which aren't great. They also looked awful at Ohio State and had that road loss to Purdue as well.
11 BYU Cougars BYU's win over Utah keeps looking better, and their depth still looks good; the road win over Utah State just got a lot better, and a home win against ASU plus a road win against Wazzu still hold up as decent wins. One of their losses, at Baylor, isn't bad at all, but that home loss to Boise is not great.
12 Utah Utes Utah has played Oregon twice, and the combined score across the two games is 76-17. Yeah, I think Utah has Oregon figured out. Those are two solid wins, definitely better than anything else they have; home wins against UCLA, Arizona State and Wazzu do help out their depth though. The H2H loss at BYU keeps them below them, along with them having three losses, the other two being at SDSU and at Oregon State.
13 Oregon Ducks Oregon has two blowout losses to Utah, and also that weird road loss in OT to Stanford, but they do have solid wins; at Ohio State is definitely one of the best in the country, and beating Fresno State at home, UCLA on the road, and Oregon State/Washington State at home all help them out. However, they are very clearly below Utah due to the two H2H losses.
14 Pittsburgh Panthers Pittsburgh's early season loss at home to WMU just seems weird by this point, as they've come along to win the ACC, picking up wins against Wake Forest on a neutral site and Clemson at home along the way. They also beat up most of the rest of the ACC, with the exception of a road loss to Miami, which also doesn't help; those two losses and relative lack of a great win are enough to keep them below Oregon.
15 Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns UL-Lafayette has just trudged along, winning 12 in a row since their opening game loss at Texas; their highlights are two home wins against App State, but they actually have some okay depth wins. Georgia State has just been completely off my radar, but they're 7-5 with their worst loss probably coming at UNC or at home against Army, and they gave Auburn a fight early on; a road win against Liberty also adds to their depth. I debated putting them ahead of Pitt even, but I think that's a bit too far.
16 San Diego State Aztecs What the hell happened to San Diego State against Utah State? Not only is that the conference championship game, they were also at home, and got destroyed. Either way, their 3OT win against Utah keeps looking better (even if it was a different Utah team), and they've picked up some good wins in a solid MW - at Air Force, vs. Nevada and vs. Boise are all solid. They also did lose at home to Fresno, but those wins are solid enough to have them this high.
17 Wisconsin Badgers I think Wisconsin was dropped way too easily after that road loss to Minnesota; they still have solid wins at Purdue and vs. Iowa, along with a home win against Army which doesn't look bad either. They did start 1-3 with 3 home losses to Michigan, Notre Dame, and Penn State, but two of those three turned out to be playoff contenders, and Penn State sort of just fell apart mid season. However, they do have 4 losses, which does not help their case.
18 Purdue Boilermakers Purdue in my opinion definitely has better wins than Wisconsin, but that H2H loss keeps them below; a win at home against Michigan State and one at Iowa are very good, and they do have another decent win in week 1 at home against Oregon State. However, they also have 4 losses; at Ohio State, at Notre Dame, vs. Wisconsin and vs. Minnesota. Purdue and Wisconsin just seem really similar resume wise overall, with Wisconsin getting the edge due to H2H.
19 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma really lacks a good win; when your best win is at Kansas State or at home against Iowa State, you don't have great wins. That, plus their inability to have a comfortable lead and them losing to the two best teams they played (Baylor and OKST, both on the road) puts them pretty low for me. The bowl game against Oregon will be quite interesting for me.
20 Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa just quietly won the B1G West, with the rest of the division pretty much cannibalizing itself; Iowa beat Iowa State on the road and Minnesota/Penn State at home, which are decent wins, and they don't have a particularly bad loss (Michigan in the B1G championship game, Wisconsin on the road and Purdue at home). The problem is that they don't really have any sort of top win. They feel like a slightly worse version of Oklahoma with an extra loss, though it was a CCG.
21 Arkansas Razorbacks Arkansas feels similar to Wisconsin/Purdue, but they just lack that top win; beating Mississippi State and Texas A&M at home is solid, and they do have a few wins against 6-6 SEC teams (like pretty much all of the SEC), but they lost their three games against top teams; at Alabama, at Georgia and at Ole Miss. They also have a home loss to Auburn that has gradually gotten worse as Auburn has lost 4 in a row.
22 Clemson Tigers Clemson managed to sneak back into the rankings by the season's end, after picking up a solid home win against Wake Forest. However, after that, they run into the same issue that the other top ACC teams have too; the fact that pretty much everyone else in the conference is 6-6 or beat you (looking at you, Miami, in particular). The losses to Georgia, Pittsburgh and NC State aren't bad for Clemson, but really their resume is just a Wake Forest win and then everything else.
23 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Wake Forest dropped the ACC championship game against Pittsburgh, leaving their resume headlined by a home win against NC State and a road win in a shootout against Army (those are words I never expected to say...). After that, they have the wins against the mediocre 6-6 teams of the ACC, but they actually lost to one (UNC on the road). Their other losses are to Clemson on the road and Pitt in the ACC CCG (as mentioned earlier). The H2H and weaker losses keep them below Clemson.
24 Fresno State Bulldogs In my opinion, the Mountain West is severely underrated this season; Fresno State is a prime example of that, with road wins against SDSU and UCLA and a home win against Nevada, which are all solid wins. They also gave Oregon a fight in week 1, though they couldn't quite win that one; their other two losses are sorta rough, however (at home against Boise and at Hawaiʻi).
25 Utah State Aggies Utah State picked up a huge win at San Diego State in the MWC Championship, which was much needed for them; they now have a solid top win to add to road wins against Air Force and Wazzu. All 3 of their losses have been at home, however; losing to BYU at home isn't too bad, Boise is kinda a mixed bag and Wyoming...yeah that one is bad. First 5 out: UTSA, Texas A&M, Houston, Appalachian State, Army

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