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dusklord1 Ballot for 2022 Week 8

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 16, 2022, 7:13 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Out: NC State, James Madison, Minnesota, Kansas

Rank Team Reason
1 Tennessee Volunteers Best win in the country, beating an Alabama team *with* a high-performing Bryce Young
2 Ohio State Buckeyes
3 Georgia Bulldogs
4 Michigan Wolverines I think the only question about Michigan is whether or not they're a serious contender for a championship. They're clearly a Big 10 contender and a top 5 team, but time will tell on the rest (in this case, time means at the end of November)
5 Clemson Tigers I think Clemson > Michigan is reasonable since at least one of Clemson's best wins came against a better team than Michigan's (although the magnitude of those wins were very different). However, I'm giving more credit to the dominance over a solid Penn State team. Definitely more of a 4a, 4b thing though.
6 Alabama Crimson Tide There's still the 'doomsday' 3 SEC team playoff scenario in play (and not entirely unlikely) where Alabama wins out, Georgia wins out until the SEC championship game, and Tennesee wins out, save for a loss to Georgia. I don't think there are any individual games where something that would screw up this scenario is likely to occur, but there are enough road blocks for all 3 teams remaining. In Alabama's case, they are still a good to great team (very undisciplined though) and Bryce Young is still a miracle worker. However, back to back road trips @ LSU and @ Ole Miss in November are concerning.
7 UCLA Bruins
8 Ole Miss Rebels
9 TCU Horned Frogs Another week, another unexpected win pulled out of their asses.
10 Oregon Ducks
11 Oklahoma State Cowboys
12 Wake Forest Demon Deacons
13 Syracuse Orange The Sickos Committee loves asking "Is Syracuse Good?", and the answer is still probably unknown. NC State without Leary is not a good team. The needle probably points closer to Yes than No, but I still don't think Syracuse is a serious division or NY6 contender
14 USC Trojans
15 Utah Utes Close win against a decent USC team, although the convincing loss to UCLA hurts them a lot in this ranking.
16 Kansas State Wildcats
17 Penn State Nittany Lions Penn State was probably overrated by the human polls. The warning signs were all there. Outside of the Auburn game, they BS'ed a win against Purdue, struggled (granted, bad weather) against Northwestern, and were a little ugly against CMU. Their run defense, while seemingly stout, played against a pass-heavy Purdue team, 3 very bad G5-level teams, and an underperforming Auburn team. I can't really believe that a bona fide top 10 team would look like Iowa on offense and 2021 OSU's run defense put together. The next two weeks will answer whether or not they're a decent team that underperformed against a much better team, or just a mediocre team that won 5 games at the beginning of the season. I'd say based on that performance, they're top 15 at best. I'd guess 9-3 regular season, losing to OSU and some other random team they probably shouldn't lose to because #JustJamesFranklinThings.
18 Illinois Fighting Illini Bert is going to fuck around and win the West (or Purdue)
19 Texas Longhorns
20 Kentucky Wildcats
21 North Carolina Tar Heels I mean they're winning, I guess? If they beat Pitt, they're a heavy favorite to go get massacred by Clemson in the title game
22 Purdue Boilermakers Another team that can fuck around and win the West
23 Mississippi State Bulldogs
24 Tulane Green Wave
25 Cincinnati Bearcats

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