Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Nov. 6, 2022, 10:49 a.m.

Overall Rationale: General ranking thought process is a combination of considering efficiency metrics and quality of resume (recency weighted more heavily). Slight bonus added for G5 at the bottom to recognize them, where appropriate. Dropped from last week: Illinois (16 - bad home loss and too many 3 loss teams I wanted to get in there ahead of them), Oklahoma State (18 - what have you done for me lately), Wake Forest (19), Oregon State (21 - fine loss but again, the other 3-loss resumes were stronger. Still no good wins and all acceptable losses, weird schedule), Maryland (24), Troy (25 - attrition, still close). New this week: Texas (17), NC State (19 - alright, I'll buy in), Notre Dame (21), Baylor (23), Florida State (24), Louisville (25). Next few out, in order (Long list this week because it's really bunched and there are a bunch of teams I want on the radar going into late season polls): Illinois, UCF, Coastal Carolina, Troy, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Kentucky, Minnesota, Cincinnati, Mississippi State, Oregon State, South Alabama, Wisconsin, Washington State.

• Ballot
• Analysis

Rank	Team	Reason
1	Georgia Bulldogs
2	Ohio State Buckeyes
3	Michigan Wolverines
4	TCU Horned Frogs
5	Tennessee Volunteers
6	Oregon Ducks
7	LSU Tigers
8	Alabama Crimson Tide	I know it's easy to laugh at them this year, but I have a hard time holding anything against this alabama team. They lost at Tennessee exercising 20 years of demons and death valley at night, both as time expired. For my money, they're still the third best team in the country - but these are rankings and not an evaluation of talent. Trying to marry those two things is how they end up here, behind the teams they lost to but ahead of the Pac-12 3 and other questionable one loss teams.
9	USC Trojans
10	UCLA Bruins
11	Utah Utes	No reason to change the order of the Pac 12 teams this week, see previous weeks' evaluations.
12	Ole Miss Rebels
13	Penn State Nittany Lions
14	Clemson Tigers
15	North Carolina Tar Heels	14/15 is only fair for the ACC teams because there's a pretty clear drop to me after Penn State. These are bad football teams. Would love to put them lower but I can't justify 3-loss Texas ahead of them, no matter how strong they look.
16	Liberty Flames
17	Texas Longhorns
18	Tulane Green Wave
19	NC State Wolfpack	I was low on NC state with Leary, even lower after that awful Syrcause game, but that won me over. Great win
20	Washington Huskies	As promised, they stay in after beating Oregon State, but it's hard to fault the Beavs for that performance. So maybe they're back to being just... good?
21	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	Sure whatever you still lost to Marshall
22	Kansas State Wildcats
23	Baylor Bears
24	Florida State Seminoles	This might be low for FSU with how they've been playing and how strong the LSU win looks. But the Big 12 3-loss teams all have more acceptable losses and strengths of schedule, so they sit here for now.
25	Louisville Cardinals	Similar to FSU, but good enough recent form that I think they deserve the final spot over some of the G5 teams and Illinois

Teams Ranked:

Rank	Team	Unusualness
1	Georgia Bulldogs	0.00
2	Ohio State Buckeyes	0.00
3	Michigan Wolverines	0.00
4	TCU Horned Frogs	0.00
5	Tennessee Volunteers	0.00
6	Oregon Ducks	0.00
7	LSU Tigers	0.05
8	Alabama Crimson Tide	0.42
9	USC Trojans	0.00
10	UCLA Bruins	0.00
11	Utah Utes	0.00
12	Ole Miss Rebels	0.00
13	Penn State Nittany Lions	0.00
14	Clemson Tigers	-0.06
15	North Carolina Tar Heels	0.00
16	Liberty Flames	0.72
17	Texas Longhorns	0.00
18	Tulane Green Wave	0.00
19	NC State Wolfpack	0.00
20	Washington Huskies	0.12
21	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	0.00
22	Kansas State Wildcats	0.00
23	Baylor Bears	1.55
24	Florida State Seminoles	0.00
25	Louisville Cardinals	0.00

Omissions:

Team	Unusualness
Illinois Fighting Illini	0.97
UCF Knights	0.64

Total Score: 4.53