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Comit22 Ballot for 2022 Week 13

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Nov. 20, 2022, 1:50 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Personal Opinion

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs ±0 -- gets #1 because of the best wins in the country (#8 Tennessee and #9 Oregon)
2 Ohio State Buckeyes ±0 -- gets the #2 spot over Michigan because of a better 2nd win (over #16 Notre Dame as opposed to 7-4 Illinois)
3 Michigan Wolverines ±0 -- gets the #3 spot over TCU because of a better win (over #11 Penn State as opposed to Kansas St. and Texas), though Michigan and TCU are closer than expected
4 TCU Horned Frogs ±0 -- the last of the unbeatens, they do now sport 2 wins over ranked teams (#21 Kansas St. and #25 Texas), but are certainly the least polished of the Big 4
5 USC Trojans +1 -- the Trojans now have quality wins over 8-3 UCLA and #23 Oregon St. that aren't as good as, but can measure up to, LSU's wins; the lack of a 2nd loss keeps USC above LSU for the week
6 LSU Tigers +1 -- nothing notable here, other than Ole Miss' loss to Arkansas makes the Tigers' win look less impressive, the win over Alabama is still just barely enough to keep them ahead of Clemson though
7 Clemson Tigers +1 -- lacking a bad loss (#16 Notre Dame), their best win is over 8-3 Florida State, which doesn't inspire much confidence but the Volunteers officially have a bad loss so Clemson moves above them
8 Tennessee Volunteers -3 -- the Vols' (relatively) bad loss to South Carolina means that they go behind USC, LSU, and Clemson teams that have only lost to teams that were eventually proven good; it's a very close call between Tennessee and Oregon but Tennessee's better wins against #6 LSU and #10 Alabama are what keep them above the Ducks
9 Oregon Ducks +1 -- Oregon's loss to Washington doesn't look bad and their wins against #14 UCLA and #15 Utah stack up favorably with Alabama's win over #17 Ole Miss, this pushes the Ducks above the Tide but they're just short of passing the Vols
10 Alabama Crimson Tide -1 -- through no fault of their own, the Tide fall a spot; still boasting a top 25 win over #17 Ole Miss means they'll stay ahead of Penn State (who lack a quality win)
11 Penn State Nittany Lions +3 -- Penn State lacks the quality wins of other 2-loss teams, but they don't have bad losses either; they're slotted firmly in-between the 2-loss P5 teams that have shown outstanding potential (LSU, UT, Oregon, Alabama) and those who have shown disastrous floors (Washington, UNC)
12 Washington Huskies +3 -- the wins over #23 Oregon St. and #9 Oregon look fantastic, but the loss to a truly atrocious 3-8 Arizona St. team regrettably move Washington behind those more solid 2-loss P5 teams
13 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers +5 -- this ranking is simple, I refuse to put a 1-loss team behind a 3-loss team without some notable exception (see: Texas v UTSA later); the only 2-loss teams left are UNC, Tulane, Cincinnati, Troy, South Alabama, and UTSA; all 6 of those teams compare unfavorably to some 3-loss teams (see: Notre Dame beating UNC) so Coastal Carolina stays above all of them
14 UCLA Bruins -2 -- UCLA and Utah have comparable résumés (3 losses, including 1 to a bad P5 team; 8 wins with 2 of them against ranked teams) but UCLA beat Utah in the H2H so UCLA will stay above Utah until something major changes
15 Utah Utes -2 -- comparing Utah and Notre Dame's résumés, we see they each have a win over a very strong 1-loss P5 team (USC and Clemson) plus another win over a back-of-the-top-25 team (Oregon St. and UNC); Utah has the best win (over USC) but Notre Dame's 2nd win is stronger (over UNC), so the wins are very close in strength; but the losses tell a different story as Utah sports losses to #9 Oregon, #14 UCLA, and 6-5 Florida while Notre Dame sports losses to #2 Ohio State, 7-4 Marshall, and 3-8 Stanford; the Marshall and Florida losses can kinda cancel out, but that Stanford loss is what truly brings down Notre Dame and keeps Utah above them this week
16 Notre Dame Fighting Irish +3 -- Notre Dame and Ole Miss is an interesting comparison as well since Notre Dame has far worse losses (3-8 Stanford), but much better wins (especially over #7 Clemson, compared to over #24 Troy); Ole Miss' lack of a truly good 2nd win hurts them (their 2nd best is probably over 6-5 Kentucky) and what pushes Notre Dame above them to me, though I could go either way with these two
17 Florida State Seminoles +3 -- Florida State has a much better win than Ole Miss (#6 LSU as opposed to #24 Troy) and the losses are comparable (Ole Miss has losses to #6 LSU, #10 Alabama, and 6-5 Arkansas while FSU has losses to #7 Clemson, 7-4 NC State, and 7-4 Wake Forest). In particular, Ole Miss has the worst loss but their other two losses can hardly be called bad; it's close between the two of them but the common opponent and the quality of FSU's win push them just above Ole Miss to me
18 Ole Miss Rebels -2 -- see above note on Notre Dame v Ole Miss; I also wouldn't put Ole Miss over Utah since the losses are of comparable quality but Utah sports much better wins; and Ole Miss stays above UNC both because of the common opponent (Ole Miss beat Georgia Tech while UNC lost to GT) and the fact that the quality of losses between Ole Miss and UNC is roughly equal (Georgia Tech is a worse loss than Arkansas and neither Alabama nor LSU are as bad and Notre Dame, but Ole Miss does have 3 losses) BUT Ole Miss has the best win of the bunch, over #24 Troy
19 North Carolina Tar Heels -8 -- UNC is fairly close to falling behind Tulane, for what it's worth, they don't have any marquee wins and a bad loss to 5-6 Georgia Tech; they stay above Tulane despite Tulane having the best win (#21 Kansas St.) but Tulane having significantly worse losses (notably to 5-6 Southern Miss) is what keeps them just a shade below
20 Tulane Green Wave +1 -- the loss to Southern Miss is what really hurts them here as it's far worse than UNC's loss to GT; they have the best win (over #21 Kansas St.), but with that win being over a team also lacking marquee wins, it's hard to use that to push them over UNC
21 Kansas State Wildcats +1 -- Kansas St. really lacks any marquee wins and has losses to #4 TCU, #25 Texas, and #20 Tulane; the loss to Tulane will keep the Wildcats below the Green Wave unless something major changes
22 Cincinnati Bearcats +1 -- none of the teams closely above Cincinnati lost this week, nor did any teams behind them get major wins, the only exception was UCF falling to 3 losses, which pushes them outside of the top 25, regardless of H2H over Cincinnati and Tulane; Cincinnati gets a big shot at Tulane this week with a place in the AAC title game on the line
23 Oregon State Beavers +1 -- same deal as Cincy, the Beavers don't have any marquee wins but also don't sport losses as bad as Cincy's, the Beavers are close to being above the Bearcats but not there just yet, it doesn't matter though because they can beat Oregon next week
24 Troy Trojans +1 -- despite a bad loss to App State, I don't like putting 2-loss teams behind 4-loss teams and we're pretty much out of 3-loss teams (apologies to UCF, Ohio, Boise State, and Air Force, but those aren't happening just yet); Troy holds the H2H over South Alabama and that get them the last G5 2-loss spot
25 Texas Longhorns NEW -- this spot would go to UTSA, as I don't like putting 2-loss teams behind 4-loss teams (2-loss UTSA and South Alabama just miss this list), but Texas holds the H2H over UTSA and so nabs this last spot (South Alabama lacks a single win over a team that's .500 or better and lost the H2H against Troy, they would need even more help to crack this list)

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