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Dawg-Bite Ballot for 2022 Week 14

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Nov. 27, 2022, 4:20 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Head 2 head, quality wins, resume, wins and losses matter, eye test

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs Michigan was close to taking #1 for me after the dominant win over Ohio State plus a dominant win earlier in the year over Penn State. However, UGA has dominant wins over 4 top 25 teams in my rankings, 1 of them being in the top 10. UGA out scored those top 25 teams 169-42. Playoff lock
2 Michigan Wolverines Playoff Lock
3 TCU Horned Frogs Playoff Lock (for me anyway)
4 USC Trojans USC showed without a doubt they deserve #4. They only need 1 win to cement their spot in the playoff.
5 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State got stomped into a mud hole by Michigan. However, they are no other teams that deserve to be in the playoff conversation. I don’t even think Ohio State really deserves it but they only have 1 loss and a good resume so they’d be in with a USC loss.
6 Tennessee Volunteers Last week I had Tennessee at 12 due to an embarrassing loss that no longer looks as embarrassing anymore (albeit still pretty embarrassing and funny). After a week to sit on it and a 56-0 drubbing of Vandy I feel like Milton still keeps Tennessee close to the same level of play they had and they deserve to be ahead of Bama because of head 2 head.
7 Alabama Crimson Tide Bama has lost both games they played to top 15 teams. They have wins over Texas, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State who are all ranked in my rankings. They also look like a great team who really could be undefeated rn, but I’m not gonna let hypotheticals blind me from the actual results of the games they have played.
8 Penn State Nittany Lions Beat everyone they were supposed to. Lost to everyone they were supposed to. Penn State has looked dominant and looked like a great team.
9 Washington Huskies Washington has wins over Oregon and Oregon State who are ranked, but are behind Penn State because of a terrible ASU loss and I’m just not as confident in the Washington defense. Also (and I can’t believe I’m saying this because I sound like a damn committee member) they don’t control games as well as Penn State. Washington usually just goes toe to toe with their opponents instead of dominating like Penn State does.
10 Clemson Tigers Clemson could’ve or maybe should’ve fell lower but they have head 2 head over FSU and are the last P5 team with only 2 losses.
11 Florida State Seminoles Florida State has looked incredible since they got healthy again. They also have head 2 head over LSU.
12 LSU Tigers LSU has a win over #7 Bama to hold on to but just haven’t looked impressive since. Two of their losses are to teams ranked higher than them and a terrible loss to Texas A&M finishes their regular season. The only thing that separates LSU from Kansas State and Tulane for me is the Bama win.
13 Tulane Green Wave Tulane is tied to Kansas State’s hip. Same for K State for Tulane. Tulane ended Cincy’s home winning streak and are on a collision course to a possible NY6 bowl. Also they have head 2 head over K State.
14 Kansas State Wildcats All of K State’s losses are to ranked teams unlike LSU. The difference maker for me tho is that Kansas State doesn’t have a solid signature win. Their best win is Oklahoma State.
15 Oregon State Beavers There is absolutely nothing between the rest of the 3 loss teams that I think separates them. They have all beaten each other and all of their resumes and losses are to each other and include each other. So I just ranked them off MOST RECENT head 2 head games.
16 Oregon Ducks Head 2 head loss to Oregon State; Head 2 head wins over both UCLA and Utah.
17 UCLA Bruins Head 2 head loss to Oregon; Head 2 head win over Utah.
18 Utah Utes Head 2 head losses to Oregon and UCLA. I know they beat Oregon State but someone unfortunately had to get the short end of the stick here, even if Utah is goin to the PAC 12 title game off weird tiebreaker rules. If Utah wins against USC tho I’ll break my head 2 head decisions here and rank them ahead of the 3 PAC teams ahead of them for sure.
19 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Two bad losses to Stanford and Marshall but have 2 dominant wins over #10 Clemson and top 25 UNC. Also played Ohio State tough and USC as well so I’m not punishing them hard for that.
20 South Carolina Gamecocks Two straight top 10 wins and look like a completely different team. However, I think that losses to Mizzou, Arkansas, and Florida put them behind Notre Dame despite their recent success.
21 Texas Longhorns Texas beat #14 Kansas State. They also possibly should’ve beat Bama, lost to a playoff team, lost to Texas Tech without Ewers in OT, and lost to Oklahoma State. There are some questions marks on two of those Texas losses that could’ve went either way for them but I feel like they don’t have the wins Notre Dame and South Carolina have.
22 Mississippi State Bulldogs Mississippi State lost to 3 teams they were supposed to. Bama, UGA, LSU. Unfortunately they have a head scratcher L to Kentucky and don’t have any impressive wins outside of the Ole Miss win this past Thursday.
23 Ole Miss Rebels From this point on it was hard to find teams I felt like “deserved” to be in my top 25. At the end I settled on Ole Miss behind Miss State because they only lost by 2 points. Ole Miss has no signature wins but their only horrific loss is to Arkansas. Other than that they’ve lost to top 25 teams. They also have a win over Troy, who barely missed out on my top 25 this week.
24 NC State Wolfpack NC State has better wins than Ole Miss (FSU and now North Carolina) but the FSU win came when Leary was still their QB and since then NC State has called on a 3rd or 4th string QB to play for them. They also have bad losses to Syracuse, Boston College, and Louisville. Only reason NC State makes it in is having straight up beat North Carolina.
25 North Carolina Tar Heels North Carolina is the worst 9-3 team I’ve ever seen but they’re still 9-3 so I’m not gonna throw em out my rankings. They have no impressive wins and every game they’ve played this year has been close. They just lost to NC State, got blown out by ND, and obviously lost to GA Tech. They are only here cause they’re 9-3. Next Up: Troy, South Alabama, UTSA, UCF, Cincinnati, Purdue

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