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Midnight-Mustang Ballot for 2023 Week 3

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 11, 2023, 8:39 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Personal perceptions. I base most of this off strength of schedule. It doesn't just matter to me IF you win but also HOW you win and WHO you won against.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs Nothing has happened to make me think Georgia deserves to fall.
2 Texas Longhorns - Texas has the best win in college football. Beating Alabama by double digits at home puts you in the top four automatically; they're above Michigan and FSU simply because Michigan hasn't played anyone and Texas' win is better than FSU's win.
3 Florida State Seminoles Great win vs LSU; not as good a win as Texas.
4 Michigan Wolverines Elite team, don't have an elite win yet.
5 Penn State Nittany Lions - I have Penn State above Ohio State because I think Penn State has a more convicing P-5 win (WVU vs Indiana) than Ohio State. They're pretty even so far in my book.
6 Ohio State Buckeyes see above
7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish - I'm very high on Notre Dame. They won a tough(ish) road P5 game, and they've looked great all three games. Sam Hartman is the real deal. I had ND making the playoff in my preseason prediction.
8 USC Trojans - I am not high on USC. I don't think they've been tested yet and I still have a lot of questions about their defense.
9 Alabama Crimson Tide - Bama deserves to drop significantly but frankly I find it hard to believe they'd lose to a team other than the 8 in front of them. Still a lot of football to play though.
10 Washington Huskies - UW looks great but not better than anyone in front of them
11 Colorado Buffaloes - I was a huge Deion hater before the season, but he's got me drinking black and gold kool-aid right now I'll admit. No, Nebraska and TCU aren't elite teams, but those are two very strong P-5 wins to start the year. TCU on the road and Nebraska by a lot make me feel very good about them.
12 Miami Hurricanes Miami manhandled their opponents-- and would have beaten a very talented A&M team by even more if it wasn't for special teams miscues.
13 Utah Utes - Utah failed to blow out a garbage Florida team at home, and struggled mightily against an awful Baylor team that lost to TEXAS STATE last week. Thus, I have them below Colorado & Miami.
14 Tennessee Volunteers - Tennessee looks good but they haven't played anybody
15 LSU Tigers - LSU is still good but got embarrassed by FSU-- but if FSU is the #3 team in the nation that's almost a "quality loss," especially since it was essentially in a road game environment.
16 Oregon Ducks Tech lost to Wyoming. I know that's a tough environment, but you have to win by more than one score to be in the top 15. Also, Oregon AD: STOP SCHEDULING PORTLAND STATE WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU.
17 Oregon State Beavers Had a better win over San Jose State than USC did, in my opinion, and I have the trojans as a top ten team. Oregon State look like a potential dark horse for the conference.
18 Ole Miss Rebels 1. Mercer doesn't count, but you have to admit, Ole Miss handled business. 2. Tulane was a decent win over a ranked opponent, but I still need to see more from them. Potential to move up the rankings if they smoke GA Tech and at least play Bama close.
19 Washington State Cougars Great win vs Wisconsin catapults Wazzu into the top 20.
20 Kansas State Wildcats I think this is going to be your Big 12 finalist against Texas; but they haven't really played anybody yet and so I need to see more. Gameday should be at their Big 8 reunion matchup in Columbia in my opinion.
21 Duke Blue Devils Clemson win was a strong showing, and they beat their cupcake pretty convincingly.
22 Oklahoma Sooners OU looks... decent, but you can't let SMU play you that close.
23 Iowa Hawkeyes Winning the cyhawk game on the road is a big deal.
24 North Carolina Tar Heels I still remain unconvinced. I know App State is generally decent and South Carolina is an SEC program, but nothing in those two games sold me that they deserve to be ranked higher.
25 Kansas Jayhawks Kansas looked good against an Illinois team that I had as division contenders.

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