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SleepsWithBlindsOpen Ballot for 2023 Week 6

Ballot Type: Hybrid

Submitted: Oct. 1, 2023, 10:49 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Based on an algorithm that awards/subtracts points based on wins and losses in accordance with difficulty of opponent. The selector breaks ties and makes executive adjustments as seem appropriate.

Rank Team Reason
1 Penn State Nittany Lions Consistently beating up on quality competition. Tied for the most P5 wins in the country
2 Texas Longhorns T-2 Strong start to the season and the RRS will be a big boost
3 Washington Huskies T-2 Very strong wins against a difficult schedule
4 Louisville Cardinals Sneaky team with more P5 wins than any other school besides Penn State. Maybe not the 4th best team in the country, but the algorithm likes them for the teams they've played.
5 North Carolina Tar Heels Since the algorithm only awards you for games played, UNC slides from 1 to 5 this week. Is it the best formula? Probably not. But it will balance out by year's end.
6 USC Trojans An ugly win is still a win and the Trojans keep winning. The question marks with their defense will get answered when they play a top 10 Washington and Oregon
7 Florida State Seminoles T-7 Similar story to UNC. Early bye week drops FSU from 2 to 7, but matchups against Syracuse and Duke in the next two weeks will keep FSU competitive for the top 4
8 Oregon Ducks T-7 Strong start to the conference slate
9 Maryland Terrapins Another sneaky school that just keeps winning. This week's matchup against #20 Ohio State will determine is they're a contender or pretender
10 Fresno State Bulldogs Fresno will eventually get hurt from having a relatively weaker conference schedule, but to this point they've got two P5 wins on the road. I am here for a G5 overlords
11 Oklahoma Sooners Pollsters didn't have high expectations for OU to start the year, but there's a 2 vs. 11 RRS and it's going to be a hell of a game.
12 Michigan Wolverines Up 5 from last week. If Michigan keeps winning, they'll keep gaining spots in the poll.
13 Missouri Tigers The top SEC is none other than 5-0 Missouri. With an undefeated conference records and signature win against K State
14 West Virginia Mountaineers The first one loss team on the list. WVU managed to squeak out the win against TCU and their only loss is against #1 Penn State.
15 Utah Utes The first team I have a major gripe with the algorithm. 1 Loss against an unranked Oregon State team, but the algorithm really likes their wins against UF and Baylor. Another team with a tough conference slate to navigate.
16 Georgia Bulldogs Up from 25 last week. Georgia is finally starting to play schools worth their salt and it's probably closer than people thought it would be.
17 Kentucky Wildcats Tell your kids about a 5-0 Kentucky. This is a team with top 10 potential in my opinion.
18 Iowa Hawkeyes Another Penn State victim sliding in to the rankings. This team has a lot of ranking potential given how bad the Big10 West
19 Alabama Crimson Tide Can you ever count out Nick Saban? One loss against the #2 Longhorns and a match up against #23 TAMU next week will determine the Tide's fate.
20 Ohio State Buckeyes The algorithm doesn't like the Buckeyes schedule so far this year, but this was the first executive bump I made (23->20) because I couldn't let ND be ahead of Ohio State
21 Notre Dame Fighting Irish The win at Duke keeps the Irish in contention with tough games against #4 Louisville and #6 USC on their schedule
22 Miami Hurricanes The algorithm actual hates Miami, so this is the other executive bump. (32->22) The algorithm loves TAMU for some reason, and I wasn't going to allow it to rank TAMU while not ranking Miami.
23 Texas A&M Aggies A&M taking the down bump (21->23), but is quietly asserting itself as one of the top teams in the SEC west
24 Washington State Cougars The Cougs are being hurt by their early bye week, but a strong slate of Pac-12 games to end the season give WSU a lot of rankings potential
25 James Madison Dukes The Dukes may not be eligible for post season play, but they've played strong enough for a 25th rank. Next 5: Kansas, Duke, Ole Miss, BYU, Tennessee

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