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Muffinnnnnnn Ballot for 2023 Week 7

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 10, 2023, 1:12 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Wins and losses matter most. Head-to-head is very important, as usual, but already the Pac-12 has made it so that we have a big circle of 1-loss teams beating each other because of course they do. Also, every 1-loss team in this circle won at home and lost on the road. What it eventually came down to for me was the noncompetitiveness of Utah's loss to Oregon State. They really need Cam Rising to be the best version of themselves, and as such I am ignoring their win over UCLA for this week and placing them at the bottom of the 1-loss Pac-12 cluster. That massive cluster will hopefully get some clarity sometime soon. Also, two weeks in a row of USC almost losing to unranked teams with zero quality wins has led me to placing them BELOW that cluster. Win a game vs a good team and you'll maybe get in my good graces again. You'll have a chance vs Notre Dame this week. Speaking of Notre Dame, one of my typical rules for rankings was that 2-loss teams really shouldn't be ranked ahead of undefeated teams at this point in the year. However, Notre Dame's only losses being to (in my rankings) top 10 teams, WITH a win over a ranked, one-loss Duke team convinced me to break that rule in this case, as their body of work deserves it. The teams they lost to haven't lost a game yet, and a team they beat hasn't lost a game other than to them. Michigan and Georgia looked like true elite teams on Saturday, in a season where no one really has stepped up in that way. It being Georgia's first time looking like that, I need to see more before I give them back the #1 spot. Wyoming looks to maintain their hold on to their top G5 spot vs undefeated Air Force. The winner is in the driver's seat for a NY6 Bowl. Louisville makes a big jump from right outside my top 25 to in my top 10 after their dominant win over Notre Dame. They really put the world on notice with that one. We'll see if they can keep up the momentum in what is increasingly looking like a 3-horse race in the ACC of FSU, UNC, and Louisville. Oklahoma vaults up to my #4 spot with their win over Texas, but Texas doesn't fall too far down and is now my highest-ranked one-loss team. A lot of top 25 teams were on byes this week, so that's about it. Welcome to the party James Madison.

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