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_TGT7 Ballot for 2023 Week 8

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 15, 2023, 12:11 a.m.

Overall Rationale: To keep things simpler this week, I won’t give comments about teams that I moved up or down less than 3 spots, with the exception of ranked vs ranked matchups, I’ll give reasons why I dropped teams here: LW 19: Washington State - Arizona isn’t bad, but losing by 38 to them is, I’m very disappointed in them LW 22: UCLA - looked better than Wazzu, and Oregon State is a much more respectable win, but UCLA’s one good win now looks worse, and they don’t have any other non-garbage wins. LW 23: Wisconsin - Lost to Iowa who had 37 passing yards, really guys? LW 24: Wyoming - good team that lost a close game to Air Force, probably gets ranked here soon LW 25: Maryland - Illinois is awful, Maryland had no business losing

Rank Team Reason
1 Michigan Wolverines
2 Ohio State Buckeyes +1
3 Georgia Bulldogs -1
4 Washington Huskies +1, A massive win over Oregon puts Washington in the playoff conversation, Washington has a tough schedule ahead, but except for Oregon State, nobody harder than Oregon. If I had to give any criticism, it would be that their defense hasn’t been quite as good the last few games, but against tough teams, that is expected. Penix for Heisman
5 Penn State Nittany Lions -1,
6 Oklahoma Sooners
7 Texas Longhorns +2
8 Florida State Seminoles +3: Florida State got a nice win against Syracuse, and Virginia Tech might have a pulse this season, while I don’t believe Florida State is the top 5 juggernaut most people make them out to be, looking closer at them my ranking of them at #11 was unfair. Their match against Duke should be interesting and give us a clearer picture of the Seminoles
9 Alabama Crimson Tide +1
10 North Carolina Tar Heels +2
11 Oregon State Beavers +2, Oregon State got a nice win over LW ranked UCLA, If they can have more consistency on both sides of the ball, they would have a higher ceiling. Very good team, but they need to prepare against Arizona to not receive the same fate as their Pac-2 brothers
12 Oregon Ducks -4, Sometimes fate just doesn’t go your way, moving down Oregon four spots might be harsh, but Oregon State, North Carolina got big wins, Alabama looked questionable but didn’t lose, and Florida State obliterated their opponent. We’ll see how Oregon looks vs Wazzu, and hopefully they don’t get discouraged
13 Utah Utes +1
14 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame gets a dominating win against USC, which I didn’t expect, but isn’t surprising. Now that Notre Dame is done with their Gauntlet, they get to go into the bye week to get some much needed rest. Lots would need to happen for this team to make the cfp, however.
15 Ole Miss Rebels +1
16 LSU Tigers +1
17 USC Trojans -10, Caleb Williams plays like absolute trash, USC’s defense looks awful against a not good Notre Dame Offense, and USC falls flat in their first test of the season. I had USC much higher than most, assuming their offense would still be very good, but 7-5 for USC isn’t out of the picture if they look like this against good defensive teams. I think Williams will return to form after this, but he needs to perform for this team to be considered a Top 25 team.
18 Duke Blue Devils +1
19 Air Force Falcons +1, Air Force won a close game against Wyoming, only teams they have remaining on the schedule with a pulse are UNLV and Boise State, and I believe Air Force is significantly better than those teams, barring a catastrophe, Air Force should be 10-0 going into the game against UNLV, and could be a frontrunner for the G5 bowl game spot.
20 Iowa Hawkeyes NEW, I don’t have any trust in Iowa, I feel like they are absolute crap, but they did get a 15-6 win against a good Wisconsin team, and Iowa State is looking better as the season progresses. Iowa’s defense is elite, and that is the only reason they aren’t like 1-6, there is a nonzero chance that Iowa goes 12-2 and ends up firing Brian Ferentz, and I am very interested in that reality.
21 Tennessee Volunteers NEW, I refrained from ranking Tennessee for a while, but as other teams keep on losing, I decided to put them back in the rankings, While I still don’t believe Florida is very good, Tennessee has been looking better each week, and got a nice win against a tough Texas A&M team, don’t think they beat Alabama this season, but I’ve been wrong on a lot of things this season
22 Missouri Tigers NEW, Missouri bounces back from a LSU loss with a convincing win at Kentucky, making themselves one of the earliest bowl-eligible teams in the country, Missouri seems to have broken through from last season where they were almost always competitive, but didn’t win a ton, and they have a pretty good offense. Next few games will determine whether they are the same old tigers or if Drinkwitz has something brewing
23 Louisville Cardinals -8, Unranking Louisville would be harsh, but if someone did after a convincing loss to a absolutely god-awful Pitt team, I wouldn’t blame them, only rationale I can think of is that they overlooked Pitt, and were looking at how to beat Duke in 2 weeks. Will be interesting to see how they regroup during the Duke game.
24 Tulane Green Wave NEW, Tulane started off ranked in the AP preseason poll and then fell off the map after a loss to Ole Miss, a win against a good Memphis squad gets them back into the top 25 in my eyes, even if it hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing (but last season for them wasn’t), Tulane’s schedule is pretty light, but this season has shown us that you don’t overlook anybody
25 James Madison Dukes NEW, James Madison got the convincing win over a good team that they were missing with a 41-13 destruction of Georgia Southern, while I find James Madison to be a sketchy team with how close all their games have been, their schedule isn’t a complete joke like Liberty’s, and they haven’t lost. I think it is sad that this team will have no chance of competing in the sun belt title or in a bowl game, and I hope that they can still be good next season.

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