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throwaway_6786 Ballot for 2023 Week 8

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 15, 2023, 12:54 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Same as last week, it's all about the games on the field so far in 2023.

Rank Team Reason
1 Oklahoma Sooners On bye, but no one did anything quite notable enough to take the top spot from the Sooners, so they stay at #1.
2 Washington Huskies The one thing that was holding the Huskies back was their weak schedule so far, but that win over Oregon (close as it was) was the impetus for moving the Huskies all the way up to #2. Arizona's blowout win over Wazzu helped the Huskies as well.
3 Florida State Seminoles The LSU win continues to be one of the best wins out there, but the BC debacle still gives me just enough pause to hold the Seminoles to #3. We'll see how the Seminoles deal with an interesting challenge in the Duke Blue Devils.
4 Michigan Wolverines A slow first quarter followed by three quarters of Wolverine dominance. I feel like there are about three or four Michigan wins so far this year that could be summed up by that single sentence. Michigan drops a couple spots because FSU now has LSU, Clemson, and Syracuse wins and Washington's win over Oregon + Huskies' dominance otherwise allows both Washington and FSU to jump Michigan, who doesn't gain much from beating up on Indiana. I feel I should mention this: The top 4 teams are almost interchangeable given their undefeated records + relative dominance and/or marquee wins.
5 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia looked alright against the Commodores, but South Carolina and Auburn both lost again, which makes their struggles against them look worse. More importantly, Georgia's marquee win over Kentucky took a serious hit with the Wildcats losing at home to Mizzou. Georgia has a bye, then a matchup with a decent Florida team. We'll see if they can take advantage of the time off.
6 Ohio State Buckeyes Their win over Purdue doesn't give much to them and the Maryland win looks less impressive, but the ND win improved, so the only movement for the Buckeyes is dropping one spot to make room for Washington. OSU passed their first challenge with ND, and now comes their second challenge in a home game against Penn State. And speaking of which...
7 Penn State Nittany Lions Penn State did what they were expected to do and crushed UMass. They benefit from Texas's schedule getting weaker and Oregon losing to jump up two spots. The Iowa win looks much better, though the WVU win lost some luster. Now comes their first big challenge: The Buckeyes in Columbus.
8 North Carolina Tar Heels Solid win over a pretty good Miami team (clock management blunders notwithstanding). The Tar Heels haven't had a really rough schedule so far, but outside of the App State game, they've overpowered everyone they've played.
9 Texas Longhorns On bye, but Kansas and Wyoming lost (and Alabama looked really sketchy again against Arkansas), so those wins lose some luster for Texas and as a result, they drop to #9.
10 Oregon State Beavers Another solid win for the Beavers, but their loss looks worse after Wazzu got embarrassed at home by Arizona. Still, having Utah and UCLA as solid wins + losses by Louisville, Oregon, and USC allow for the Beavers to rise up into the top 10 for the first time this year.
11 Oregon Ducks Really tough loss for the Ducks. They were right there the whole way and had a chance to end it on 4th down, but for the 2nd straight year, couldn't finish off the Huskies. Had it not been so close and had Alabama not struggled like they did against Arkansas, Oregon would've dropped to #12, but for now, they stay strong at #11.
12 Alabama Crimson Tide I came away not too impressed with the Tide after a 24-21 win over 2-5 Arkansas at home. Their loss against Texas is still one of the better losses out there and their win over Ole Miss is holding strong, but their struggles against USF, Texas A&M, and Arkansas are holding them back from the top 10. Good news: They have a game against Tennessee next week, and if they win, that will more than likely catapult them into the top 10.
13 Air Force Falcons Air Force got a solid win over Wyoming in a battle of MWC contenders. At this point, their undefeated record is pulling a lot of weight for them, so they'll have to keep up the winning to stay this high.
14 Ole Miss Rebels On bye, but chaos around them + solid wins over Tulane and LSU push the Rebels up to #14. They took a risk playing Tulane OOC on the road, and as long as Tulane remains an AAC powerhouse, that gamble will continue to pay off.
15 Notre Dame Fighting Irish What to make of this team? I don't think it's too bold to say that they're the best two-loss team in the nation, but how should I reconcile ND losing to OSU and Louisville while beating Duke and USC? They almost seem to be two different teams depending on the week. I decided on this spot because of how they shut down a USC offense that looked to be one of the best units in all of CFB.
16 Duke Blue Devils Duke scored a decent win over NC State, the loss to ND doesn't look so bad anymore, and the Clemson win still looks solid, so Duke rises a few spots. However, they now face a huge showdown in Tallahassee against the Seminoles. Good luck, Blue Devils. You're going to need it.
17 James Madison Dukes I've been apprehensive about putting JMU in the rankings because all of their FBS wins were by one score, which is nice, but doesn't really scream "Top 25 team". Well, that dominant win over a solid 4-2 Georgia State team did the trick. No reason at this point to keep the Dukes out of the rankings (bowl eligibility doesn't have an impact on my rankings), so here they are with a perfect record at #17.
18 Utah Utes An ok win over Cal, but their win over UCLA took a solid hit. Still, they have the win over 5-2 Florida, which helps cushion the blow. Now comes a trip to USC for one of the biggest games of the year for the Utes.
19 Louisville Cardinals Wow, that was rough. Losing by 17 to a 2-4 Pitt team is really bad no matter how you slice it, though the ND win looks better. Louisville will have to get back on their horse quick to get back up towards the top 10 with Duke coming to town.
20 LSU Tigers They're still being held back by their two losses, but the win over Mizzou looks better and they scored a good win over Auburn, so they rise a few more spots to #20. A home game against Army and a bye week are followed by a trip to Tuscaloosa, so we'll see what this LSU team is made of on 11/4.
21 Liberty Flames And we've reached our last undefeated team: the Liberty Flames. They got a great win on the road against 5-2 Jax State to propel them into the rankings, but I'm still leery of the Flames due to their struggles against winless Sam Houston and Bowling Green. I'm interested to see what they do against WKU on 10/24.
22 USC Trojans That was really rough from the Trojans. The win against Arizona looks better, but the win over Colorado looks worse. ND had their way with USC pretty much all night and because USC doesn't have any marquee wins to fall back on, they take a huge tumble down 10 spots to #22. They've got to figure things out soon too, because their boogeyman comes to town next week.
23 Tulane Green Wave That was a nice win on the road over a tough Memphis team. Tulane started off great, but took a tough loss against Ole Miss with their starting QB out. Since then, they've won every game and have looked really good doing it.
24 Iowa Hawkeyes Well, it never looks pretty with this team, but they are 6-1 with a nice win on the road against a decent Wisconsin team and their only loss on the road against #7 PSU. Their schedule isn't much to look at from this point on, so they'll have to keep winning to stay ranked and hope that Wisconsin continues to play well.
25 Missouri Tigers They needed a bounceback win after a heartbreaker against LSU and they got exactly that with an important win over Kentucky. Mizzou finds themselves locked with Florida and Tennessee for second in the SEC East behind the big, bad Bulldogs. I considered Tennessee, Fresno State, UNLV, UCLA, Troy, Miami (OH), Florida, Georgia State, Kentucky, Toledo, and a few others for the last few spots, but they all ended up just outside the Top 25.

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