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tisofold Ballot for 2023 Week 8

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 15, 2023, 11:46 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Who I think would win head to head + best wins overall + balancing existing wins with hypotheticals + how teams look in losses

Rank Team Reason
1 Michigan Wolverines Haven't had any questions all season. Have always looked in control. Somewhat weak schedule but utterly dominated all games of that weak schedule which not all teams can say. Look excellent right now.
2 Washington Huskies Have one of the best wins in college football against Oregon, offense is obviously superb and defense surprised me with its performance on top of that. Decent strength of schedule.
3 Oklahoma Sooners Also have one of the best wins in college football against Texas, look very solid in the trenches, and looked very strong in non-RRS games as well.
4 Georgia Bulldogs This team has flickers of greatness and can look like the obvious #1 some weeks, like against Kentucky, but they've also had some close games you wouldn't expect. Only beating Vanderbilt by 17? Auburn by 7? South Carolina by 10? This team has the bones of a playoff contender but there's clearly still some rust to shake off.
5 Ohio State Buckeyes Good wins, very strong team.
6 Florida State Seminoles Several strong wins, have looked dominant in some games, but also barely scraped by Boston College.
7 Penn State Nittany Lions Somewhat weak schedule, but have done very well against it. Some questionable quarters of football but many more dominant quarters.
8 Oregon Ducks Weak schedule, but put up an absolute FIGHT against a very very strong Washington team. Very strong offense and, surprisingly, defense.
9 Texas Longhorns Still have a great win over Alabama, decent schedule, only loss being to a strong Oklahoma team.
10 Alabama Crimson Tide Good SEC wins, still coached by Saban, still looking like championship contenders although quite not as dominant as they perhaps should be.
11 Oregon State Beavers After a few weeks the Beavers look like the best team of the "Pac-12 Gauntlet" mid-level. Great wins over Utah and UCLA, very tough schedule.
12 North Carolina Tar Heels Undefeated team. Don't think they're top-10 level but lesser teams would have dropped one by now.
13 Ole Miss Rebels Classic strong SEC team with one loss but other strong wins. Watch this space.
14 Utah Utes Second best of the Pac-12 Gauntlet. Good OOC wins and nice slugfest victory over UCLA. Very likely to still be a spoiler for the Pac-12's playoff hopes.
15 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Absolutely brutal schedule this year, came out of a tough 4 week stretch with 2 solid wins and 2 respectable losses. Best of the 2-loss teams by far.
16 Tennessee Volunteers Good wins against everybody except Florida.
17 LSU Tigers Good wins, understandable losses, hard to rank fairly. Lots of teams in this area are somewhat interchangeable. LSU is starting to look stronger.
18 Duke Blue Devils Good wins, one loss to a good Notre Dame team, somewhat weak SOS.
19 Louisville Cardinals The highs and the lows of college football. Weak SOS except for Notre Dame, who they crushed. But a loss to Pitt really hurts.
20 USC Trojans This team was never as good as their ranking implied with a Riley & Grinch defense. They will not stop at losing one game. The offense is superb, so they're still on this list - any team led by Caleb Williams should be - but defense wins championships, and USC doesn't have one.
21 Missouri Tigers One loss to a good LSU, good wins over the rest of the schedule. Similar to Duke but don't look quite as sharp.
22 Iowa Hawkeyes This team is 6-1. It is entirely possible they go 11-1. This sickens and disgusts me.
23 Arizona Wildcats Absolutely crushing Washington State? Taking USC to the wire? Keeping an extremely powerful Washington within 1 score? This team is far better than their record. Watch out, Pac-12, there's a new team in the gauntlet.
24 Air Force Falcons Best team in the G5. Great win over Wyoming. Only beat Sam Houston State by 10... but a win is a win. Likely to make a serious run at the NY6.
25 James Madison Dukes The fact that this team can't go bowling is a crime. Scraped by in the early season but they have found their footing now. If not for their postseason ineligibility, they would be right there in the fight for the G5's NY6 representation.

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