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_TGT7 Ballot for 2023 Week 9

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 22, 2023, 10:42 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Not a ton of upsets happened this week, so thankfully I only ended up having to drop one team, comments/reasons will be given for teams that had top-25 matches last week, and for teams that move up or down 3 or more spots, Dropped: #20 Iowa: I’m a Nebraska fan and really hate Iowa, but the fact they won’t fire brian ferentz is infuriating, and is a complete waste of tax dollars. Nebraska vs Iowa might have a O/U under 30

Rank Team Reason
1 Michigan Wolverines
2 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State’s offense didn’t do much, but Penn State’s offense did less, and Ohio State managed to get a huge top 10 win against them. I still think Ohio State gets crushed by Michigan, but Ohio State also has a much better resume so far, and I’ve been wrong all season
3 Georgia Bulldogs
4 Florida State Seminoles +4 Florida State’s win against Duke wasn’t super special, but they beat a ranked team by two possessions while Washington, Oklahoma and Texas looked bad and Penn State lost. I believe Florida State has fixed the early season issues, and is one of the best teams in the country, even if I had them ranked lower than most
5 Washington Huskies -1
6 Penn State Nittany Lions -1 Penn State’s offense looked dreadful against a admittedly pretty good OSU defense, While I would never consider firing a coach of James Franklin’s caliber, It has to be frustrating to be the almost team each year in college football
7 Oklahoma Sooners -1
8 Texas Longhorns -1
9 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama gets a nice win over Tennessee, even if they were questionable for the first two quarters. Their game against LSU will be crucial if this wants any chance at the SEC championship and college football playoff.
10 Oregon State Beavers +1
11 Utah Utes +2, Utah wins against USC on a last second field goal, Utah has to be one of the consistently strongest teams in the PAC-12. Teams true potential still depends on when/if Cam Rising comes back this season.
12 Oregon Ducks
13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish +1
14 Ole Miss Rebels +1
15 LSU Tigers +1
16 Air Force Falcons +3, Air Force didn’t do anything special this week, and I only moved them up due to other teams in this area losing. Still believe this team (not including liberty), has the best chance to go undefeated.
17 Missouri Tigers +5, Missouri got a decent win over South Carolina, but also moves up five spots due to other teams around these rankings losing. They might be the biggest test for Georgia this season, and could enter the top 10 if they win that game.
18 Louisville Cardinals +5, Louisville didn’t even play this week, I’ll be interested to see how they do vs Duke.
19 Tulane Green Wave +5, Tulane didn’t win pretty vs North Texas, but a lot of those North Texas points occurred after Tulane had taken a sizable lead, so I’m not going to punish them for that. Hardest opponent left for Tulane is UTSA, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them move up the rankings.
20 North Carolina Tar Heels -10, Horrible loss to Virginia, in a game I believed the spread was free money, and where I believed Virginia was the worst Power 5 fbs team and would go 0-12, only possibility I can think of is that North Carolina completely overlooked Virginia, Drake Maye wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t awful outside of the final drive, and even a bad performance by him should still be a three or four possession win
21 USC Trojans -4, Reverse Iowa lost a game to Utah on a last second field goal, and actually did better than I expected against Utah. USC doesn’t have any “free wins” left, and will probably finish 8-4, not much better than clay helton, letting Utah score 34 is also unacceptable.
22 Duke Blue Devils -4, Duke kept it close against Florida State, but ultimately Florida State ended up winning comfortably, nothing wrong with losing against Florida State, but it does sting because I would be suprisee if Mike Elko remains at Duke. The Duke vs Louisville game should be fun
23 James Madison Dukes +2
24 Florida Gators NEW, was debating between adding teams such as Toledo, UCLA, or Miami in this spot, but Florida having a better win than any of those teams, and no complete wtf losses like Miami, gets them into my poll for the first time this season. I expect a competitive game against Georgia because Florida is competitive with everyone this season, in ways good and bad.
25 Tennessee Volunteers -4, A good start against Alabama fizzles into a loss. I was considering dropping them out of the rankings, but decided against it because I’m trying to punish teams less for having actual teams on their schedule. Still a good year for Tennessee so far, but I hsve to wonder if Josh Heupel got lucky last year, and a 7-5 or 8-4 Tennessee is closer to the norm.

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