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Muffinnnnnnn Ballot for 2023 Week 12

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Nov. 14, 2023, 12:39 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Wins and losses matter most. If you have the same record as a team and you beat them, you should be ranked ahead of them (where possible, of course). A huge shakeup in the rankings this week as several teams made big statements and several teams fell in upsets. My top 5 got shuffled a bit, with Washington and Georgia both passing Ohio State, and Washington going up all the way from #5 to #2. Washington's résumé has gotten too good to ignore, and some of their questionably close wins are seeming a bit better now (namely, Arizona). The top 5 is a whole lot of things being compared ,like who you've beaten, how you've looked doing it, how often do you have close calls, etc. Really, it doesn't matter a whole lot right now since there are definitely some statements to be made, and probably, an upset lurking for at least one of the top 5. Air Force and Fresno State both choked horribly vs bad teams and left the rankings, leaving room for Toledo and North Carolina to join the party. Also leaving while on a bye was Notre Dame, as Arizona's body of work finally got good enough to vault into the rankings (despite the shaky game last week). Liberty beat Old Dominion 38-10, and that is quite significant in my opinion. You may look at their record and think they're a pushover, and they may not be some great team, but they have lost numerous one-score games, including vs James Madison. No one else, including multiple P5 teams, have beaten ODU like that, and for that, Liberty gets a boost up in the James Madison territory. A lot of wins and losses shifted teams all around the top 25. Ole Miss took a spill from #10 to #16, their wins over LSU and Tulane still propping them up. Speaking of Tulane, another week, another almost disaster against an awful team for them. They keep winning so you can't hate it too much, but sooner or later playing like this is gonna catch up to you (or maybe it won't and they'll just be TCU from last year). I didn't punish Utah at all for their close loss to Washington, and in fact ended up moving up a few spots due to movement around them. I really thought I'd unrank Oklahoma State this week after their pitiful performance vs UCF, but they've still beaten Oklahoma, Kansas State, and Kansas, so how do you justify shoving them aside? They have too many good wins to unrank them, despite playing awful last week. Dropping 8 spots at this stage in the season is pretty significant anyway. Sorry if this feels a bit haphazard and/or rushed, I wrote this kinda quickly. I'll be sure to answer any questions or clarifications when it gets published!

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