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70stang Ballot for 2024 Week 2

Ballot Type: Hybrid

Submitted: Sept. 3, 2024, 12:50 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Welcome back to the Report Card Poll for my first entry of 2024! The key tenet of this poll is that pre-season polls are bullshit, and poll inertia is extremely bullshit. I endeavor to eliminate as much poll inertia as possible, which is why I didn't release a poll for the Preseason or Week 0; There just isn't enough information to make any assumptions. This poll is entirely resume based. It is not intended to be predictive in any way. A team ranked 5th is not necessarily expected to beat a team ranked 20th. It does not take into account preseason rankings, team talent, returning production, recruiting, results from last season, or any advanced stats. We're here to generate a Report Card. What have you accomplished on the field so far this season? That's the only question that matters, and it is largely determined algorithmically against some very objective measurements. This is a hybrid poll, and there is a human element. The algorithm does 99% of the work though: Pure win/loss percentage is the first element. Then, we consider who the team has beaten or lost to; P5 opponents, G5 opponents, and FCS opponents. A 3-0 team with wins over 2 P5 and 1 G5 will be ranked higher than a 3-0 team with wins over 1 P5, 1 G5 and 1 FCS, for example. Similarly, losing to a G5 is worse than losing to a P5, etc. Lastly, we consider where the game was played. Home, neutral site, or away. Winning at home is less impressive than winning away, and losing at home is worse than losing away. Once all of these factors have been considered, the human element will come into play if there are teams who are otherwise equal. Things like strength of schedule and convincing wins can be a factor here. This would be entirely a computer poll, except for the rare occasions when it truly makes sense for a human to weigh in. Speaking of rankings, I don't consider them as a weighted element in my poll until week 6-7ish. This is done to eliminate poll inertia, and also bias. Once they are considered, I'll include a much more thorough rundown of how I weight them and how recalculation works. Wazzu, Oregon State, and Notre Dame are all considered P5. For the first few weeks, this poll will be silly. Any clean sheet, non-predictive poll SHOULD be. Bear with me, because it gets interesting and more effective the further into the season we get. I'm excited to tackle the 12 team playoff; it's arguably the most relevant my poll will ever have been.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Tier 1 - 2-0 Teams There is only one team in the FBS who is 2-0 with a win over a P5 opponent, and that team is the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets, with a win in Dublin over FSU, and a win in Atlanta over G5 Georgia State.
2 SMU Mustangs SMU is 2-0, with 1 G5 win and 1 FCS win.
3 Penn State Nittany Lions Tier 2 - 1-0 Teams with an away win against a P5 opponent Penn State won away against WVU.
4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish ND won away against Texas A&M
5 Miami Hurricanes Miami won away against Florida
6 North Carolina Tar Heels UNC won away against Minnesota
7 UNLV Rebels UNLV won away against Houston
8 TCU Horned Frogs TCU won away against Stanford
9 Boston College Eagles BC won away against FSU, who hilariously would be second to last of every FBS team if I ranked all of them.
10 Georgia Bulldogs Tier 3 - 1-0 Teams with a P5 win either at home or a neutral site Neutral site wins are taking the edge over home wins here, which is why Vandy is last in this category. UGA won a neutral site game against Clemson.
11 USC Trojans USC won a neutral site game against LSU.
12 Vanderbilt Commodores Vanderbilt won a home game against VT.
13 James Madison Dukes Tier 4 - 1-0 Teams with a G5 win away Most P5 teams played a G5 or FCS team this week, but almost none of those P5 teams played @ the G5, so this tier is largely G5 teams.
14 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 1 G5 away win
15 North Texas Mean Green 1 G5 away win
16 UCLA Bruins 1 G5 away win
17 Boise State Broncos 1 G5 away win
18 Eastern Michigan Eagles 1 G5 away win
19 Sam Houston Bearkats 1 G5 away win
20 Alabama Crimson Tide Tier 5 - 1-0 teams with 1 G5 home win Now we get to the names many of you expect to see in a top 25 ranking. These last 6 teams ended up being the 6 teams that most thoroughly dominated a G5 opponent in a home game. 1 G5 home win
21 Texas Longhorns 1 G5 home win
22 Oklahoma Sooners 1 G5 home win
23 Ohio State Buckeyes 1 G5 home win
24 Maryland Terrapins 1 G5 home win
25 Arizona State Sun Devils 1 G5 home win

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