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CriterionCrypt Ballot for 2024 Week 3

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 8, 2024, 1:04 a.m.

Overall Rationale: My overall philosophy puts the eye test over overall record, conference standings, and even head-to-head results at times. Generally speaking, each individual ranking is based on what I think the head to head outcome would be on a neutral field at the time of ranking.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs
2 Ohio State Buckeyes
3 Texas Longhorns Texas would be my #1 team if it wasn't for Georgia and Ohio State handling their business this week. I know they both played garbage teams and Texas played the better team. But at the end of the day, I still think Georgia and Ohio State would beat Texas on a neutral field
4 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss dropped a spot for me. Not because I think they deserved to drop, but because Texas really proved something against Michigan. Ole Miss is still a top notch football team and is still a contender for the SEC Title.
5 Tennessee Volunteers Tennessee is one of the hottest teams in the country right now and they see a huge jump in my poll this week. They went out against NC State, the darkhorse to win the ACC, and just squared off on them. Tennessee could make a run to an SEC Title if they keep it up.
6 Alabama Crimson Tide Bama deserved to drop quite a bit if you ask me. They were being handled by USF until late in the game. The score really doesn't show how bad Bama played for a good portion of the game.
7 Missouri Tigers
8 Miami Hurricanes
9 USC Trojans
10 Penn State Nittany Lions Penn State dropped a bit in my rankings, They really struggled against a pretty bad Bowling Green team. They can't have these kind of weak performances and expect to compete for a B1G title.
11 Oregon Ducks This is two weeks in a row that Oregon played a weaker team down to the wire. Their performance was concerning
12 Utah Utes Utah struggled against Baylor, but they still jumped Oklahoma because Oklahoma played an absolutely abysmal game against a terrible Houston team.
13 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma doesn't deserve to move up a spot. They played terrible football against a bad Houston team. However, when Michigan and Notre Dame both lose pretty badly, OU will move up temporarily. However, if OU doesn't address their offensive problems immediately, they might be out of the rankings with a loss to Tulane.
14 Michigan Wolverines Michigan started the year ranked too high because they won the natty last year. They replaced so many key players and replaced their HC. This year is going to be a struggle at times. I am not surprised Michigan lost, but they can still have a competitive year.
15 Oklahoma State Cowboys Oklahoma State didn't win against Arkansas, Arkansas gave the game away. OSU was a lot like Oklahoma this week. They won because they were playing a team that didn't have the horses, not because they executed a superior game plan.
16 Clemson Tigers
17 LSU Tigers
18 Memphis Tigers Memphis is still my best G5 school, and I am looking forward to the game against FSU to see if this ranking is justified or not.
19 Notre Dame Fighting Irish No offense to NIU, but Notre Dame should be embarrassed. This is one of the worst losses I have seen in a long time.
20 Kansas State Wildcats Kansas State was gifted a stop on a pretty ticky tacky Offensive PI against a fairly comparable team. However, a win against Tulane is respectable and KSU is still in the hunt for the Big XII title game.
21 Nebraska Cornhuskers Nebraska showing Colorado how to play football is a throwback to my youth. Nebraska is in great shape to pull off a ten win season, and if they can do that they might be in the playoffs.
22 Louisville Cardinals
23 Boston College Eagles I still don't know quite where to rank BC. Their premier victory doesn't look so hot since FSU lost to GT too. However, they did take care of business against a severely overmatched Duquesne squad and until BC loses, they will stay ranked.
24 Syracuse Orange Syracuse was my dark horse to make the playoffs this year. They legitimately do not play a tough team until the very last game of the season where they drew Miami at home. They avoid FSU, they avoid Clemson...Going 11-1 is a real possibility. And if they enter the Miami game 11-0, they might walk out with an undefeated regular season. I mean, Cristobal isn't exactly known for elite coaching at times. However, with all of that being said, their #24 ranking is justified at this point. You beat #23 GT and you beat an Ohio squad that won 10 games last year, you get a spot in the polls in my book.
25 Northern Illinois Huskies What can I say about NIU that hasn't been said by people smarter than I am? You go into South Bend, you beat a top 5 team in Notre Dame and you get your bag for going in the first place...Congrats on the great week.

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