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Mynameisdiehard Ballot for 2024 Week 4

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 16, 2024, 4:17 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Record > SOS > Eye test

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns I has Texas as #1 last week and am even more convinced this week with Georgia's stumble. They look dominate
2 Georgia Bulldogs Close game to an unranked conference opponent causes slight drop
3 Ohio State Buckeyes Don't expect Ohio State to have much changes due to their own performances until the heart of the conference schedule. First ranked matchup is not for almost a month out.
4 Alabama Crimson Tide Looking like the dominate Alabama we expect. Dominant win over a P4 team, but I have not expected Wisconsin to perform well this year. A bye week before the massive meetup with Georgia which will definitely shake up this Top 5. They play almost every top ranked team in the SEC this year (beside Texas & Ole Miss) so if anyone can earn their spot up top it's Alabama.
5 Tennessee Volunteers I still feel like the win against NC State was really good. Expect NCST to be in the mix for the ACC title. Huge matchup for Tennessee this week against what I believe to be an ove ranked Oklahoma. Will be watching close to dissect the results.
6 USC Trojans One of 4 teams with a win over a current T25 ranked opponent. Highest ranked opponent defeated beside Texas over Michigan. USC has that same matchup with Michigan this week which I will be watching closely, although I think by the end of the season a Michigan win will not feel as strong as it does now.
7 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss took care of business. Like Ohio State, I expect them to do so until we see them get to the real meat of their SEC schedule.
8 Missouri Tigers Next 3 + Mizzou are very tight group to me. Quality win over a T25 hover team in BC give Mizzou the edge to be the top of this group.
9 Oregon Ducks Boise St win looks stronger now that they are a T30 team
10 Penn State Nittany Lions Bye week and still got jumped by 2 teams in my own rankings. I think those other 3 teams made themselves look stronger. Time will tell with Penn St whether they are a contender or pretender.
11 Miami Hurricanes Believe they are a strong team, but other teams have stronger results. One quality win over Florida is looking worse and worse by the week.
12 Utah Utes Did swap with Miami contrary to above reasoning due to eye test with Miami. A win over OSU this week would most likely bring a bump
13 Kansas State Wildcats Swapped with OSU due to strong win over T30ish team in Arizona
14 Oklahoma State Cowboys Look solid so far this season but need to see the results of these next 2 week. Between Utah, K St, & OSU, I expect one team to rise above the others.
15 Oklahoma Sooners Have struggles this year. Firs major test of the season this week will really start to solidify where I think they truly belong.
16 Michigan Wolverines I do not believe Michigan is a strong team, but I am provisionally respecting that their only loss is to the number one team. A loss to USC this week would almost assuredly drop them from the Top 25 this week, depending on the closeness of the result. Will be watching this game closely.
17 LSU Tigers Debated moving LSU down, but due to the lack of many changes in the bottom half of the T25 have decided to leave them put. I believe the same this year as last, that LSU is a talented team that is is not able to get over the hump of winning quality games. They look good against good teams but cannot win. Although they pulled the win against USC this week, I personally feel it as a loss due to the fact USC had the game put away if not for a bad decision on one play. With the fact they do not have another ranked matchup for a month, I expect they might slip down the rankings while those around them shore up their resumes. LSU feels like a team that needs to prove it for me rather than be given the benefit of the doubt.
18 Notre Dame Fighting Irish NIU loss was tough, but with them in the T25 now not a hard loss. TAMU win still looks good with many polls showing them in the T25.
19 Iowa State Cyclones Iowa St and Nebraska very similar to me. Basically matching the strength of a win over Iowa vs a strength of a win over Colorado. I believe Iowa is definitely better, along with the away win gives Iowa St the nod this week.
20 Nebraska Cornhuskers See above for rationale. Nebraska looks strong. A win against Illinois this week will almost definitely see them rise in my rankings to near the Top 15 over any 1 loss teams as the switch over to true contender status.
21 Northern Illinois Huskies A win against ND is still strong and wanted to correct some rationale around my placement of Louisville & Clemson last week. Wins over ranked opponents should be rated heavier than other wins.
22 Illinois Fighting Illini Although the win against Kansas does not look as good, it is a win over a P4 opponent that the 2 below do not have. This one will take care of itself with a ranked matchup this week against Nebraska, they can rise or fall out depending on the result.
23 Louisville Cardinals I do not have Louisville as high as others. They only have 2 games played, 1 against a current FCS team and one against a team in only their second season as an FBS team. I will give them the respect of their talent, but since they have not played a P4 team as of yet, I cannot rate them high based on other's success vs other P5 teams. They will have a good chance to pad their resume as they enter conference play this week and a matchup against ND next week, giving us a good benchmarker to rate against their peers.
24 Clemson Tigers Clemson is like LSU for me. They need to prove it to earn the spot. I still debate even having them in the Top 25 and was very close to leaving them out. Other's do favor them so I will keep them in for now, but with the incredibly easy schedule they have this year, if they fail to impress this week against NC State I may end up dropping them out of the T25. Need to start showing they can actually dominate this schedule.
25 UNLV Rebels Strong win against Houston who took Oklahoma to the wire. Solid win against Kansas as well. 2 wins against P4 opponents does not go unappreciated by me.

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