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throwaway_6786 Ballot for 2024 Week 5

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 24, 2024, 8:59 a.m.

Overall Rationale: We're to the point now where it's all about what these teams have done on the field. The poll will still be wonky for a couple weeks because we've got different numbers of games for each team, but as we get into mid-October (~week 7), it will stabilize.

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns Dominated all competition and Michigan beating USC makes Texas' win over them even better. A home game against a pretty bad Miss St. team and a bye week is followed by the RRS and a massive matchup against Georgia.
2 Tennessee Volunteers A really nice showing by the Volunteers shoots them up all the way to #2. Beating Oklahoma by double digits in their house is something no one ever does and for good reason. Most of the teams that were ahead of them last week and behind them now either were on bye and struggled at some point this season or have a particularly weak schedule and haven't cut their team against serious competition like Tennessee has.
3 Georgia Bulldogs On bye waiting for Bama. Clemson winning and getting ranked as a result helps the Bulldogs get above/stay above OSU/Ole Miss/Alabama.
4 Ohio State Buckeyes The Buckeyes drop simply because they haven't played serious competition yet. The Buckeyes will face a strange MSU team next week, but at this point, OSU is waiting to go to Autzen to face the Ducks.
5 Ole Miss Rebels Same problem as OSU: The Rebels drop a spot despite a dominant win because they haven't played anyone of note yet.
6 Alabama Crimson Tide On bye waiting for Georgia. Miami beating down USF didn't look too great for the Tide, but they can erase any doubts about how good they really are with a win over the Bulldogs.
7 Utah Utes It got a little dicey at the end (note to all coaches everywhere: don't play prevent defense with 6+ minutes left and anything less than a 4 possession lead), but Utah dominated the vast majority of a road game against a ranked opponent and won, which deserves high praise. A lot of the undefeated teams that the Utes are in front of have either struggled or haven't played much of a schedule so far.
8 Oregon Ducks On bye waiting for UCLA. The Boise State and Oregon State wins still look alright, but there likely won't be much more to learn about the Ducks before they invite the Buckeyes to town on 10/12.
9 Penn State Nittany Lions A relatively ho-hum win over possibly the worst FBS team this year. Up next is Luke Altmyer and the Fighting Illini, who should present an interesting challenge to a Penn State team that's still trying to get their defensive front in order. Had WVU lost, Penn State would've been below Miami and possibly Mizzou as well.
10 Miami Hurricanes A nice win over an in-state school, but at this point, the Louisville game seems to be the only game that will tell us much about Miami for a while. Ward and the offense continue to roll over all comers.
11 Missouri Tigers That was way too close. This game felt like that 2022 Mizzou-Auburn game, only Mizzou was on the right side of it this time. It's a noticeable drop for Mizzou, but because BC won and Buffalo upset NIU, the drop is mitigated.
12 Louisville Cardinals They haven't played the toughest schedule, but Louisville has looked the part on the field so far. Now, a matchup with ND and a chance to prove that the Cardinals belong in the top 10.
13 Iowa State Cyclones Iowa State is the big winner of the bye week as several teams in front of them lost. Their fate is tied to Iowa for a while as their schedule over the next couple weeks appears to be fairly light. If they just keep winning, they'll stick around.
14 Illinois Fighting Illini They just missed the rankings last week, but a road win over previously ranked Nebraska combined with a bunch of chaos just above them jumps them way up to #14. We'll see if the Illini can keep up the positive momentum as they play PSU in Happy Valley for the first time since that 9OT debacle.
15 Michigan Wolverines A great win for the Wolverines that shoots them back in the rankings (it also helps that Texas has shown no weaknesses so far). It's worth noting here that Michigan was one play away from losing this game and struggled badly to pass the ball in any meaningful way. Still, it's a win Michigan badly needed to right the ship and keep pace in a tough B1G conference.
16 BYU Cougars Wow. I only saw up to halftime of this game before falling asleep, but seriously, I didn't think BYU had it in them to win this. They didn't just win, they crushed KSU where it counts. I had regarded the Wildcats highly before this game, so BYU putting that beating on them is rather stunning. Combine that with SMU looking pretty good so far and BYU has a decent resume. Look out though, because now the Cougars head to Waco to face a Baylor team that wants to get the terrible taste of that Colorado loss out of their mouth.
17 USC Trojans Tough loss, but the LSU win + other teams below them also losing keeps USC from falling too far. USC will have two games against Wisconsin and @Minnesota to figure things out before facing Penn State.
18 Washington State Cougars The only reason why they don't drop any more than one spot is because they won and other teams around them lost. Still, that wasn't a solid performance at all from Wazzu and they better hope that SJSU turns out to be decent or else this game could be somewhat of a drag on their resume.
19 Oklahoma State Cowboys I'm torn on what to do with them. Was that late 4th-quarter explosion a sign that they had finally figured Utah out and just ran out of time to complete the comeback, or were they just desperate and Utah was playing ultra-conservative defense? I'm not sure, but I'm inclined to go with the latter. The Arkansas win still doesn't look great, but those last couple TDs to make Utah sweat is enough for me to keep the Cowboys around. However, a quality loss won't hold you in these rankings for long, so they've got to figure out how to beat K-State in Manhattan next week to salvage their place in the top 25.
20 Oklahoma Sooners Rough loss, but the Sooners did show some life against Tennessee and managed to keep the Volunteer offense from rampaging the whole game. The offensive woes have been apparent since the Houston game, and that's likely why Oklahoma's going to start Hawkins instead of Arnold for the foreseeable future. If Hawkins can get the offense on the right track, they'll have a chance to beat Texas in the RRS. If not, Oklahoma has a very tough road ahead of them.
21 Boston College Eagles A dicey win overall, but it's still a good sign that the Eagles bounced back and won a close game after dropping a close one to Mizzou. We'll see just how good MSU is as the season wears on, but BC has a month before Louisville comes to Chestnut Hill.
22 Clemson Tigers They looked good beating up on NC State, but what got them into the rankings were a few teams above them losing and dropping out. Their first ACC matchup with Stanford should be an interesting one as the Cardinal doesn't appear to be so bad this year.
23 Indiana Hoosiers Their schedule has been terrible by most every metric, but they have absolutely looked the part of a top 25 team. They'll need to put quality wins on the resume at some point to rise much higher than this. If they can find a way to beat Nebraska in a few weeks, it's possible (unlikely, but possible) that they could be 9-0 when they host the Wolverines in November.
24 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Texas A&M being 3-1 and ND throttling their other competition (besides NIU, obviously) are the only reasons why the NIU loss to Buffalo didn't drag ND completely out of the top 25. ND has a chance this week to avoid falling out when they invite a strong-looking Louisville team to South Bend. ND needs this one to keep their CFP hopes alive.
25 Kansas State Wildcats I went back and forth on K-State and a lot of other teams, but what swayed me was K-State having wins over Tulane and Arizona, which, so far, are better wins than what most teams have had so far this year. Still, K-State is on very thin ice, and with Oklahoma State coming to town, they'll have to bounce back very quickly or else. I considered LSU, Nebraska, Boise State, UNLV, Pitt, UCF, SMU, Iowa, Navy, Duke, and a few others, but none of them were quite good enough.

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