Back to poll results >>

goodnames679 Ballot for 2024 Week 6

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 29, 2024, 10:20 p.m.

Overall Rationale: This is intended to be a clean break from my previous ballots. I consider preseason and the first weeks to be little more than vibe checks, too heavily influenced by poll inertia to be truly representative of where teams should be ranked. I also recognized mistakes in my previous ballot that I wished to correct.

Rank Team Reason
1 Alabama Crimson Tide Best win in the country. No glaring flaws, excellent QB play.
2 Ohio State Buckeyes Probably Ohio State's most complete team in recent history, with what seems to be both a great offense and a great defense. Remains to be seen how they hold up to a true test, however.
3 Texas Longhorns Damn, they're actually back. Their defense is good enough to shut down Michigan's awful offense, but I don't necessarily believe that proves much at this point in time.
4 Tennessee Volunteers A decent win in Oklahoma, and massive blowouts of bad opponents. Very curious to see how this team holds up to high level competition.
5 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia is absolutely loaded to the brim with talent, but injuries have not been kind to their lines and I have questions about whether Beck can lead them to a title. Their schedule is tough enough that they'll have plenty of opportunity to prove themselves, though.
6 Penn State Nittany Lions I don't think Illinois is a bad team, that was a good win for Penn State. Their defense is legit. I have plenty of questions about their offense.
7 BYU Cougars Their win over SMU looks to be a solid one, and a big win over Kansas State is looking pretty dang good right now. If I followed inertia from my ballot last week I'd probably have BYU ten spots lower, but I think at the moment they have a very solid resume with a better signature win than the teams below.
8 Oregon Ducks Their close win over Boise St was previously a bit questionable, since I haven't thought a whole lot of them under Andy Avalos. BSU seems pretty good this season though, so I believe they deserve some credit for a ranked win.
9 Miami Hurricanes A tight game against a middling VT draws questions, given that they haven't had a signature win yet I think 8 is a reasonable place for them. They still have every chance to make it far this season though.
10 Michigan Wolverines Their loss to Texas isn't so bad with how good Texas is, and their win over USC seems to be a pretty decent win. I have trouble believing they can score much of anything against a top 20 defense, though, and that will make it very hard for them to win games against big opponents.
11 Kansas State Wildcats Their win over Arizona looks good this week, and their wins over Oklahoma State and Tulane are decent. They were quickly discredited by many earlier this season after losing to BYU, but that team is looking to be better than expected.
12 Missouri Tigers I remain unconvinced by Mizzou, who don't have a good win and needed OT to beat Vandy.
13 Ole Miss Rebels Brutal loss, but considering Kentucky just nearly did the same thing to Georgia I don't think it's enough to place Ole Miss lower than this.
14 Utah Utes Another tough loss for a top team. It's hard to tell where to put Utah - if Cam Rising finishes out the season, they're a playoff team. If he doesn't, they probably finish ranked around 20.
15 Iowa State Cyclones Their defense seems solid. No exceptional wins so far though.
16 Clemson Tigers They've looked okay, but are nothing to write home about. They have little opportunity to prove themselves as elite the rest of the season, but they have a nonzero shot at sneaking a win in the ACC championship. Till then, they have to remain consistent.
17 Boise State Broncos Winning over a solid WSU team earns them some credit in my eyes, and they did manage to take Oregon down to the wire.
18 Oklahoma Sooners The Tennessee game was nowhere near as close as the score implies. The Tulane win was pretty okay, but they kept it way too close against a bad Auburn and a godawful Houston.
19 Illinois Fighting Illini Losing to Penn State was expected, though that offensive showing was not good. They still have a decent win in Nebraska and their only loss is to a good team.
20 Indiana Hoosiers This Indiana team actually looks to be the most complete one I've seen them field. Look out for them to surprise some folks this season.
21 USC Trojans USC finally got a half decent defense, only for their offense to become wholly unimpressive. The LSU win isn't that great, and the Michigan loss isn't that excusable.
22 Kentucky Wildcats One of the best wins of the season thus far. They're rated poorly by many due to the South Carolina loss, but I actually think South Carolina is a pretty decent team this season.
23 Arizona Wildcats Their win over Utah is a very good one, but their other two wins were by narrower margins than a ranked team should have. Getting smacked up by Kansas State does them few favors.
24 Notre Dame Fighting Irish The worst loss of any ranked team. I initially ranked ND much higher after the Louisville win, but after reviewing Louisville's schedule I'm not sure why I rated them so highly in the first place. Two decent wins and a bad loss gets them ranked, but not much else.
25 Pittsburgh Panthers I debated between a few teams for this spot, but Pitt is undefeated as of now and they have a couple of wins against okayish teams (though they were very very close)

Back to poll results >>