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Due_Connection179 Ballot for 2024 Week 7

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 6, 2024, 2:29 a.m.

Overall Rationale: I watch games all day Saturday then for the games I don't watch I go through the games play-by-play (plus read articles; listen to podcasts) to see what happened instead of just looking at the box score. Every 4 weeks I also do a "reset of my polls to make sure I'm looking at everything from film to SOS to key wins. For my preseason poll, it will be a combination of players/coaches returning + incoming players (recruiting class + transfer portal). I basically reset my poll this week with how crazy it is. If you think something looks weird, it's probably because it is, but we still have 9 weeks to figure it out.

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns Last Week #1 / Bye Week
2 Ohio State Buckeyes Last Week #3 vs Iowa / Won 35 - 7 / After struggling in the first half, Ohio State laid on 28 straight pts for an easy win over one of the worst offenses in CFB.
3 Oregon Ducks Last Week #6 vs Michigan State / Won 31 - 10 / My preseason pick to win the Championship is back in the top 3.
4 Miami Hurricanes Last Week #5 at California / Won 39 - 38 / Why do I have us ranked above Penn State/Alabama/Georgia/Clemson? Penn State has a one score win at home against Bowling Green. Alabama just lost on the road to Vanderbilt (wire-to-wire). Georgia looked like a questionable top 25 team for 3 quarters vs Alabama in their loss. Clemson was blown out by Georgia. Not a great explanation, I know, but right now they are all top 8 teams (imo) and will get sorted out in the next two months.
5 Penn State Nittany Lions Last Week #7 vs UCLA / Won 27 - 11 / I feel like this team is more "I'm winning with defense and tough offense" like we have seen the last 3 games (not counting Kent State obviously) instead of the team that looked locked in offensively vs West Virginia. I love ugly football, so hopefully they keep winning using it.
6 Alabama Crimson Tide Last Week #2 at Vanderbilt / Lost 35 - 40 / I wanted to put the Tide lower than this because Vanderbilt won wire-to-wire and looked like the better team for 80% of the drives, but I'm not going to overreact too much and put them under a Georgia team they just beat.
7 Georgia Bulldogs Last Week #9 vs Auburn / Won 31 - 13 / Went as expected.
8 Clemson Tigers Last Week #13 at Florida State / Won 29 - 13 / Went as expected.
9 BYU Cougars Last Week #14 / Bye Week
10 Indiana Hoosiers Last Week #16 at Northwestern / Won 41 - 24 / This game was closer for most of the game than just about anyone expected, but I never thought there was ever a moment when Indiana would actually lose.
11 Iowa State Cyclones Last Week #15 vs Baylor / Won 43 - 21 / I basically have Indiana & Iowa State ranked the exact same, so while they are both undefeated I will probably keep flip-flopping them.
12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Last Week #18 / Bye Week / Benefited a lot from this bye week. A bunch of teams lost in front of them, and Texas A&M had a huge win over Missouri.
13 Texas A&M Aggies Last Week NR vs #8 Missouri / Won 41 - 10 / Easily the biggest jump I have ever had in a single week since making these polls (besides like week 1 stuff). Huge win over Missouri to add to a now pretty good to good win vs Arkansas.
14 Kansas State Wildcats Last Week #17 / Bye Week
15 Ole Miss Rebels Last Week #19 at South Carolina / Won 27 - 3 / Nice bounce back win for Ole Miss, but apparently they will have to deal with "Kiffin to Florida" rumors the rest of the season.
16 Tennessee Volunteers Last Week #4 at Arkansas / Lost 14 - 19 / 2nd straight game the offense struggled mightily. Tennessee went from averaging 63.7 PPG in the first three games to averaging 19.5 PPG in the last two games. 1-loss (or even 2 really) doesn't completely knock you out of the CFP anymore, but something in this Tennessee offense needs to be fixed, and luckily they have Florida next week to fix it against.
17 Boise State Broncos Last Week #23 vs Utah State / Won 62 - 30 / Ashton Jeanty is the best player in CFB right now and it's honestly like watching those old Barry Sanders at Oklahoma State highlights on YouTube. He's must watch TV for anyone who hasn't watched a Boise State game this season.
18 Oklahoma Sooners Last Week #20 / Bye Week
19 SMU Mustangs Last Week NR at Louisville / Won 34 - 27 / I didn't rank Louisville last week because I thought SMU would beat them this week, and the Mustangs did not disappoint. Honestly a little closer than I thought, but now SMU gets a bye week before to road games on both coasts of the country (at Stanford then at Duke).
20 LSU Tigers Last Week #12 / Bye Week / This is easily the most I have dropped a team when they didn't lose a game. I basically went back through their game film after USC lost again, and I found a few red flags that made me think I was too high on them. Basically I don't think their defense could stop Jeanty nor SMU, and I don't think their offense can score (enough) on Oklahoma's defense.
21 Navy Midshipmen Last Week #21 at Air Force / Won 34 - 7 / I absolutely love that both Army & Navy are coming out swinging vs everybody this season.
22 Army West Point Last Week #25 at Tulsa / Won 49 - 7 / (See Navy)
23 Pittsburgh Panthers Last Week NR at UNC / Won 34 - 24 / I've been wanting to give Pitt some love for a couple weeks now, but their best wins by 1-pt over Cincinnati and 4-pt over West Virginia has made it tough. I would really love to for both Miami & Pitt to run the table and meet in the ACC Championship Game, but I won't get to ahead of myself before they face Clemson.
24 Illinois Fighting Illini Last Week NR / Bye Week
25 Nebraska Cornhuskers Last Week NR vs Rutgers / Won 14 - 7 / I love that more Big Ten teams are embracing late 90s / early 00s Big Ten football again. My next five that just missed: #26 Utah / #27 Texas Tech / #28 Missouri / #29 Rutgers / #30 Virginia.

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