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Due_Connection179 Ballot for 2024 Week 8

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 13, 2024, 11:44 p.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). This season continues to be crazy. I'm going to start giving the undefeated power teams a little separation because of the craziness of this season.

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns Last Week #1 vs #18 Oklahoma / Won 34 - 3 / Texas has been completely dominant this season and are really the only team that has not been tested late in game this season.
2 Oregon Ducks Last Week #3 vs #2 Ohio State / Won 32 - 31 / One of the best regular season games I have seen in recent memory. Oregon is now on the fast-track for the B1G Championship.
3 Miami Hurricanes Last Week #4 / Bye Week
4 BYU Cougars Last Week #9 vs Arizona / Won 41 - 19 / BYU continues to dominate the Big 12. I have jumped BYU over Penn State (and the other 1-loss schools) because I feel we are at the point in the season where I can start putting the top 4 (projected) conference champions as my top 4 to mimic the CFP format.
5 Penn State Nittany Lions Last Week #5 at USC / Won 33 - 30 (OT) / Penn State (on the back of another USC B1G collapse) snuck out the win this week. I'm not penalizing them for a close win or anything (obviously because I still have Miami at #3), but (like I said in my BYU point) I'm just trying to make my rankings look closer to the CFP format moving forward.
6 Indiana Hoosiers Last Week #10 / Bye Week
7 Iowa State Cyclones Last Week #11 at West Virginia / Won 28 - 16 / I was pretty clueless as to why "analysts" have been hyping up Iowa State's wins over Iowa & West Virginia as better than BYU's over Arizona, Kansas State, and SMU. I respect what the Cyclones have done this season, but I truly believe that they would need to play better to win the Big 12 over either BYU or Kansas State.
8 Pittsburgh Panthers Last Week #23 vs Cal / Won 17 - 15 / Pitt is my lowest ranked undefeated P4 team. I truly believe they will finish the season 3 - 3 as they probably have the hardest remaining schedule in the ACC (at home vs #18 SMU, on the road at #12 Clemson, then four games vs teams with 4 - 2 records currently).
9 Ohio State Buckeyes Last Week #2 at #3 Oregon / Lost 31 - 32 / I really did not want to drop either team that lost in this game, but don't worry Buckeye fans, you are clearly the best 1-loss team in CFB right now and (as long as you take care of Penn State in a couple weeks) you guys will rise back to the top 5 as the ACC/Big 12 schools take each other out.
10 Alabama Crimson Tide Last Week #6 vs South Carolina / Won 27 - 25 / I don't understand what is wrong with Alabama right now. I have them as the 2nd-best 1-loss team because of the head-to-head win over Georgia, but they are pushing it right now.
11 Georgia Bulldogs Last Week #11 vs Mississippi State / Won 41 - 31 / Another top-tier SEC team struggling against literally the bottom of the conference. It's starting to look like some of the dysfunction from the off-the-field stuff is starting to effect the on-the-field product, but we will see this week if they can focus on Texas for 4 quarters or not.
12 Clemson Tigers Last Week #8 at Wake Forest / Won 49 - 14 / Went as expected.
13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Last Week #12 vs Stanford / Won 49 - 7 / Went as expected.
14 Texas A&M Aggies Last Week #13 / Bye Week
15 Kansas State Wildcats Last Week #14 at Colorado / Won 31 - 28 / A surprising back-and-forth game that Kansas State just kept answering Colorado's scores. I thought in the 3rd that Kansas State would just start pulling away, but it will be something to watch moving forward if they can actually put these mid Big 12 teams to bed on the road.
16 LSU Tigers Last Week #20 vs #15 Ole Miss / Won 29 - 26 / Amazing comeback win over Ole Miss (who now drop faster than their defensive players after giving up a 1st down).
17 Tennessee Volunteers Last Week #16 vs Florida / Won 23 - 17 (OT) / Another disappointing game from Tennessee. I didn't have them drop past SMU because right now I think Tennessee is still more talented, but they are pushing it.
18 SMU Mustangs Last Week #19 / Bye Week
19 Boise State Broncos Last Week #17 at Hawaii / Won 28 - 7 / It looked very sketchy for Boise State up until the last 5 or so minutes of the 4th quarter. Maybe they partied a little bit in Hawaii the night before the game because the whole offense just looked slow for this game.
20 Navy Midshipmen Last Week #21 / Bye Week
21 Army West Point Last Week #22 vs UAB / Won 44 - 10 / Another dominating performance. The Army vs Navy back-to-back American Championship then Army-Navy Game continues to grow in hype with each win these two get.
22 Illinois Fighting Illini Last Week #24 vs Purdue / Won 50 - 49 (OT) / Almost an incredible collapse that Illinois saved in OT. Very happy that I can continue to have them ranked in my polls.
23 Nebraska Cornhuskers Last Week #25 / Bye Week
24 Texas Tech Red Raiders Last Week NR / Bye Week / TEXAS TECH!
25 Arizona State Sun Devils Last Week NR vs Utah / Won 29 - 17 / Good win by Arizona State and they put the final nail in the coffin that is Utah's Big 12 Champion hopes this season. My current next 5 out: Missouri, Syracuse, Duke, Liberty, Georgia Tech

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