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Due_Connection179 Ballot for 2024 Week 9

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 20, 2024, 4:13 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). 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 Oregon Ducks Last Week #2 at Purdue // Won 35 - 0 // Went as Expected. My preseason pick to win the championship is back at #1.
2 Miami Hurricanes Last Week #3 at Louisville // Won 52 - 45 // It has not been pretty on defense this season, but Cam Ward and our offense continue to put the team on their shoulders and keep us undefeated.
3 Indiana Hoosiers Last Week #6 vs #23 Nebraska // Won 56 - 7 // Absolute dominance of Nebraska who has had good defense this season. I truly cannot believe that I have Indiana at #3 right now, but this is just the start of a pretty crazy poll this week.
4 BYU Cougars Last Week #4 vs Oklahoma State // Won 38 - 35 // Sneaked out a win to keep themselves undefeated. Pretty much the difference between Indiana, BYU, Penn State for me is their top wins so far.
5 Penn State Nittany Lions Last Week #5 // Bye Week
6 Pittsburgh Panthers Last Week #8 // Bye Week
7 Iowa State Cyclones Last Week #7 vs UCF // Won 38 - 35 // I had errands to run about midway through the 2nd quarter of this game, and I fully expected to get the "upset alert" from ESPN about Iowa State, but they somehow pulled this out. I will keep them as my "worst" undefeated team, but at least they have a bye week this upcoming week.
8 Ohio State Buckeyes Last Week #9 // Bye Week
9 Georgia Bulldogs Last Week #11 at #1 Texas // Won 30 - 15 // Georgia's defense absolutely dominated Texas in the 1st half and basically kept it up enough to stop any momentum that Texas thought they were getting in the 2nd half.
10 Texas Longhorns Last Week #1 vs #10 Georgia // Lost 15 - 30 // Texas was finally tested against a true top 25 team, and they completely crapped the bed offensively. Their defense actually played well, but their offense just kept putting them on the field and you could tell that it wore them down at some points during the game.
11 Clemson Tigers Last Week #12 vs Virginia // Won 48 - 31 // Another solid win since their week 1 loss. Clemson was not able to completely pull away from Virginia, but I don't think there is a single Clemson fan complaining right now.
12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Last Week #13 at Georgia Tech // Won 31 - 13 // Another solid defensive output from the Irish.
13 Texas A&M Aggies Last Week #14 at Mississippi State // Won 34 - 24 // I was very close at dropping A&M under Kansas State, but then I remembered that Georgia struggled against Mississippi State last week then beat Texas on the road this week, so watch out LSU.
14 Kansas State Wildcats Last Week #15 at West Virginia // Won 45 - 18 // Kansas State continues to rebound from their BYU loss well.
15 LSU Tigers Last Week #16 at Arkansas // Won 34 - 10 // LSU did not fall for the same trap that Tennessee did as they put Arkansas in the ground early-and-often. I cannot wait for the game next week against A&M.
16 Tennessee Volunteers Last Week #17 vs #10 Alabama // Won 24 - 17 // You might be wondering, "Hey, you only moved up the Vols 1 spot after beating Bama?" And to that I say, yes. Alabama is not the same team has they were the last 15 or so years, and both Alabama & Tennessee looked like they didn't want to actually win the game this week.
17 SMU Mustangs Last Week #18 at Stanford // Won 40 - 10 // I guess there is nothing to worry about traveling to the West Coast as an ACC team when you are already halfway there to begin with.
18 Navy Midshipmen Last Week #20 vs Charlotte // Won 51 - 17 // Went as expected.
19 Army West Point Last Week #21 vs East Carolina // Won 45 - 28 // Went as expected.
20 Boise State Broncos Last Week #19 // Bye Week
21 Illinois Fighting Illini Last Week #22 vs Michigan // Won 21 - 7 // Illinois' defense completely dominated Michigan from start-to-finish of this game. I was actually pretty surprised to see the score only at 21 - 7 at the end because it felt much greater than that.
22 Syracuse Orange Last Week NR // Bye Week
23 Missouri Tigers Last Week NR vs Auburn // Won 21 - 17 // I kind of hate myself for putting Missouri back into the top 25 but here are my reasons. First, the only 1-loss power team I have under them is Duke (who might have the worst power schedule out there right now). Second, they do have a head-to-head win over Vanderbilt, and if you ever have read one of my polls before, I preach head-to-head needs value when the teams have the same records. This does set up a "who sucks less" game this week vs Alabama though, so at least we have that.
24 Vanderbilt Commodores Last Week NR vs Ball State // Won 24 - 14 // FINALLY, we have the Vanderbilt Commodores in the top 25! Well deserved from Vandy, and if you would have told me that I would have 1 of Indiana, BYU, SMU, Navy, Army, Illinois, or Vanderbilt ranked I would have laughed, but to have all 7 in my top 25 is completely wild to me and I absolutely love this season so far.
25 Alabama Crimson Tide Last Week #10 at #16 Tennessee // Lost 17 - 24 // Alabama just looks soft this season. I didn't think that their collapse would be this fast, but I guess anything can happen in the transfer portal / NIL era. I also really, really wanted to rank Wisconsin (my #26 team) this week after back-to-back impressive seasons, but I can't overlook the head-to-head they had with Alabama earlier in the season before Bama's spirit was broken. It will be interesting who my #25 will be next week though because #23 Mizzou or #25 Bama have to loss because they play each other, #26 Wisconsin plays #5 Penn State, #27 Nebraska plays at #8 Ohio State, so we could see the winner of #30 Cincinnati at #28 Colorado jump into the top 25 next week.

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