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PrimalCookie Ballot for 2024 Week 9

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 20, 2024, 1:05 p.m.

Overall Rationale: We're deep enough in the season that I can actually start looking at resumes rather than just eye test + poll inertia. There's still some eye test though. Key wins for this = P5 > .500, G5 > 5 wins

Rank Team Reason
1 Oregon Ducks Key Wins: #3 Ohio State 32-31, #14 Boise State 37-34, @ Oregon State 49-14, Michigan State 31-10 Losses: N/A The extremely obvious #1 right now, not really much else to say.
2 Georgia Bulldogs Key Wins: @ #8 Texas 30-15, vs. #18 Clemson 34-3 Losses: @ #15 Alabama 34-41 If it wasn't for Oregon's win over Ohio State, Georgia would've gotten the most impressive win of the season last night. They looked shaky in the Alabama first half and the entirety of the Kentucky game, but I can forgive that for now.
3 Ohio State Buckeyes Key Wins: @ Michigan State 38-7, Iowa 35-7 Losses: @ #1 Oregon 31-32 The resume doesn't support Ohio State being this high, with their best wins being Michigan State and Iowa. But they've blown out every team they've faced besides Oregon, and that was as close to a matchup between equals as you'll see in CFB (and considering that was at Oregon, I'd slightly favor OSU at a neutral site).
4 BYU Cougars Key Wins: #16 Kansas State 38-9, @ #23 SMU 18-15 Losses: N/A Okay, I recognize that this is crazy, especially after they were taken to their very limit by Oklahoma State, but BYU has two very good wins and nearly every team has struggled in a few games this season.
5 Penn State Nittany Lions Key Wins: #19 Illinois 21-7 Losses: N/A Penn State's in an odd place where I definitely don't think they're the 5th best team in the country, but they have a good win over Illinois and that's better than the teams directly behind them.
6 Indiana Hoosiers Key Wins: Nebraska 56-7, Maryland 42-28 Losses: N/A How bout them Hoosiers? They just kept piling it on a solid Nebraska team, and they haven't struggled in a single game so far. Indiana's lack of a true marquee win limits how far up I can put them right now (call it brand bias if you want), but damn.
7 Miami Hurricanes Key Wins: @ Florida 41-17, @ Louisville 52-45, Virginia Tech 38-34 Losses: N/A Those of us who watch the games can call Miami frauds all we want (and I will), but the fact remains that while they don't have a ranked win they have a pretty solid resume so far.
8 Texas Longhorns Key Wins: @ Michigan 31-12, vs. Oklahoma 34-3, Louisiana-Monroe 51-3 Losses: #2 Georgia 15-30 Lmao at ULM being a key win by my definition. But anyway, before the Georgia game Texas had looked like world beaters, and I'll give them the benefit of the doubt against a really good team, even if it was at home.
9 Tennessee Volunteers Key Wins: #15 Alabama 24-17, @ Oklahoma 25-15, vs. NC State 51-10, Florida 23-17 Losses: @ Arkansas 14-19 Tennessee has a great top win, solid depth, and a headscratching loss at Arkansas. Plus they really shouldn't have won against Florida, but they did so yeah.
10 LSU Tigers Key Wins: #22 Ole Miss 29-26, @ Arkansas 34-10, @ South Carolina 36-33 Losses: vs. USC 20-27 You could argue LSU should be over Tennessee due to the Arkansas common opponent, but they just have a better overall slate and USC's not a great loss to have right now either. Still a good team and will have plenty of chances to rise in the rankings.
11 Iowa State Cyclones Key Wins: @ Iowa 20-19 Losses: N/A Iowa State's tough to rank. They've played nothing but mid, and struggled against Iowa and UCF, but they're still undefeated. This seems like a decent place for them.
12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Key Wins: @ #13 Texas A&M 23-13, @ Georgia Tech 31-13, Louisville 31-24 Losses: Northern Illinois 14-16 That NIU loss is going to get more and more insane as the season goes on. If it wasn't there ND would almost certainly be in the top 3 right now, but if they hadn't beat A&M to start the season I'd have them a lot lower because of said loss. So, they get placed here, probably a bit too high but head to head over a team with the same record does wonders.
13 Texas A&M Aggies Key Wins: #21 Missouri 41-10, @ Florida 33-20, vs. Arkansas 21-17 Losses: #12 Notre Dame 13-23 A&M's been getting better as the season goes on, and that blowout over Missouri is very impressive. Beat LSU this week and they'll shoot up the rankings (as will Notre Dame, probably).
14 Boise State Broncos Key Wins: #20 Washington State 45-24, @ Georgia Southern 56-45 Losses: @ #1 Oregon 34-37 This is a quality loss ranking. They have a good win over WSU and an away win at a Georgia Southern team that seems to be the frontrunner in the Sun Belt East, but getting so close to beating Oregon is doing the heavy lifting. As is Jeanty, because he's a beast.
15 Alabama Crimson Tide Key Wins: #2 Georgia 41-34, @ Wisconsin 42-10, South Carolina 27-25, Western Kentucky 63-0 Losses: @ #9 Tennessee 17-24, @ Vanderbilt 35-40 I have Bama here on the strength of their Georgia win (and also Wisconsin), but they haven't looked like the same team since halftime of the UGA game. They nearly gave up the lead there and they're 1-2 since, and they only barely got that win. Would not be surprised at all if they finish unranked, honestly. Also, lol at WKU being 5-2 and so they qualify as a key win.
16 Kansas State Wildcats Key Wins: @ Colorado 31-28, @ Tulane 34-27 Losses: @ #4 BYU 9-38 KSU were blown out by BYU but have looked quite good in all of their other games. An actual ranked win would be nice, but they're not going to get one until the final week against Iowa State (unless Arizona State/Cincinnati keep winning).
17 Pittsburgh Panthers Key Wins: @ Cincinnati 28-27 Losses: N/A Pitt might be the worst 6-0 team I've ever heard of, but I have heard of them. We'll find out in their next 4 games how real they are - they have Syracuse, @ SMU, and Clemson coming up.
18 Clemson Tigers Key Wins: Virginia 48-31, NC State 59-35 Losses: vs. #2 Georgia 3-34 I want to put Clemson higher than I have them, but that's just an uninspiring resume. Yes, they've blown out every team except Georgia, but that's the only good team they've played and they lost by 31. I think they're better than 18th, but they have to prove it by beating *someone* notable.
19 Illinois Fighting Illini Key Wins: @ Nebraska 31-24, Michigan 21-7 Losses: @ #5 Penn State 7-21 I don't really know what to think about the Illini, Nebraska's a good win and they just dominated Michigan but man that 50-49 game vs Purdue makes it really hard for me to trust them. I guess we'll see.
20 Washington State Cougars Key Wins: Texas Tech 37-16, vs. Washington 24-19, San Jose State 54-52 Losses: @ #14 Boise State 24-45 WSU has a surprisingly good schedule so far, with 4 wins over teams above .500. Of course, 3 of them were close, and Boise State wasn't. But I think Wazzu's being slightly slept on considering their resume.
21 Missouri Tigers Key Wins: Vanderbilt 30-27, Boston College 27-21 Losses: @ #13 Texas A&M 10-41 We're at the part of the rankings where the resumes really aren't that great anymore. Mizzou was blown out by A&M and their best win is in OT at home vs Vandy, but Vandy's actually not bad this year so I guess that counts for something.
22 Ole Miss Rebels Key Wins: @ South Carolina 27-3, Georgia Southern 52-13 Losses: @ #10 LSU 26-29, Kentucky 17-20 This is an eye test ranking. Two losses, no impressive wins, but damn have they looked good at times.
23 SMU Mustangs Key Wins: TCU 66-42, @ Louisville 34-27 Losses: #4 BYU 15-18 Another quality loss ranking. They played BYU really close, and that's (plus their 6-1 record) is enough for me to believe they're a good team.
24 Syracuse Orange Key Wins: @ UNLV 44-41, Georgia Tech 31-28, @ NC State 24-17 Losses: Stanford 24-26 They're all by one score, but Syracuse actually has a pretty decent slate of wins, capped off by being UNLV's only loss so far. But they're also Stanford's only FBS win. I'm putting them here for the wins, and because I don't really like any of the teams I've left unranked (looking at you Army), so yeah they go in here.
25 Navy Midshipmen Key Wins: Memphis 56-44 Losses: N/A Navy is 6-0, and actually have a good win! That's a lot more than Army can say - they haven't played a single team above .500 so far, and only one FBS team (East Carolina) with 3 wins. Navy kinda goes here by default because they're undefeated and I don't like the resumes of anyone else more.

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