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Mynameisdiehard Ballot for 2024 Week 10

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 29, 2024, 12:49 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Heavier weight on record, weighing overall strength of record with results, comparing head to head and weighing strengths of wins/losses. Just missed: Memphis, Missouri, Tulane, Louisiana Dropped: Missouri, Duke

Rank Team Reason
1 Oregon Ducks Handled a decent ranked Illinois team. Clear #1
2 Penn State Nittany Lions Beat a good Wisconsin team this week setting up a massive showdown with Ohio St.
3 Miami Hurricanes Look I have been a Miami hater all season, but they are still undefeated and control their destiny to the playoff.
4 BYU Cougars Contrary to the above I have consistently ranked BYU higher than most all season. They are undefeated and have one of the best wins of undefeated teams with the rout of Kansas St. They have struggled with some other opponents though which keeps them behind Miami for me. Control their own destiny to the B12 championship.
5 Iowa State Cyclones Same as above really. Iowa State also controls their destiny to set up an undefeated B12 title game, but definitely have the harder road in, with Texas Tech, Cincinnati, & especially eyeing the Kansas State game at the end of the season.
6 Indiana Hoosiers I 100% understand the question marks around them with the lowest SO of undefeated teams, but the key word there is undefeated. They have beat good teams that others have lost to/struggled with (looking at you Ohio St.) It's getting to the point of the season that you just have to respect the record. They have a matchup with OSU in 4 weeks though so thankfully, this one will take care of itself.
7 Ohio State Buckeyes Best resume of the 1 loss teams for sure, but after the massive struggle against Nebraska (still at least a decent team) I can't in good conscience leave them above other solid undefeated teams.
8 Texas A&M Aggies Cannot argue with the best team in the SEC now. Only loss to #12 Notre Dame, which is a better loss than both Georgia & Tennessee and looking back they were clearly not at 100%, and also have good or better wins against common opponents. They control their playoff destiny and therefore deserve a spot higher up the rankings, but will have a monster showdown with Texas in the final week.
9 Georgia Bulldogs SEC just isn't as good as everyone seems to think they are this year. Not getting any benefit of the doubt from me. Some decent wins against Texas & Clemson, but a loss to Alabama (2 losses) and barely squeaking out against Kentucky (5 losses) keeps a lot of question marks for me. Eye test is keeping them up for now, but not worth of the 2 spot like they are in the AP.
10 Tennessee Volunteers They beat the team that beat Georgia, but their loss (Arkansas) is worse than Georgia's. That being said I am keeping a close eye on this one to see how they handle Kentucky this week. May see a jump next week depending on their performance. Beyond that, they will face Georgia in 3 weeks so this one will thankfully take care of itself as well.
11 Pittsburgh Panthers As I said before, it is to the point where you have to respect the record, Realistically, the resume is pretty similar to Indiana, with solid wins against Top 40 teams (Cinci & Syracuse), but no marquise win yet. Resume is pretty similar to Indiana's, but I want to see them have a prove it game. Luckily for us, a big showdown with SMU this week which will be helpful for either teams resume.
12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Honestly I cannot fault them as they handled Navy, but they do fall a place by product of Pittsburgh and A&M moving up in my rankings. Unfortunately, they do not have many decent opportunities to pad the resume and the NIU loss looms large due to their current 4-4 record. If ND wins out they will still be fine in terms of the playoff, but A&M continuing to win is also massive for the resume.
13 Texas Longhorns Tsk tsk. I can't believe I have to say this again, but Vanderbilt is not good just because they beat Alabama. This is not the Alabama of old. They are down, & the SEC is down as well with it. Therefore, a close game like that for Texas against Vandy is just not a good look and slides Texas down the list of 1 loss teams for me. Bye week comes at a great time for them to re-tool and prove it in their run-in.
14 Boise State Broncos UNLV was their toughest test of the season by far, and even though it was a close on throughout, the Broncos never really looked like they were in jeopardy. This team should win out and take the G5 auto bid spot for the playoffs. If they don't then they are probably undeserving. Entirely in their field.
15 Clemson Tigers Coming off a bye. Interested to see how they handle a decent Louisville team, but honestly they are pretty much just coasting until their matchup with Pitt. All of that said, the ACC is definitely the second most competitive conference behind the Big 10 right now. Who saw that coming?
16 SMU Mustangs Well it took a blocked FG (an amazing defensive play) and a failed 2 pt conversion from Duke for SMU to not find themselves falling down the rankings. Swapping them with Clemson looks right here, but definitely deserve to stay above Kansas St. due to the fact they stayed within 3 of BYU who K St was blown out by.
17 Kansas State Wildcats BYU looks like merely a stumble at this point and they are finally being helped by some other teams winning more, specifically Colorado now being ranked and Tulane being just outside the T25.
18 Army West Point Look. They are undefeated and look good so I will give them time of day. On the other hand, they have damn near the lowest SOS in all of college football. They get the benefit of getting Notre Dame in 4 weeks time who just manhandled Navy and a showdown at the end of the season with said Navy team. They can earn their spot here, but will need help around them to move into the playoff, especially with the SEC overrankings we are seeing
19 Alabama Crimson Tide Took care of business against Missouri, but that loss to Vanderbilt is still not great at all. I am sure they are looking forward to this bye before the LSU matchup, which Alabama desperately needs as I think a loss there will almost certainly dash any CFP hopes this year. And what will that spell for DeBoer's first season? Let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet...
20 Washington State Cougars Not a great SOS, but only loss was to a good Boise St. team. Really good chance they win out and finish with one loss due to the weak schedule so could find themselves being a problem child for the CFP committee.
21 Illinois Fighting Illini They may have lost and lost bad, but when your only 2 losses are to the #1 & #2 ranked teams can you really fall that much in the rankings? On the resume side of thing, they may honestly have one of the best one on paper of all 2 loss teams, but they lack that super quality win that some others have. To be fair, they have also been a bit of the makers of their own bad resume since their wins against both Nebraska & Michigan are what effectively put each out of the T25.
22 LSU Tigers The matchup with A&M was a tale of 2 halves. LSU looked fully dominate in the first half and I think just forgot to get out of the locker room for the second half. They are essentially in the exact same situation as Alabama. Needed bye week before the big matchup, each team fighting to keep their CFP hopes alive.
23 Colorado Buffaloes Bowl eligible with a win over a respected Cincinnati team. They definitely deserve their place, but that loss to K State a few weeks ago means they do not control their destiny to the Big 12 title game, and it is hard to see BYU slipping up to give up the spot. They could sneak in with some help, but best finish possibly looks to be 3rd place and that won't be good enough for a playoff.
24 Ole Miss Rebels I have been perpetually low with Ole Miss, going so far to not rank them since the loss to LSU. I bring them back this week, but the loss to Kentucky, second to last in the SEC, is holding them back. In my eyes, Ole Miss has to beat Georgia to have a prayer in turning this season around. I won't count a 2 loss SEC team out of the playoff just yet, but 3 for sure is not deserving of it this year. They better hope they don't overlook a resurging Arkansas this week first though.
25 Navy Midshipmen As always, it's the best of the rest. I think most polls see Navy dropping out since their loss is more recent, but the way I build resumes week to week they still deserve this spot. Their 1 loss is to a highly ranked team, and when compared to the next team we left out, Memphis, well Navy BEAT Memphis so they deserve to be above them on that rule alone. The one argument here for me is Missouri, but getting blown out by the only 2 ranked teams you are going to play all year is hardly worth a spot for me at this time, especially when you combine that with them also struggling against mediocre teams. When I look at Mizzous remaining schedule, I don't see one that is a guaranteed win in my mind and that alone is enough to have me keep Navy in my T25 for now.

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