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jthomas694 Ballot for 2024 Final

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Jan. 22, 2025, 12:26 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Rankings should primarily reflect what has happened on the field this season, with sort of a power ranking for teams that have similar resumes. Teams who win don't deserve to be rewarded, teams who lose don't deserve to punished - but what happened this past week is an additional data point in viewing team resumes.

Rank Team Reason
1 Ohio State Buckeyes National Champs
2 Oregon Ducks Only lost one game, to the National Champs, who they also have a win over
3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish National runner up, hard to compare to Oregon, but Oregon ultimately had wins over Ohio State, Indiana, Michigan and Penn State, where Notre Dame had Indiana, Penn State and Georgia and a loss to NIU
4 Penn State Nittany Lions Four through six was a difficult ranking. Ultimately went with Penn State as their three losses are to the top three teams in the country.
5 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia slots ahead of Texas due to going 2-0 against them
6 Texas Longhorns Texas was a national semifinalist and deserves a top ranking
7 Indiana Hoosiers Indiana lost two games - to the two national championship game participants. Michigan is a better team than was credited at the time they played
8 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss at times looked like the best team in the country - beating UGA and South Carolina solidly. Destroyed Duke. Probably the best non-CFP team
9 Arizona State Sun Devils Arizona State played Texas well. At times they probably should have won the game - and at times it shouldn't have been so close. Great season
10 BYU Cougars Would have loved to see BYU in a bowl game against a top non-Big XII opponent. Often outpeformed their metrics and had a win over SMU. I don't think they should have been in the CFP - but they should have gotten more consideration
11 Tennessee Volunteers Tennessee got destroyed by Ohio State and generally speaking did not perform well away from home. Great defense
12 Boise State Broncos Boise State lost two games - to Oregon and Penn State who both finish in the top 4 of my poll. Ashton Jeanty had a great year. Very good team
13 Illinois Fighting Illini Illinois was a very good, balanced team who ended up a 10 win team with wins over South Carolina and Michigan
14 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama looked like one of the best teams in the country at halftime against UGA. Then they almost blew a 30-7 lead and lost 4 of their remaining 9 games
15 South Carolina Gamecocks South Carolina had wins against Clemson, Missouri and Texas A&M but losses to Ole Miss, Alabama, LSU and Illinois. Very good team - elite defense and when they got complementary offense they were a tough out
16 Clemson Tigers Clemson won the ACC and looked good against SMU. But they went 0-3 against the SEC and struggled with run defense. Very talented and should be a top contender next year
17 SMU Mustangs SMU benefited from a manageable schedule and was not one of the 12 best or most deserving teams - but they were a good team who avoided losses.
18 Iowa State Cyclones Iowa State finished the year with an exciting win over Miami and had their first ever 11 win season
19 Syracuse Orange Syracuse had wins over Miami and UNLV - but lost some bad games as well.
20 Missouri Tigers Missouri went 9-0 against teams with fewer than 8 wins and 1-3 against teams who finished 8-5 or better. The most impressive thing they did was not lose a lot of close games - but a ten win team P4 team is going to be ranked
21 Miami Hurricanes Miami was a mediocre defense away from being a title contender
22 Michigan Wolverines Michigan finished the season with wins over Ohio State and Alabama. It's a top 25 team. I don't care about the total number of wins other teams have that have slightly more
23 LSU Tigers LSU did not have a good enough defense for them to accomplish more than they did this season. Nussmeier was a good QB and they had a good OL
24 Louisville Cardinals "The final two spots are between the following teams: Texas A&M Aggies Florida Gators Louisville Cardinals Kansas State Wildcats Colorado Buffaloes TCU Horned Frogs Army Black Knights Navy Midshipmen Memphis Tigers UNLV Rebels"
25 Florida Gators "Ultimately chose - Florida and Louisville. Florida who overcame a bad start and brutal schedule and Louisville who finished with 4 one score losses, 3 of which were to CFP teams and a win over a CFP team Was tough to pick Florida over A&M, but the way the season ended gives it to Florida. Any of the other teams listed above are as deserving of one of the final two spots - I was just more impressed with the best versions of Lousiville and Florida than I were the other teams"

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