Losers exposed, winners relieved. Submit your ballot so we can make sense of it all. Or don’t I’m a mod not a cop.
My poll this week. Computer poll, resume-based, so your name don’t matter, your “advanced stats” don’t matter, only thing that matters is who you beat and who they beat:
- Oklahoma Sooners (LW: 1)
- Florida State Seminoles (LW: 5)
- Washington Huskies (LW: 6)
- North Carolina Tar Heels (LW: 9)
- Texas Longhorns (LW: 4)
- Michigan Wolverines (LW: 8)
- Ohio State Buckeyes (LW: 2)
- Penn State Nittany Lions (LW: 3)
- James Madison Dukes (LW: 18)
- Iowa Hawkeyes (LW: 23)
- Alabama Crimson Tide (LW: 7)
- Ole Miss Rebels (LW: 19)
- Liberty Flames (LW: 22)
- Air Force Falcons (LW: NR)
- Oregon State Beavers (LW: NR)
- Notre Dame Fighting Irish (LW: NR)
- Utah Utes (LW: 15)
- Georgia Bulldogs (LW: 11)
- Missouri Tigers (LW: NR)
- Louisville Cardinals (LW: 10)
- Duke Blue Devils (LW: NR)
- LSU Tigers (LW: 24)
- Wisconsin Badgers (LW: 13)
- USC Trojans (LW: 17)
- Oregon Ducks (LW: 12)
I love this poll.
Just voted for the first time. I based it on the AP Poll but made a number of changes based on vibes. Basically when it went below the top ten it started feeling like a crapshoot, though.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, vibes are a very real thing in cfb.
My ballot. Computer poll. Very glad the good guys are back in the #1 spot (and by a long way, apparently). Still some weirdness from the bye week (e.g. Alabama ahead of Texas) but that should straighten out next week.
Full ranking:
Rank Change Team Record Points 1 +1 Michigan 7-0 523 2 +4 Notre Dame 6-2 471 3 +3 Florida State 6-0 454 4 -3 Oklahoma 6-0 438 5 -1 USC 6-1 427 6 +2 Georgia 7-0 426 7 -2 Alabama 6-1 422 8 +2 Washington 6-0 419 9 -6 Texas 5-1 416 T10 +8 Ohio State 6-0 393 T10 -1 Texas A&M 4-3 393 12 +5 Penn State 6-0 392 13 -1 Oregon State 6-1 387 14 - North Carolina 6-0 380 15 -4 Louisville 6-1 378 16 -3 Oregon 5-1 375 17 +6 LSU 5-2 368 18 -4 Maryland 5-2 367 19 +2 Iowa 6-1 362 20 +20 Arizona 4-3 360 21 +3 Duke 5-1 358 22 +10 TCU 4-3 353 23 -5 Fresno State 6-1 352 24 -2 Florida 5-2 346 25 +10 Missouri 6-1 339 26 -6 Texas Tech 3-4 335 27 -3 Colorado 4-3 334 28 +1 Rutgers 5-2 332 29 -2 Kansas 5-2 330 30 +7 Tennessee 5-1 326 31 +3 Liberty 6-0 325 32 +10 Virginia Tech 3-4 324 33 -5 Wisconsin 4-2 323 34 -20 Ole Miss 5-1 320 35 -9 Kentucky 5-2 319 36 +2 Miami (OH) 6-1 315 37 +23 Iowa State 4-3 307 38 +4 Toledo 6-1 306 39 -6 Ohio 5-2 304 T40 +22 Kansas State 4-2 303 T40 - Miami (FL) 4-2 303 42 +4 Arkansas 2-5 298 T43 +20 Utah 5-1 296 T43 +14 Troy 5-2 296 45 -1 Texas State 5-2 293 T46 +6 Air Force 6-0 288 T46 -15 Purdue 2-5 288 48 +5 Northern Illinois 3-4 287 49 +1 UCLA 4-2 286 50 -20 Clemson 4-2 277 51 +2 Louisiana Tech 3-5 276 52 +13 Illinois 3-4 275 53 - California 3-4 273 54 +5 Wyoming 5-2 271 T55 -5 Jacksonville State 5-2 270 T55 +2 NC State 4-3 270 57 -13 Syracuse 4-3 269 58 +10 New Mexico State 4-3 267 59 -24 South Alabama 3-3 266 60 +12 West Virginia 4-2 264 61 +22 JMU 6-0 263 62 -24 Nebraska 3-3 262 63 - Vanderbilt 2-6 259 T64 +21 UNLV 5-1 258 T64 -16 Washington State 4-2 258 T66 +24 SMU 4-2 257 T66 +19 UTSA 3-3 257 T68 +24 Oklahoma State 4-2 254 T68 -3 Utah State 3-4 254 70 +13 Tulane 5-1 252 T71 +17 Eastern Michigan 4-3 250 T71 +18 Houston 3-3 250 73 -27 Georgia Tech 3-3 247 T74 +6 Boise State 3-4 246 T74 +35 Pittsburgh 2-4 246 76 -27 UCF 3-3 245 77 +18 Georgia State 5-1 244 78 -13 Auburn 3-3 242 79 -3 Memphis 4-2 240 T80 -27 Minnesota 3-3 239 T80 +1 Wake Forest 3-3 239 82 -6 Marshall 4-2 238 83 -15 BYU 4-2 237 84 -24 Louisiana 4-2 233 85 -10 Georgia Southern 4-2 231 86 +32 FAU 3-3 230 87 +5 Buffalo 2-5 227 T88 +9 Appalachian State 3-3 226 T88 +25 San Jose State 2-5 226 90 +14 South Carolina 2-4 225 91 +15 Bowling Green 3-4 223 92 +13 Central Michigan 4-3 221 93 +5 Cincinnati 2-4 216 94 +1 Army 2-4 214 T95 -25 Mississippi State 3-3 213 T95 -25 Old Dominion 3-3 213 T97 -25 Boston College 3-3 212 T97 +10 Coastal Carolina 3-3 212 T99 -25 Western Kentucky 4-2 211 T99 -21 Massachusetts 1-7 211 101 +14 UTEP 2-5 210 T102 +21 UNT 3-3 209 T102 -1 FIU 3-4 209 T102 +12 San Diego State 3-4 209 105 -5 UAB 2-5 208 106 -28 Northwestern 3-3 207 T107 -22 USF 3-4 206 T107 +9 Michigan State 2-4 206 109 +28 Rice 3-3 202 110 +2 Akron 1-6 199 T111 -1 Hawaii 2-5 197 T111 +9 Middle Tennessee 2-5 197 T111 -21 Connecticut 1-5 197 114 -7 Western Michigan 2-5 196 T115 +2 Colorado State 3-3 195 T115 -5 Sam Houston 0-6 195 117 -23 Arizona State 1-5 191 118 +9 Navy 3-3 188 T119 +10 Stanford 2-4 183 T119 -20 Virginia 1-5 183 121 -19 Tulsa 3-3 179 122 -19 Baylor 2-4 178 123 +2 Charlotte 1-5 166 124 -2 Temple 2-5 165 125 -6 Indiana 2-4 161 126 +2 ECU 1-5 156 127 -2 New Mexico 2-4 155 128 +2 Ball State 1-6 154 129 -8 Arkansas State 3-3 148 130 +3 UL Monroe 2-4 143 131 -7 Southern Mississippi 1-5 142 132 - Kent State 1-6 135 133 -2 Nevada 0-6 134 Notre at #2. Very spicy, I like it.
I think they’re a lot better than most people give them credit for. I also think Georgia is nowhere near as good as it ranks nationally—I think your #6 makes sense here.
Yeah, ND has played a whopping 8 games which definitely skews the data. If you average it down to 7 games played, they would be about 12th and if you bring them to 6 it puts them about 24th. I think if I were doing this by eye test, I’d have them somewhere in the 10 to 15 range.
Georgia at 6 finally feels like the computer finally placed them in the right spot (early in the season it had them at 1 and at one point as low as 24, I think). I probably would rather see Washington ahead of them rather than USC, though.
I’m curious about your computer poll. How did you set it up?
I described it a bit in this comment. There’s also some pre-season expectations that get factored in for the first 4 weeks and then it stands on its own in week 5.
I feel like mid-season it can be kind of weird, but it usually feels right at the end each year. For example, in this post I included a screenshot of my top 40 at the end of last season.
who tf we gotta beat to get ranked on your poll?
Lol. Beat (highly) ranked teams by a lot and you’ll jump up. (Beating A&M by 1 score didn’t do that much.) So I’d say beat Alabama and Georgia and you’re good.
In case you’re really wondering why the Vols are so low: they’re being dragged down by that Austin Peay game… LET’S GO PEAY!
Yeah… that was not pretty. I don’t really blame your model for that.
Beat Bama and I bet you’ll get in there.
Don’t tempt me with a good time
While I appreciate you ranking my Aggies all the way up at 10, I definitely don’t see how we deserve that.
Yeah, I keep wondering if I made a mistake inputting the data with y’all. It always has A&M (and Texas) really high every year even when either of us underperform (which is pretty often). It must speak to the talent on our teams due to the numbers they put up and the fact they rarely have bad losses.
Looks like your computer poll and mine are built around opposite philosophies. I think it’s great the community is getting a variety of methods. And we certainly need human polls/eye tests to balance out some of the weirdness our algorithms create (like JMU in the top 10??)
Yeah, I think that describes A&M this season (every season?) really well: they have good talent, but they underperform. So if your algorithm is looking more at potential, recruiting ranks, stat rankings, then A&M should be good on paper. We just don’t win the games.
And yes, JMU in particular has been giving me heartburn every week questioning the validity of my poll. But just to provide a comparison, the average ranking of the teams JMU has beaten is 80.0 (based on my rankings) whereas the average ranking of the teams Georgia has beaten is 99.3, so it makes sense JMU gets the higher rank for now (fun fact: Georgia has the lowest strength of schedule of all the undefeated teams, hence their low ranking). Since my system doesn’t care at all about expectations/stats/brand name/eye test and is only based on comparing wins/losses, weird rankings like that will happen even though I know if JMU and Georgia played it wouldn’t be close. But those oddities tend to go away as the season progresses.
Definitely agree, it’s fun that everyone has a different way of slicing the rankings and everyone’s poll is different. It gives us something to compare and argue about, and a lot of the fun of college football is arguing about rankings.
Sorry I was so late in getting my poll in. Had some issues to deal with at home (issues with my home, not my marriage haha. Water heater specifically)
I’m going to be honest it’s getting harder to rank teams after 15 every single week
