Inside a voter’s ballot: Ranking the top 3
It was a busy day in the top 25 with six teams losing, including one defeated team, and some close calls involving top-10 teams.
Fortunately, my dog Fergus woke me up at 6 a.m., so I had plenty of time to analyze the results. I had to balance that with attending to my 7-year-old son’s needs. That’s the challenge every Sunday morning.
I moved Texas A&M up a spot on my ballot, past Indiana, to reward the Aggies for their victory against Missouri. Anyone putting Texas A&M at No. 1, ahead of Ohio State, wouldn’t be wrong.
Ohio State, Texas A&M and Indiana should all receive first-place votes this week. I like to mix it up with my poll, especially with the top spot, but I wasn’t ready to drop the Buckeyes.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Will Texas Tech land in the top 5?
I ranked Texas Tech seventh.
It’s having a great season but is just behind Georgia and Ole Miss in my poll. It will need those teams, or others, to stumble to move into the top five.
Why is Notre Dame ranked eight spots ahead of Miami?
I have tried hard to respect head-to-head results, so I had Miami ranked ahead of Notre Dame last week, even though Miami had lost two of its last three games, and I stuck to that thinking this week.
Notre Dame is on quite a roll and would have been higher on my ballot, but Miami’s recent losses have kept Notre Dame from climbing higher. They’re tied together for me as long as they have the same records and we don’t have a standout victory to separate them.
If Notre Dame wins at Pittsburgh next week, that might be enough for me to move them past Miami as the Notre Dame-Miami result moves further into the rearview mirror.
Ranking the American Conference
There were tough calls at the bottom of my ballot, too.
The American Conference has two eight-win teams and three seven-win teams. I decided to rank South Florida, which has been dominant in conference play outside of a loss to Memphis, and Tulane, which won at Memphis on Friday.
Memphis might deserve to be ranked ahead of South Florida, except it has a loss to a 3-6 UAB. One-loss North Texas is another deserving team, but it lost 63-36 at home to South Florida.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
You see Ohio State in more detail than most and they’ve been No. 1 since Week 2. Do the Buckeyes have weaknesses and which teams in the CFP mix do you think might pose the biggest challenges in a head-to-head matchup?
If we’re nitpicking Ohio State, its weakness is the run game.
It’s 10th in the Big Ten in rushing yards per game but second in passing. I’m sure Ryan Day would like to be a bit more balanced.
Indiana might pose the biggest challenge to the Buckeyes. The Hoosiers look like a team of destiny after that victory against Penn State. On the other hand, it’s hard to imagine Indiana beating Ohio State because they haven’t done so since 1988.
There is a lot of chatter about expanding the CFP and whether there should be automatic bids, with the Big Ten and SEC holding the cards on the next move. Do you have an opinion on what might work best for college football?
I don’t have a problem with another expansion.
I’ve covered Division III football for many years, and the lower divisions have had a playoff system for decades. Why not make all the divisions consistent?
I would like to see all the Division I conferences receive an automatic bid, as is done in D-II and D-III. If conferences like the MAC have no path to the playoff, they should have a separate playoff.
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