Welp, the votes are in and the polls are closed. You’ll see the results posted tomorrow. I’ll just say that the turnout exceeded my expectations by a comfortable margin and the results should give y’all something to chew on. But, again, that’s for tomorrow. Today is for discussing our individual ballots.
To kick off the talk, here’s what I turned in yesterday:
- Alabama
- Clemson
- Georgia
- LSU
- Ohio State
- Oklahoma
- Penn State
- Wisconsin
(Just missing: Florida, Notre Dame)
As usual with my early season MP vote, I spent more time deliberating over the teams I excluded from my ballot than those I included. It still took me less than 15 minutes. (So easy, even a busy college football head coach could do it!)
Florida is undefeated and has a solid win over an Auburn team that was favored to beat the Gators last weekend. That being said, while every team on my ballot is undefeated and has at least a wart or two, Florida’s offense strikes me as being sufficiently flawed for the Gators not to be favored over any of the eight teams ahead of them. Of course, if I’m wrong about that, I’m going to get confirmation very, very soon.
And while Notre Dame looks like the best coached team I’ve seen play so far this season, the Irish do have a loss on their resume and right now, that’s enough for me to keep them out of ballot contention.
So there you have it. Take shots at my methodology and post your own picks in the comments.
Get The Picture 
Same, but I left Notre Dame in just because I expect them to remain in the discussion through November. They are Notre Dame after all. And I’m leaving Florida in just ahead of them in hopes I get to leave them off after the WLOCP.
Thanks again for doing this. And thanks to those that helped with th logistics.
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Ditto. If UGA wins out and ND only has the loss to UGA? I think they will be in the discussion. I’ll have to say “Win out convincingly” to qualify that and of course, there is a little hope and homer in putting ND on the ballot. We need them to look really good.
That wasn’t as hard to type as it was the last time ….
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GC, something the last 3 years taught me is that I hate ND less. They still have an entitled fan base but they’re more bearable than Bammers.
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Further I’d rather play ND twice than Bama once or twice
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I had the same but I left in Florida, ND and I also had Oregon. If they win out I feel like an early season neutral field loss can be looked past.
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My ballot has your first six, Senator. No Florida for me, as I think they are a house of cards, and no Notre Dame with their loss.
Penn St and Wisconsin would have to get by tOSU, which I don’t see them doing.
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Same here. I have the first 6 on the Senator’s ballot and that is it at this point. I feel they are the teams vying currently. Obviously, that could change as the season progresses and a Wisconsin, Penn St., or some other team could earn its way on my list based upon them beating teams in my six contenders list.
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Oh…mine ballot took less than 5 minutes and I submitted them in alphabetical order so they are not a ranking of those six teams.
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I left Florida in pending this week’s outcome. I left Penn State out because I despise the school and fan base and in Mumme poll fashion I can do that.
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I considered that with Ped State
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Here’s my ballot. I did cast a wider net at this point.
Bammers
Barners
Clem’s Son
FU
UGA
Corn Dogs
Catholics
anOSU
OU
Nike U
Ped St
Horns
Wisky
Every one of those teams (maybe sans Notre Dame & Oregon) have demonstrated they have players and control their own destiny. At this point, that’s really the only way I could rank them. If OU beats Texas and LSU thumps FU, they are my next 2 out.
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One thing I’m always curious about when I read our ballot discussions is how long it took you to vote. Let me know…
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5-7 minutes
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5 minutes seems right. I spent more time playing with shortcuts to find my selections than I did contemplating my ballot.
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45 seconds
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Maybe a minute? I’ve got your 8, plus Florida and Notre Dame.
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A minute and I did a poor job, which (as Tatum said in an earlier post), is not improper in a Mumme style poll.
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Roughly 5 minutes, including a couple of google searches for schedules.
Anybody going to include Texas in the top ten if they win this weekend?
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Took me 2-3 minutes. I had the same list as you Senator plus Florida largely based on their undefeated record and performance Saturday against Auburn. Things could get interesting at the end of the year in the Big10 and Big12 as UW-OSU and TX-OK will likely play 2x if you include the championship games. If those teams split and then I think the door gets opened for 2 SEC teams to make it.
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My ballot is the same essentially. I left Florida off for the exact same reasons you did, their offense doesnt smell like conference winning to me.
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I left Florida off for the exact same reason, their offense doesnt pass my “could they win the conference” smell test.
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My ballot, which was only what I believed were the top five teams as I see them right at the moment, took about ten minutes. Interestingly enough, I can’t get past putting Alabama and Clemson in even though I don’t believe that they have played that well and Bama is injury-riddled on defense (chalk that up to history and benefit of the doubt). I think that Oklahoma and Ohio State look pretty scary right now. If OU gets past Texas this weekend, it is hard to imagine them losing during the regular season (although OU is a team that seems to manage to do). tOSU of course has Wisconsin October 26th and Penn State November 23rd.
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Mine was the same except I included Florida, but pushed the send button without checking and left Wisky off. I agree FU looks flawed because of their offense, but their defense has already saved them twice and we know how defense wins championships.
Seems to be multiple takes on why to include, and exclude, teams from different posters. That seems fine at this point in the process, and the large ballot size means it probably washes out. Took about 5 minutes, perhaps should have spent another 30 seconds checking it. 🙂
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Heh. Hate when that happens. 😉
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I mentioned above that I did a poor job with my entry. That’s because I too left WisCONsin off. And I’m hoping, but not expecting, that they can knock off anOSU.
I put FU in but expect them to have a loss this week and another in the WLOCP.
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I honestly think Wisconsin will beat OSU this year. If not in Columbus, then in Indiananpolis. I’ve watched UW play twice and they are very similar to UGA. Strong Oline, very good defense, a stud RB and an efficient QB who doesn’t make many mistakes.
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If they dont immediately come to mind when thinking of potential title teams, are they really a potential title team?
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My ballot (in alphabetical order), and it took me roughly 5 minutes and 37 seconds to complete:
Alabama
Auburn
Cincinnati
Clemson
Florida
Georgia
LSU
Ohio State
Oklahoma
SMU
My thoughts were to compile the P5 teams I felt most likely to make the playoff and throw a bone to the G5 teams most likely to play in a NY6 bowl. I meant to include off Boise State for the latter thought, but missed them in my review (guess I should have used the full six minutes). I know Cincinnati is sporting a lopsided loss to Ohio State, but I’m pretty sure Ohio State is the best team in the country so I didn’t hold that against them. Penn State and Texas were the last two schools that missed the P5 cut-off.
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I had Wisky much higher and Clemson much lower…just based on results so far this season.
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5 minutes or less. Didn’t put State Pen because I didn’t realize they were undefeated. Still don’t see them beating OSU.
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Mine was:
OU
OSU
UGA
LSU
Bama
Clemson
Wisconsin
I think those are the legit contenders, with the first 3 being slightly ahead of the rest.
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Exactly the same. And 2 minutes to complete.
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Is it possible to have a push? Say the top three maybe? How would that look if Alabama, UGA, and Ohio State had the same number of votes,?
Same thing with 2-4ish.
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Good question and it’s something worth discussing tomorrow when I release the poll results.
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3 minutes…
same list as you +
Go Dawgs – beat the chickens!
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Had Texas, ND and FL on there. I’m not sure what Texas has, but it seems to be somewhat impressive.
Took 5 min
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Took me a few minutes to come up with this
Bama
Fla
UGA
LSU
Clem
Aub
Wis
tOS
Depending on the outcome this week Fla or Aub may drop out replaced by the Okies.
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So OU didn’t make your top 8? I would think they would be a unanimous choice, one of maybe three (unless someone just screwed up like I did with Wisky.) I didn’t do mine numerically, but if I had they would have been 1 or 2, at this point…well ahead of Bama, Clemson, and UGA. Guess we find out about them on Saturday.
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The starting point for my methodology is, “if this team wins out, will they be in the CFP”?
Which, in hindsight, meant I should have included more than 14 schools.
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At the end of the year the CFP’s criteria is basically something like:
1) Teams from the P5
2) That have less than 2 losses
3) Have beaten other “good” teams
So my ballot this week is a list of P5 teams with 0 or 1 loss that have beaten any 1-loss FBS team. I took about 10 minutes to find teams meeting this criteria, which came out to be (alphabetically):
Auburn (beat Oregon… and Tulane)
Florida (beat Auburn)
Georgia (beat Notre Dame)
LSU (beat Texas)
Michigan (I hate it, but they beat Iowa)
Notre Dame (beat Virginia)
Ohio State (beat Cincinnati)
Wisconsin (beat Michigan)
To this point Bama, Clemson, and OU have all played schedules similar to Memphis or Wyoming, so they missed the cut.
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Exactly the same as yours except I left Penn St off — don’t see them getting through both AN Ohio St U and Wisconsin, and I hate them (which may be a form of gaming the system, sorry).
And I left Wisconsin off completely in error. Took me 1 minute because I had put all the teams I was going to list in a text to a friend on Friday, and the Barn was the only one who dropped off the list. Wish I had taken 2 mins because I really think Wisconsin deserves to be included because of their D.
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UGA
UF
Bama
LSU
Clemson
Wake
tOSU
Penn St
Wisconsin
Minnesota
OU
Baylor
In other words, all the undefeated P5 teams. At this point, they’re all in the hunt, and there are too many to justify putting any 1-loss team in the conversation. That will likely change as the season goes on, but with this many undefeated teams, it’s hard to see a path to the playoff for anyone with a loss (other than a 1-loss Bama or SEC Champ).
Took me about 5 minutes.
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5-7 minutes, included all undefeated P5 teams. Would include an undefeated non P5 if they had a schedule comparable to a weak P5 schedule – none do imo. According to how the season goes, Boise may have an argument here.
Also included any one loss team that lost to a team I believe is elite and has performed well in other games. ND made the cut and that was it. UGA takes an ugly loss and ND is out. UF beats LSU and Auburn is in until they lose.
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I essentially included teams that still control their destiny, more than many others it sounds like. Left out non-P5 teams with no chance of playoff even if they win out. Took about 5 minutes.
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