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2018 Week 12 Poll

The bottom of the poll keeps falling out as both the AP and my own poll have identified about 35 teams that are good, but can’t seem to get the right 25 in the actual rankings.

Real AP Poll:

  1. Alabama (61)
  2. Clemson
  3. Notre Dame
  4. Michigan
  5. Georgia
  6. Oklahoma – Just your weekly OU defensive update…47 points allowed and a two point conversion miss saved the victory.
  7. West Virginia
  8. Washington State
  9. Ohio State
  10. LSU
  11. UCF
  12. Syracuse – This feels too high, this is too high, right?
  13. Texas
  14. Utah State
  15. Florida
  16. Penn State
  17. Washington
  18. Iowa State
  19. Cincinnati – This is surely too high, right?!?
  20. Kentucky
  21. Utah – I’m glad I kept them ranked (shameless).
  22. Boston College
  23. Boise State
  24. Northwestern
  25. Mississippi State – WHY IS THIS TEAM RANKED?!?!

Dropped: Fresno State (16), NC State (22), Michigan State (24)

Receiving Votes: Army, UAB, Fresno State, Michigan State, NC State, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Duke, Texas A&M, Iowa, Arizona State, Stanford, Auburn, Troy

Josh’s Top 25:

  1. Alabama
  2. UCF
  3. Clemson
  4. Notre Dame
  5. Oklahoma – I’m just playing the waiting game until I can drop these fools.
  6. Michigan
  7. Georgia
  8. Ohio State
  9. Washington State
  10. LSU
  11. West Virginia
  12. Texas
  13. Washington
  14. Syracuse – I am making this poll and even this feels too dang high!
  15. Penn State
  16. Utah
  17. Army
  18. Iowa State
  19. Florida
  20. Utah State
  21. Boston College – Their starting quarterback got hurt and they lost to Clemson so you have to drop them some, but also recognize that a back up going against the Tigers wasn’t going to be easy.
  22. Kentucky
  23. Buffalo
  24. -25. See Below – Final Verdict

See Below, What the Hell is That?

This is the most prestigious rankings on the internet, I can’t just give teams the final spot(s) all willy nilly. I had a reader say that this section wasn’t very clear so I’ll try to state the process more clearly. Since many leagues will have a ton of teams on my radar, I only take one team from each league to start with. On rare exceptions, I’ll take more than one team but for the most part, I really try and weed out within leagues first. Then I see if my final selections have played any FCS teams or have had a bad game (bad games could be narrow wins over bad opponents, a blowout loss, or a stunning upset). After those first two criteria, I take the remaining teams and examine their best win, worst win, best loss, and worst loss to make the final selections.

American Athletic Conference

Well after keeping them ranked…BARELY…following the SMU debacle, Houston really has gone and done it.  They had 59 dropped on them in a losing effort to Temple.  They’re out for sure now.  That leaves Cincy, who won yet again to push their mark to 9-1.  As for Temple, despite being red hot, is still just 6-4 overall so they won’t be ranked any time soon.

AAC Nominee: Cincinnati

Atlantic Coast Conference

I haven’t had NC State in for a while and then they choked away a game to Wake so don’t have to worry about them.  I also kept Boston College in so the next possible club is 6-4 Pittsburgh.  They are in firm control of the division and a good story but should they be ranked?  Not just quite yet.

ACC Nominee: No One

Mountain West Conference

So I had Fresno State ranked and they lost to Boise State.  The logical thing is to just put Boise in, right?

MTW Nominee: Boise State

Elimination Time:

The above two teams join Northwestern, Troy and UAB to form a master list of five teams trying to get into the best poll the internet has. The first criteria I will look at is who has played FCS teams and then look at any bad games.

FCS Much?…Sadly for those Troy Trojans their 8-2 mark turns into 7-2 with the FCS game taken out.  Then it takes further dings from a loss to Boise (a team in contention for being ranked) and a bad loss to Liberty.  Troy is a good team and in great shape to win their league but not quite there for being ranked yet.

Bad Game(s)…6-4 Northwestern is super close to getting ranked but how can you dismiss their Akron loss?  What about their Duke loss?  Cats are a win or two away from being in but not just yet.

Final Three

For this I try to just look at a couple of games: each team’s best win, worst win, best loss (i.e. a moral victory), and worst loss.

  • Boise State
    • BW: Fresno State
    • WW: UConn
    • BL: SDSU (by 6)
    • WL: at Oklahoma State (by 23)
  • Cincinnati
    • BW: USF
    • WW: FCS
    • BL: at Temple (by 7)
    • WL: N/A
  • UAB
    • BW: at Louisiana Tech
    • WW: FCS
    • BL: N/A
    • WL: at Coastal Carolina (by 23)

The first thing that jumped out was Boise’s lack of FCS foe combined with some nice wins.  Fresno is the best but Troy, Nevada, and BYU are also strong victories.  Broncos will be in for sure.

That leaves the Blazers and Cincy.  To me this is a classic case of what are they at their worst?  For UAB they were humiliated by Coastal and for Cincy they nearly (and in many ways should have) knocked off Temple.  Bearcats finally get in.

Final Verdict:

24. Boise State
25. Cincinnati

League Breakdown:

5 – SEC
4 – Big 12
3 – ACC, Big Ten, Pac 12
2 – American, Independent, Mountain West
1 – MAC

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