I don’t know how I feel about this. I’m one of the fans that are still bitter about the way he left. Regardless, I worry his moment has passed and we can’t get that lightning back into the bottle.

This thread actually tipped me off to this, but I’ll comment here for discussion. WVU decides to bring back Rich Rod to replace Neal Brown!

https://www.wdtv.com/2024/12/11/west-virginia-hires-rich-rodriguez-36th-head-football-coach/

Here is my computer poll. I don’t know why it likes Notre Dame over Oregon…

1. Notre Dame 2. Oregon 3. Texas 4. SMU 5. Penn State 6. South Carolina 7. Indiana 8. Ohio State 9. Georgia
2. Arizona State
3. Tennessee
4. Boise State
5. Alabama
6. Baylor
7. Syracuse
8. Ole Miss
9. Colorado
10. Clemson
11. Iowa State
12. Louisville
13. Tulane
14. Michigan
15. Army
16. Miami
17. Florida

To be clear, I don’t think a team should be left out of the playoffs for something like that. Since it occurs after the game, it seems like a fine to the offending school makes the most sense (and may already exist). Beyond that, maybe a half/whole game suspension for the player and/or coach?

Agreed on banning flag planting. It’s literally unsportsmanlike conduct and vandalism even.

I was shocked to see so many people on other forum defending or even condoning the practice.

My ballot. Oregon loses the bye week to Ohio State AND Notre Dame. Notable big winners are Auburn, Florida, and Kansas. The once #9 💩sburgh continues to plummet, now at #62! BYU falls out of the Top 25, and ASU takes over for the Big 12 at #12.

1. Ohio State
2. Notre Dame
3. Oregon
4. SMU
5. Texas
6. Penn State
7. Indiana
8. Georgia
9. South Carolina
10. Tulane
11. Clemson
12. Arizona State
13. Miami
14. Boise State
15. Ole Miss
16. Tennessee
17. Alabama
18. Baylor
19. Colorado
20. Florida
21. Syracuse
22. Army
23. Louisville
24. Illinois
25. UNLV

Here’s my ballot from my computer poll. Big movers include Washington, Kansas, Florida, Iowa State, and Syracuse moving up 20+ spots. There were several big losers this week including my Mountaineers, who I got to see lose to Baylor at home. But at least the tailgate was fun, right?? But the biggest loser is… Western Kentucky losing to then 3-6 LA Tech.

1. Oregon
2. Indiana
3. Notre Dame
4. Ohio State
5. Texas
6. SMU
7. Ole Miss
8. Penn State
9. Alabama
10. Tulane
11. Georgia
12. South Carolina
13. Colorado
14. Clemson
15. Boise State
16. Miami (FL)
17. Army
18. Texas A&M
19. Arizona State
20. Tennessee
21. BYU
22. Baylor
23. Syracuse
24. Iowa State
25. James Madison

Great breakdown! Utah lost so many ways on that drive. And the AD made such an ass of himself.

My poll really doesn’t like Georgia either! It has been begrudgingly moving them up with each win. But they drop 10 spots after losing to the #11 team (according to my poll), behind five 2-loss teams and one 3-loss team.

My poll must not be impressed by their margin of victory (vs expectations) or something, even though that is a pretty small portion of the equation. Most of the rating comes from a modified ELO that only cares about win/loss.

Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of movement in my poll. Miami, Georgia, LSU, 💩sburgh, and Minnesota drop 10 or more places, with the last three dropping out of the Top 25. But this biggest loser is… Cincinnati (-27) after losing to WVU (more on that later).

The biggest winners will be no surprise: GT, UCLA, WVU, Rutgers, Kansas, and Duke all jumping 20+ spots. My home team of WVU makes an surprisingly large leap of 23 spots to 41st place with their win over then #38 Cincinnati (5-3). I’m torn about this win, because I don’t want to give our AD any excuses to keep Neal Brown any longer than we need to…

1. Oregon
2. Indiana
3. Notre Dame
4. Ohio State
5. Texas
6. SMU
7. Ole Miss
8. Penn State
9. Alabama
10. BYU
11. Tennessee
12. Colorado
13. Miami
14. South Carolina
15. Clemson
16. Tulane
17. Army
18. Georgia
19. Boise State
20. Texas A&M
21. Louisville
22. Louisiana
23. Washington State
24. Kansas State
25. Arizona State

It may be flawed, but apparently it works pretty well of that’s the only one that stood out to me.

But that begs the question, how do you determine the first top 25 teams if there’s no top 25 team to beat? 😋

Houston?

Lots of upsets means there is a lot of movement in my computer poll. Pitt 💩, A&M, Penn State, VT, Kansas State, and Iowa State plummet. Meanwhile Georgia is climbing the rankings, whether my computer likes it or not!

1. Oregon
2. Indiana
3. Miami (FL)
4. Notre Dame
5. Ohio State
6. SMU
7. Texas
8. Georgia
9. Tennessee
10. BYU
11. Ole Miss
12. Penn State
13. LSU
14. Alabama
15. Boise State
16. Pittsburgh
17. Texas A&M
18. Colorado
19. Army
20. Louisville
21. Tulane
22. Minnesota
23. Clemson
24. South Carolina
25. Washington State

I use https://collegefootballdata.com/ which has an API, though I don’t actually use it (yet). I just navigate to “Data” > “Games and Results” and export the 2024 FBS games to a csv file and use that.

It looks like one of the ballots double voted Notre Dame (9 & 10), Kansas State (19 & 21), and SMU (18 & 24), giving them an extra 16, 5, and 2 points respectively (if you remove the lower ranked).

Pretty much! It doesn’t have to be a computer poll, it can be just your opinion, or a hybrid.

I do a computer poll, because a) I don’t watch enough games to make an informed ranking and b) it’s a fun exercise in coding and tuning the algorithm(s) for me.

You also don’t need to share your ballot in the comments, but I also enjoy sharing and explaining what my algorithm is doing and if/where I disagree with it.

Here are the results from my computer poll. Oregon overtakes Indiana, and Notre Dame gets a big boost. Navy sadly falls out of the Top 25, but still on the bubble.

1. Oregon
2. Indiana
3. Notre Dame
4. Penn State
5. Miami
6. Texas
7. Texas A&M
8. Pittsburgh
9. Ohio State
10. BYU
11. Clemson
12. SMU
13. Kansas State
14. Iowa State
15. Tennessee
16. Georgia
17. LSU
18. Alabama
19. Colorado
20. Army
21. Virginia Tech
22. Ole Miss
23. Boise State
24. Washington State
25. Tulane

What Kennesaw State isn’t a quality loss?? /s

It’s okay, my poll has Alabama at #20, that should help balance things out a bit.

BTW, how did you format your full ranking? I can’t figure out how to get mine to do that.

My computer poll still really likes Indiana despite the relatively easy schedule and still really doesn’t like Georgia, despite their win against Texas (though it did help quite a bit).

1. Indiana
2. Oregon
3. Miami
4. LSU
5. Penn State
6. Notre Dame
7. BYU
8. Texas
9. Tennessee
10. Georgia
11. Ohio State
12. Clemson
13. Iowa State
14. Kansas State
15. Texas A&M
16. SMU
17. Pittsburgh
18. Illinois
19. Missouri
20. Alabama
21. Navy
22. Army
23. Vanderbilt
24. Ole Miss
25. Colorado