Highlights from the ballot …
* Alabama and Georgia held down the top spots once again, with Penn State moving up three positions, to No. 3, after the victory at Auburn. Combined with the season-opening escape at Wisconsin, the Nittany Lions now have two quality wins.
* We admittedly were undervaluing Florida and have moved the correct the situation. The Gators jumped from No. 17 to No. 7 position after pushing Alabama to the brink.
At this point, our approach is fairly straightforward: Any team good enough to make the Crimson Tide sweat — with no other losses — is worthy of top-10 consideration.
* Michigan State entered the ballot this week in the No. 17 slot after thumping Miami. The Spartans, under second-year coach Mel Tucker, are 3-0.
* UCLA and Arizona State dropped off the ballot after losses to Fresno State and BYU, respectively. That leaves one Pac-12 team, Oregon, remaining.
(We had five on the ballot as recently as two weeks ago.)
We removed ASU not because losing to BYU is a bad loss but because the Sun Devils have nothing else on the resume to offset that result.
The wins over Southern Utah and UNLV are meaningless in an assessment of ballot-worthiness. From our standpoint, they essentially have two FCS wins and an FBS loss.
The Bruins were a more difficult situation because of the victory over LSU. But the Tigers aren’t on our ballot, either — the caliber of that win for UCLA is somewhat muddled until we get a better read on LSU.
To the ballot …
1. Alabama
2. Georgia
3. Penn State
4. Iowa
5. Oregon
6. Oklahoma
7. Florida
8. Ohio State
9. Iowa State
10 Clemson
11. Texas A&M
12. Notre Dame
13. Cincinnati
14. Wisconsin
15. Auburn
16. BYU
17. Michigan State
18. North Carolina
19. Oklahoma State
20. Michigan
21. Mississippi
22. Kansas State
23. Texas Tech
24. Coastal Carolina
25. Arkansas
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Wilner Hotline – Thanksgiving Day Pac-12 Doings
