Coach's Poll, 2018 Week 15 Ballots

[Escambia94]

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Most of the coaches agree with the College Football Playoff rankings, for the most part. This chart makes it easy to see where the biases are. Everyone agrees with the following highlighted exceptions:

• Nick Saban (Alabama) and Pat Narduzzi (Pitt) have Clemson at #1 over Alabama.
• Narduzzi, Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State), Dana Holgersen (WVU), and Dan Mullen (Florida) have Oklahoma at #3 instead of Notre Dame. These coaches apparently love offense.
• Gus Malzahn (Auburn), Barry Odom (Missouri), Ken Niamatotolo (Navy), and Rick Stockstill (Middle Tennessee) have Georgia in at #3 instead of Notre Dame.
• 14 coaches primarily from B1G and B12 have Ohio State in at #4 instead of Oklahoma.
• 9 coaches primarily from SEC and ACC have Georgia in at #4 instead of Oklahoma.
• Only Stockstill and Troy Calhoun (Air Force) have UCF in at #4 instead of Oklahoma.
• Approximately 12 of the 60 coaches have Florida ranked #10 to #15, one has Florida at #15 to #25, and everyone else has Florida in the top 10.

Compared to Week 1, the major differences are that only 3 coaches had Florida in the top 25 (including Dan Mullen), and couple coaches had Wisconsin or Washington in the top 4.

 

[DRU2012]

A couple of "surprises that AREN'T surprises when you think about 'em" (Saban's putting his own team at #2 is a perfect example: Safe here as "emotional tool"--and you gotta wonder if this were truly his preference had it had ANY chance to affect the actual outcome--or worse, the "REAL PLAYOFF LINE-UP")...a few real questionmarks that made me scratch my head...Important to remember that this list IS publicly posted and NOT binding on anything in any way, I think. Every one of these guys has it at least PARTLY in mind all the time to send "messages" (Saban eg again) AND consider the repercussions to "image building" in everything they do and say.

 

[Escambia94]

A couple of "surprises that AREN'T surprises when you think about 'em" (Saban's putting his own team at #2 is a perfect example: Safe here as "emotional tool"--and you gotta wonder if this were truly his preference had it had ANY chance to affect the actual outcome--or worse, the "REAL PLAYOFF LINE-UP")...a few real questionmarks that made me scratch my head...Important to remember that this list IS publicly posted and NOT binding on anything in any way, I think. Every one of these guys has it at least PARTLY in mind all the time to send "messages" (Saban eg again) AND consider the repercussions to "image building" in everything they do and say.

I know Saban likes to avoid over-inflating the ego and sense of entitlement in his players, but in this case he probably sincerely believes that Clemson is a more complete team. He hears the sports media stating that over the past few years of play between Kirby Smart and Nick Saban, Georgia has held the lead or a tie for 280 possessions out of 289. That is 97% of the time that Georgia was the superior team on the field, only to crumble on 4th and Smart or 4th and Tua.