corndogshuffle's Week 3 Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | +12. Texas earned the most impressive win of the season (so far) by blasting Gonzaga. |
| 2 | Virginia | +14. Virginia has the best pair of wins the country, against Baylor and Illinois. |
| 3 | Kansas | +1. Kansas had a really nice win against Duke despite missing Bill Self. |
| 4 | Houston | +1. Houston continues to look really good (they lead Oregon 27-17 as I write this, I need to go to sleep so hopefully the Cougars don't make me look dumb tomorrow) |
| 5 | North Carolina | -2. After a shaky first few games, UNC looked like a top five team against JMU. |
| 6 | Gonzaga | -5. After getting absolutely blitzed by Texas, Gonzaga took out their anger on Kentucky. |
| 7 | Michigan State | +16. Sparty beat Kentucky on Tuesday, took out Villanova, and is one basket against Gonzaga away from being ranked 3rd at the worst. |
| 8 | Baylor | -2. The Bears, like Illinois, beat UCLA and lost to Virginia. I let their KenPom numbers break the tie. |
| 9 | Illinois | +16. The Illini, like Baylor, beat UCLA and lost to Virginia this week. I let their KenPom numbers break the tie. |
| 10 | Indiana | -3. Indiana picked up a solid road win at Xavier. |
| 11 | Duke | -3. Duke lost their first big contest with Coach Scheyer. |
| 12 | Auburn | -1. Auburn begins a string of teams that have neither hurt nor helped my impression of them so far this season. |
| 13 | Creighton | -1. Same reasoning as Auburn. |
| 14 | Arizona | +0. Same reasoning as Creighton. |
| 15 | Arkansas | +0. Same reasoning as Arizona. |
| 16 | San Diego State | +2. Won at Stanford, now has two top 60 wins in KenPom. |
| 17 | Tennessee | +2. Sorry about Hendon Hooker, Vols fans. |
| 18 | Kentucky | -16. Should have beaten Michigan State, should have tried in the 1st half against Gonzaga. A solid effort in the second half against Gonzaga keeps the Cats in my top 20. |
| 19 | UCLA | -10. Played very competitive games against two teams I have ranked in the top 10. |
| 20 | Maryland | UR. Maryland is 22 in KenPom, they slaughtered Saint Louis and then took out Miami, both teams that I was about to rank. |
| 21 | Alabama | +0. Still waiting for Alabama to really get into the meat of their schedule. |
| 22 | Iowa | UR. Iowa beat Seton Hall by sixteen this week. |
| 23 | UConn | -1. Another team that I just don't know much about yet. |
| 24 | Texas Tech | +0. See UConn. |
| 25 | Saint Mary's | NR. Good efficiency numbers, no losses, the Gaels look solid so far. |
Overall Rationale
I wasn't sure about jumping Illinois so far up, but it was either that or leave them behind the 12-15 gaggle of teams and I couldn't justify putting them so low. Texas and Virginia got rewarded for looking incredible against challenging schedules. I viewed Kentucky and UCLA as a bit of a pair, so I put them as low as I felt like I could really justify both teams being. Next five: Purdue, Utah State, Ohio State, Mississippi State, Toledo.