Pratt-and-Whitney's Week 8 Ballot

Rank	Team	Reason
1	Auburn	+0. Analytics say this is a ridiculously good team, and their only loss to is a very good Duke team in Cameron. They deserve the top spot.
2	Tennessee	+0. Don’t have the resume or standout analytics of Auburn, but they’re still undefeated.
3	Iowa State	+0. They have decent metrics with both a Top 10 offense and defense, only loss is to Auburn on a buzzer-beater, and they have a Top 5 (at the time) win.
4	Duke	+1. They beat Auburn, have strong analytics, and they’re getting better as the season goes along. I will be shocked if they don’t get a 1 seed.
5	Florida	+1. Undefeated, decent analytics, great guard play. I’m intrigued to see how they play against Kentucky coming up
6	Marquette	+1. Two road losses to ranked teams amid injury struggles. I watched them blow their lead against Xavier on the road and have the fortitude to fight back and win in clutch time.
7	Houston	+2. I realize they have 3 extremely close losses, but the metrics love them and I am admittedly a sucker for the way Kelvin Sampson teams play defense
8	Kansas	+2. Two losses in one week a little while ago, but they’re still a very good team and have some great wins.
9	Alabama	-1. I had to drop them after their atrocious performance in Grand Forks. They couldn’t get a stop in that game and it was tied with two minutes left. That can’t happen as a 25 point favorite
10	Kentucky	-6. I wanted to drop them even further after an awful game against Ohio State, but decided against it.
11	Oregon	+0. Good team, holding steady after a good road win. I thought about putting them over Kentucky but decided not to.
12	Gonzaga	+0. The analytics love them, I’m not sure that I do.
13	Cincinnati	+2. I’ve been much higher on this team than everyone else, and I think I was proven right at least a little bit in their win over Dayton.
14	UConn	+0. Good road win against Butler, but I did have Cinci leapfrog them.
15	Texas A&M	-2. I don’t like to drop an idle team, but I am here because the two teams which passed them picked up strong wins.
16	San Diego State	+0. I know I have them higher than most, but I think they’re the best mid-major in the country. And they dismantled Cal this week in their only game this week.
17	Michigan State	+4. They moved up because the teams in front of them lost.
18	Mississippi State	+8. From unranked to the 18 spot. Their performance in the Memphis game is exactly what I wanted to see. They earned this ranking.
19	Illinois	+6. Had a heartbreaking loss to Tennessee, but still a strong team and they have wins over Arkansas and Missouri.
20	Oklahoma	+5. The analytics still don’t like them, but they’re undefeated and beat Michigan (albeit on a miracle shot and phantom call).
21	Michigan	-3. Still a good team, I really like Danny Wolf. However, they did lose that game against Oklahoma, so they have to drop.
22	Dayton	-5. I really like this team, but again, they lost so I’m dropping them. Maybe they don’t deserve to drop this much, but the metrics don’t really love them.
23	Baylor	-4. In retrospect, I had them too high.
24	St. John's	+0. Not sure what to make of this team, and they don’t have the best resume, but they did pick up a good win at Providence, which is always a difficult place to play.
25	Maryland	+1. An odd team. Not a great resume, but very strong analytics.

Overall Rationale

#26 - Texas Tech. #27 - UCLA. #28 - Ole Miss