willweaverrva's Week 9 Ballot
| Rank | Team | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Auburn | Most teams were either idle or played very weak opponents, so there weren't many changes this week. In fact, the entire top 10 is unchanged from last week. |
| 2 | Tennessee | Don't let that 82-64 final score fool you, Middle Tennessee played the Vols really, really tough. Tennessee could be in for a rude awakening when SEC play starts. |
| 3 | Iowa State | |
| 4 | Florida | Florida could very well be a sleeper in one of the most powerful incarnations of the SEC we've seen in college basketball - all of them are in the top 63 of KenPom. |
| 5 | Duke | |
| 6 | Alabama | |
| 7 | Houston | |
| 8 | Kansas | |
| 9 | Texas A&M | |
| 10 | Kentucky | Despite a head-scratcher of a loss to Ohio State last week, I kind of like where Mark Pope has Kentucky headed into conference play. They have some work to do, though. |
| 11 | Oregon | The first change of the week - Oregon benefits from Gonzaga falling to UCLA and moves up a spot. |
| 12 | UConn | |
| 13 | UCLA | Another UCLA-Gonzaga game, another instant classic, and this time UCLA came out on top. The Bruins look pretty good and the metrics love them, but the Big Ten will really put them to the test. |
| 14 | Oklahoma | The Sooners won, but they didn't cover. Still, they're one of only four undefeated teams in D1 as they head into conference play in an incredibly tough SEC. |
| 15 | Marquette | |
| 16 | Mississippi State | |
| 17 | Illinois | |
| 18 | Gonzaga | I'm sure Nembhard was thinking, "well, it worked for Jalen Suggs..." |
| 19 | Cincinnati | |
| 20 | Michigan State | New to ballot. This is a major correction of an oversight from previous weeks. I should have had the Spartans ranked for at least two weeks. |
| 21 | St. John's | |
| 22 | Baylor | Although they won this week, I had to drop Baylor some spots after reevaluating some teams. They lost to some really good teams, but they only have two KP top-50 wins by an average of 3 points. |
| 23 | Utah State | New to ballot. The Aggies got themselves a gutsy win over a ranked San Diego State team in one of the toughest places to play in the Mountain West. |
| 24 | Nebraska | New to ballot. Nebrasketball has become a lot of fun to watch and the Cornhuskers absolutely dominated the Diamond Head Classic, including a stunning win over a sneaky good Oregon State squad. |
| 25 | Drake | New to ballot. There are only four undefeated teams in D1, and the way they're all playing, they all deserve to be ranked right now. |
Overall Rationale
Many teams were idle this week, so some adjustments have been made based on reassessment of some of the teams' performances to this point in the season. Namely, Michigan State is now ranked because I was an idiot and I didn't rank them last week. DROPPED FROM BALLOT: San Diego State (15), Ole Miss (22), Arkansas (23), Dayton (25). NEW TO BALLOT: Michigan State, Utah State, Nebraska, Drake. ALMOST FAMOUS: 26. Maryland, 27. Memphis, 28. Dayton, 29. Arkansas, 30. Penn State.