As a voter in the Football Writers Association of America/National Football Foundation Super 16 poll, it’s always a challenge to figure out to what degree a team must be punished after a loss.

For this week, that proved to be especially interesting as, believe it or not, USC’s loss at Washington State may have cost Virginia Tech a spot in the poll. That’s right, the Trojans knocked the Hokies out.

Here’s a look at my ballot for this week, with a couple of explanations at the bottom:

1. Alabama (Last week: 1)

2. Penn State (2)

3. Clemson (3)

4. Wisconsin (5)

5. Oklahoma (6)

6. Washington (7)

7. Michigan (8)

8. Georgia (10)

9. Ohio State (9)

10. Auburn (11)

11. Louisville (13)

12. TCU (14)

13. Miami (15)

14. Oklahoma State (16)

15. Washington State (NR)

16. USC (4)

First of all, when I wrote last week, “I would not be surprised if I added the Cougars soon. Very soon.” I feel as if I predicted the USC upset. So good for me.

But what to do with USC? Well, I still think the Trojans are one of the top 16 college football teams in the country, so I didn’t want to knock them completely out of the poll. But I had to add Washington State, and I felt USC needed to be behind them.

So what happened? Virginia Tech’s no-shame loss to Clemson dropped them in the polls … and actually dropped them out of this poll. But they are No. 17 with a bullet.

Contact John Wagner at jwagner@theblade.com, 419-724-6481, or on Twitter @jwagnerblade.

First Published October 2, 2017, 2:04 p.m.