Here's how a voter might justify it : "At the beginning of the year, I picked ND ahead of UConn, partly due to the last game between them which ND won, and reflecting that UConn lost a lot to graduation. Since then, ND lost one game, to the #1 team in the country, as expected, so nothing has happened to materially change my assessment. Maybe, if the season ended today, I'd have to think hard about the quality of each win, but I see UConn scheduled to play Baylor Sunday, so that will tell me more. "