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Isthmus11 Ballot for 2025 Week 5

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 21, 2025, 10:22 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Most deserving based on wins as primary metric with some eye test/"best" teams able to move slightly within groups of similar team results.

Rank Team Reason
1 Miami Hurricanes 4-0, 2 wins against P4 teams + one of the best looking G5 teams, best win 27-24 over ND or maybe 49-12 over USF depending on how good you think USF actually is. Best current resume in the country in my opinion and they pass the eye test for me.
2 Ohio State Buckeyes 3-0, best win is still 14-7 against a Texas team I am more and more concerned is not actually for real but they took care of business in their last 2 games. I need to see more to know if they are for real or not but I feel fine giving them the benefit of the doubt for now. I do think Ohio is one of the better G5 teams so that game was a good sign.
3 Florida State Seminoles 3-0, best win 31-17 against Bama and they dominated their other 2 games. FSU looks aggressive and athletic with a great defense, I don't think the Bama win was a fluke and I think its between FSU and Miami to win the ACC this year
4 LSU Tigers 4-0, best win is probably 20-10 against Florida but I am honestly increasingly thinking this BK led LSU team might just be fraudulent once again. The Clemson win looks worse every week and I am not sure if Florida is a very quality win either. Still not sure I want to drop them more unless they actually lose or win in terrible fashion to a truly bad team though.
5 Oklahoma Sooners 4-0, best win is 24-13 over Michigan but they are the only other top team up here with 2 P4 wins, even if the Auburn win was kind of ugly. I don't think I was giving this team enough credit, they might be legit this year.
6 Indiana Hoosiers 4-0, best win 63-10 over Illinois... I might be drinking the kool-aid here but I don't think Illinois is a bad team. This Indiana team looks better than I ever saw them look last year, Curt Cignetti might carry the Saban torch, and I am a believer.
7 Georgia Bulldogs 3-0, best win is 44-41 in OT over Tennessee. I am not convinced by this team so far, I think Tennessee is good not great and they barely won, they also did not take care of business against their OOC games as well as I would have liked to see. But its also Georgia and they will probably get their act together if I had to guess.
8 Texas Tech Red Raiders 4-0, best win 34-10 against Utah. Similar to Indiana, I think Texas Tech simply outclassed a Utah team that I still think will be pretty good this year. The backup QB looks maybe just as good as their starter and I am not sure who has a defense on their schedule that is actually going to slow down this offense.
9 Oregon Ducks 4-0, best win 34-14 against NW. They still have yet to play a team with a real heartbeat but the offense looks scary and I think Oregon is very capable of another run to the B10 title game.
10 Vanderbilt Commodores 4-0, best win 31-7 over SCar and they just throttled Georgia St 70-21 who they lost to last year 32-36. I think this Vandy team is only getting better and I really think they might be one of the better SEC teams this year.
11 Texas A&M Aggies 3-0, best win 41-40 over ND. Not much else to say here, I have a suspicion the Aggies might be fraudulent but they got it done against ND and they clearly have talent on their roster.
12 Ole Miss Rebels 4-0, best win 30-23 over Kentucky, 2 SEC wins but against teams that I think will be bottom of the SEC this year. They did handle Tulane very comfortably who again are I think a noteworthy G5 opponent. I think this squad has a good chance to expose LSU next week.
13 Penn State Nittany Lions 3-0, best win 34-0 over FIU. Best win says it all, PSU has the weakest OOC schedule I have seen from them in recent memory and the idea of Drew Allar and the OL competing against a real defense is setting off some alarm bells in my head. I am basically in wait and see mode for the Oregon game but this roster is insanely talented and should be looking better than this, the defense once again looks legit though and might keep them in some big games.
14 Iowa State Cyclones 4-0, best win 16-13 over Iowa, 2 P4 wins. I think this team has a legit defense but the offense has struggled more than I would like to see against sub-par competition. Holding Iowa to 13 felt expected but after the Iowa-Rutgers game I am giving ISU's defense a bit more credit
15 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 4-0, best win 24-21 against Clemson, 2 P4 wins but against 2 P4 teams that might be pretty bad this year. I am second guessing how much credit I gave GT for the Clemson win last week but I still think this program is on the upswing with momentum and that counts for a lot, P4 wins are still P4 wins (unless they are against UCLA)
16 Tennessee Volunteers 3-1, best win 45-26 over Syracuse, lost 41-44 to UGA in OT. I think Tennessee is a good not great team so far, competing with Georgia is a good sign for their season but I am not totally convinced Georgia is as good as advertised this year.
17 Missouri Tigers 4-0, best win 29-20 over SCar, 2 P4 wins. I think Mizzou has a pretty solid resume so far and I want to see how the offense holds up against a better SEC defense.
18 Alabama Crimson Tide 2-1, best win 38-14 against Wisco, lost 17-31 to FSU. Not much else to say here, waiting to see if DeBoer will figure it out this year. The roster is clearly talented but I think the offense might struggle pretty badly in SEC play. They were clearly a step below FSU and being a step above Wisco this year doesn't say much, Wisco is lucky UCLA is in the B10 this year to save them some negative press.
19 Michigan Wolverines 3-1, best win 30-27 over Nebraska, lost 13-24 vs Oklahoma. The Nebraska score was a bit closer than the game felt and I think Underwood looks surprisingly good for a freshmen. I don't think this team is taking any Top 10 scalps this year but I think they are going to push pretty good teams and might surprise me
20 Texas Longhorns 3-1, best win 55-0 over Sam Houston, lost 7-14 to OSU. As you can tell by this ranking, I am really low on Texas. They have a great defense but I just haven't seen anything that makes me believe that this offense can get it done this year. Arch needs to ball out against an SEC opponent for me to believe again. I wouldn't be stunned to see Florida beat them in 2 weeks if they don't come out of the bye looking like a new squad.
21 USC Trojans 4-0, best win 45-31 over MSU, 2 B10 wins. I think USC has an OL that looks exploitable against a good B10 pass rush but their running game and QB play makes them dangerous. Not totally convinced their defense is up to the task considering how many points Michigan State and Purdue both managed to score but in fairness I think both of those teams are improved from last year.
22 Illinois Fighting Illini 3-1, best win 45-19 over Duke, lost 10-63 to Indiana. Look, I think it was crazy that this team was ever considered AP Top 10 right now but I do think they are a good team that will probably end the year in the top 25. They got dismantled by Indiana but I genuinely think Indiana might just be that kind of team this year. I really want to see how this defense performs against USC next week and I also think Altmyer will need to do more for Illinois to win games against other top B10 teams on their schedule.
23 Memphis Tigers 4-0, best win 32-31 over Arkansas. Yes, Arkansas is not the best SEC team and yes they kind of choked away the game but they are still a good football team and Memphis put themselves in position to win. This team has been very good for several years and I think they might be the best G5 team this year (eyeing up the USF game on Oct 25th)
24 TCU Horned Frogs 3-0, best win 35-24 against SMU, 2 ACC wins. I am not ready to crown anything right now but they looked totally dominant against UNC and comfortably beat an SMU team that I think is decent. The offense looks competent both running and passing and that makes them more dangerous than a lot of teams in my opinion. Still waiting to see how they play against a better defense.
25 Utah Utes 3-1, best win 43-10 over UCLA, lost 10-34 to Texas Tech. I think this team generally looks good on the eye test but I need to see them win a game against a team that isn't G5 quality this year. 4 turnovers in one game is obviously hard to come back from but I think even without those turnovers they were probably going to comfortably lose to Texas Tech this week, the offense just didn't seem consistent enough

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