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IWieldTheFlameOfAnor Ballot for 2025 Week 5

Ballot Type: Computer

Submitted: Sept. 21, 2025, 11:18 a.m.

Overall Rationale: I have made my own ELO-rating system (similar to chess) for college football. Only final scores are considered in the ratings. W-L records do not matter. Margin of victory matters. My code is on github here: https://github.com/kyleaforrester/cfb_elo Losing to a good team might actually improve your rating if you played them close enough. Beating a bad team with a slim margin might drop your rating if your margin of victory isn't good enough. I don't care about the end W-L result or the W-L team records, just how each team performs when compared to what was expected of them. Missing team from last week's top 15: Florida State Florida State's 2024 season was so bad that not even the Alabama win is enough to catapult them into my top 25 yet. They have to prove more than that one game. Missing team from last week's top 15: Illinois Illinois' crushing defeat at Indiana dropped them all the way to #26 and out of the rankings. Missing team from last week's top 15: Iowa State Iowa State dropped to #30 due to having such a close call against a bad Arkansas State team. Missing team from last week's top 15: Georgia Tech Tech would have squeaked into the rankings but is at #29 since they needed better margin of victories over mediocre Clemson and horrible Temple teams. Missing team from last week's top 15: Utah Utah's crushing defeat at the hands of Texas Tech dropped them hard down to #42.

Rank Team Reason
1 Ohio State Buckeyes
2 Oregon Ducks
3 Penn State Nittany Lions
4 Texas Longhorns
5 Vanderbilt Commodores The most controversial team here is Vanderbilt. Vandy got their high rank by handily beating Virginia Tech when Tech was considered a decent team, and then boat racing one of the really good teams at the time (South Carolina).
6 Georgia Bulldogs
7 Miami Hurricanes
8 Indiana Hoosiers
9 Ole Miss Rebels
10 LSU Tigers
11 Tennessee Volunteers
12 Texas Tech Red Raiders
13 BYU Cougars
14 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame is still ranked even though they have two losses because I don't care about W-L records, the margin of victories were slim, they finished last season very well, and the teams they lost to were good.
15 Oklahoma Sooners
16 TCU Horned Frogs
17 Alabama Crimson Tide
18 USC Trojans
19 Missouri Tigers
20 Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa has always hovered around the edge of the top 25 since the end of last season. Their loss to Iowa State was not bad, and their win at Rutgers was good enough to keep them right around the edge of top 25.
21 Auburn Tigers
22 Texas A&M Aggies
23 Louisville Cardinals
24 Arkansas Razorbacks I don't care that Arkansas lost 2 of their games. Ole Miss is a top opponent and Arkansas played them tough. Memphis is also a good team and Arkansas barely lost. The games were close enough that Arkansas, although losing, plays with the gusto of a #24 team.
25 Kansas Jayhawks Blowout wins vs decent Fresno and West Virginia teams, and a competitive Missouri game, mean Kansas is actually pretty good.

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