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Bank_Gothic Ballot for 2025 Week 5

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 22, 2025, 10:13 a.m.

Overall Rationale: This is my first ranking of the season that I am taking seriously and putting thought and data into it. This is where I start to consider wins and losses of opponents based on rankings. We're far enough along to start to know who teams are, but there can still be significant volatility in the rankings. Next 5 Out: (26) Mississippi State, (27) Nebraska, (28) Memphis, (29) Louisville, (30) ASU

Rank Team Reason
1 Ohio State Buckeyes Best win, have looked great
2 Oregon Ducks Good wins, look great
3 Miami Hurricanes Good wins, look great
4 Indiana Hoosiers Demolished a good Illinois team, look great, beat the "haven't played anyone" allegations
5 Georgia Bulldogs Great win over Tennessee, look very good
6 Florida State Seminoles Beat a solid Bama squad
7 Oklahoma Sooners Great win over Michigan, solid win over Auburn but game was very close and depended on penalties
8 Texas A&M Aggies Tight win over ND, have looked good in all other games. Future rankings will depend on wins + how the ND win looks long term.
9 Ole Miss Rebels Taking care of business, but still too early to tell how good wins over Tulane, Arkansas, and Kentucky will look long term
10 Texas Tech Red Raiders Best looking team in the Big 12, I value the win over Utah
11 LSU Tigers Still look good to great, wins over Florida and Clemson mean less as season goes on
12 Vanderbilt Commodores Have looked good but mostly against bad teams
13 Penn State Nittany Lions Have looked good but mostly against bad teams
14 Texas Longhorns Tough loss against best team, haven't played anyone else, Arch seems to have his shit together now
15 Tennessee Volunteers Tough loss to UGA, could have won. The space between UGA and Tennessee should not be 10 spots, but that's just how the season has gone overall. Tennessee will readily climb the rankings as wins stack up, UGA loss should not hold them back at all.
16 Missouri Tigers Have looked good, not sure how to value the SCar or Kansas wins, but team will rise if winning continues
17 Auburn Tigers Tough loss to OU, could have won and OU was bailed out by the refs. The space between OU and Auburn should not be 10 spots, but that's just how the season has gone overall. Auburn will readily climb the rankings as wins stack up, OU loss should not hold them back at all.
18 Alabama Crimson Tide Lost to the only good team they've played so far. Win over Wisconsin looks worse and worse, and I don't value them kicking the shit out of ULM (although I may have to change that assessment if ULM continues to look solid).
19 Iowa State Cyclones Have looked solid, but the wins over KSU and Iowa have lost value as time has passed.
20 Michigan Wolverines Good win over Nebraska helps. Team looks like it will improve over the course of the season as Underwood learns the game more and more.
21 USC Trojans Good wins over bad teams, although Purdue win may look better and better as season goes on. Michigan State gave them a little too much trouble but USC still looked solid.
22 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Solid, frisky team who should be in the mix for the ACC. Wins over Colorado and Clemson look less valuable as season progresses.
23 TCU Horned Frogs Not sure what to make of TCU. They could be great. Will climb the rankings readily as wins stack up. Big 12 contender.
24 Washington Huskies Sure why not.
25 BYU Cougars My gut tells me BYU is a top-25 team and I will continue to rank them until they show me otherwise.

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