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SufferingfOrLife Ballot for 2025 Week 6

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 28, 2025, 10:22 a.m.

Overall Rationale: My own Top 25 based on my own opinion of each team. This week really exposed how bad my past ranking was because I tried to highlight some teams that weren't getting any love, and they proceeded to lose, so they won't be in my ranking now. Also, some big upsets that caused some teams to skyrocket or falter. Here are the teams that dropped from my ranking: Washington 19 → UR, USC 20 → UR, Arizona 22 → UR, Mississippi State 24 → UR. New teams added to my poll: Alabama UR → 9, Tennessee UR → 20, Arizona State UR → 24, Utah UR → 25. I realized from my past ranking that I try to do it like a game where I need to get a team ranking right before everyone else, and that caused the bottom of my rankings to be just a bunch of teams who played cupcakes and looked good doing so, and not one-loss teams who lost to quality opponents.

Rank Team Reason
1 Oregon Ducks +1 Had a phenomenal win on the road in a tough environment and have looked great to start the year, so they get my top spot now
2 Ohio State Buckeyes -1 They have looked good, including a solid win over Washington on the road, but Oregon has been better thus far.
3 Miami Hurricanes +1 Bye Week
4 Penn State Nittany Lions -1 I still think they are a good team, but I don't know what to truly think because James Franklin seemingly can't win a big game, and Drew Allar just isn't that good of a QB but I like the rest of the team and think James Franklin is a good head coach, so it's tough to drop down the rankings that far.
5 Indiana Hoosiers 0 Had a tough road win against Iowa, but didn't lose the trap game coming off the win over Illinois
6 Oklahoma Sooners +2 Bye Week
7 Ole Miss Rebels +11 Big time win against LSU, who hasn't looked too hot to start the year. Trinidad Chambliss is spectacular, and I said last week he was a great backup, but he may take the starting job if he hasn't already.
8 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets +1 UGLY I probably shouldn't even rank them after that performance, but you take your win and move on. I don't know what Brent Key does during games against unranked ACC teams because he is just one game above .500 when facing them, but he is 7-1 against ranked ACC teams, so he needs to beat the teams he should.
9 Alabama Crimson Tide NEW Big win on the road against Georgia, and this is the win I needed to see to put Alabama in the ranking and now back in the top 10.
10 Georgia Bulldogs -4 Kirby Smart has an Alabama problem, and I don't know how you can fix it.
11 Texas Tech Red Raiders +1 Bye Week
12 Iowa State Cyclones +1 Nice win over Arizona as they are now 5-0 and seem to be poised to go back to the Big 12 championship.
13 Texas A&M Aggies 0 A close win over Auburn, but I think it was one they would have dropped in the past.
14 LSU Tigers -7 Bad loss, and the offense just looks bad. Can't run the football at all, and Garrett Nussmeier hasn't impressed thus far. Defense looks great, though, which is kind of an inverse of 2023, where the defense let the offense down, and now the offense is letting the defense down.
15 Louisville Cardinals -1 Not a great first half, but Miller Moss turned it on that second half, and if he can play like that or even close to that for a full game, Louisville is a legit contender for the ACC, which I already think they are.
16 Texas Longhorns -1 Bye Week
17 BYU Cougars -1 Pulled out a gritty one against Colorado, and I think Bear Bachmeier looked great using legs, and this BYU team is a legit Big 12 contender with a relatively light schedule ahead.
18 Missouri Tigers -1 I like Ahmad Hardy. That is all.
19 Florida State Seminoles -7 Bad OT loss to a solid Virginia team, and it makes you wonder if they were looking ahead to Miami? Either way, they now need a win against more since they lost a game.
20 Tennessee Volunteers NEW Nice overtime win on the road in a hostile environment in Starkville.
21 Vanderbilt Commodores 0 Played close in the first half but was able to pull away in the second half. Playing Bama next week, so interested to see how they do.
22 Michigan Wolverines +1 Bye Week
23 Memphis Tigers +1 Sizeable win of FAU as they are still in the driver's seat for G5 spot in CFP.
24 Arizona State Sun Devils NEW Great win over TCU who had looked good to start the year.
25 Utah Utes NEW Big win over West Virginia as they climb back in the ranking. I also considered Illinois in this spot, but Utah didn't lose as badly, which isn't to say their loss was good, it's just I think Utah has proven to be better so far.

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