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Zef_Apollo Ballot for 2025 Week 7

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 6, 2025, 12:44 p.m.

Overall Rationale: I value resume, teams playing tough teams, eye test, and trends (I.e., teams progressing or worsening over time). I deconstruct and rebuild my entire poll each week. Next 5 out for me: 26. Notre Dame 27. USC 28. Miss St 29. UNLV 30. Nebraska Also for fun I added change scores for each team just to see if/how much teams moved. I did not look at my last week rankings until I was submitting and made no changes. For those that are upset about the order of some of the teams I see them in blocks: 1: Clear #1 2 - 6: Pretty close group with a mix of dominant performances of bad teams, dominant performances of good teams, or closer wins against better teams on average) 7: The best team that's got a loss 8 - 19: some more separation between these teams 21-25: lots of arguments

Rank Team Reason
1 Miami Hurricanes I think Miami should be the undisputed #1. They have good wins over: Florida State, Notre Dame, Florida, and USF. That's three ranked wins on my rankings and a not-quite dead Florida team. (+2)
2 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss also has an impressive resume with a good win over LSU and a good Tulane and two other p4 wins in conference (kentucky, arkansas) (+2)
3 Texas A&M Aggies Texas AM has also looked really good and has good wins over Auburn, Notre Dame, and Miss St. who may not all be complete teams but have good pieces and ND will be ranked next week with a win. (+5)
4 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma can do it without Mateer. Good wins over Michigan and Auburn. (-2)
5 Ohio State Buckeyes Probably controversial but their win over Texas looks worse each week. Best win for OSU is Washington. I don't think it's wrong to put them a couple spots higher but they've played a relatively weak schedule so far and their marquee win has fallen off. (-)
6 Indiana Hoosiers Indiana seemed to struggle a little bit against Iowa and have one of the worst SOS among the top 25 teams which will continue to hold them back. However, the win over Illinois looks better each week. (-)
7 Alabama Crimson Tide If you only look at the wins column, Alabama has a strong argument for top 2 resume in CFB. Unfortunately with FSU losing that loss looks worse (even if I factor in trends of the two teams) and holds them back somewhat. But they still have the best win in the country and look like a different team entirely. (+2)
8 Oregon Ducks I'm shocked to have Oregon down here at 8 but they've just not played anyone notable. Penn State plummeted out of the picture which means their best win is...Northwestern? Is it still Penn State? I don't know. I think they're a really good team but don't know what to compare them against but other teams who have played better schedules. (-7)
9 Georgia Bulldogs UGA is really lucky to have that win against Tennessee but they've played 2 teams in the top 12 with a score differential of 0 splitting the games. So I think this is fair right in between those two teams. (+2)
10 Texas Tech Red Raiders Similar to Indiana, their SOS will continue to hold them down but the win against Utah continues to look good. (+6)
11 Missouri Tigers Somehow the worst SOS, or close to it. But they look really good and their RB may be a real heisman candidate. (-4)
12 Tennessee Volunteers They had UGA on the ropes and beat a good Miss St team and have a good offense. (-)
13 LSU Tigers Good Defense? Bad Offense? Is Clemson not terrible? Does the LSU game have value? (+6)
14 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Maybe a good Clemson win again? Are they rebounding? They're getting it done. (-4)
15 BYU Cougars BYU had some of the worst turnovers I've ever seen in a game since DJ Lagway earlier this year. But they're continuing to get it done but are in need of a notable win. (+6)
16 Vanderbilt Commodores Honestly, still a really good team. I think they they have the potential to really ruin someones day. The game with Alabama was both closer and not as close as it seems. They have a much better defense than I thought. (-3)
17 Michigan Wolverines Some odd coaching decisions and unimpressive QB play made this game closer than it should be, in my opinion. I was surprised it was 10-7 until very late in the 3rd. But, I think they hvae a pretty good defense and a strong run game. (+3)
18 Virginia Cavaliers I held off on ranking them last week because I thought the game was a fluke against FSU but they battled to the end with an undefeated Louisville. Actually have an impressive resume to back up their rankings and have looked good. (NR)
19 Cincinnati Bearcats welcome cincy bearcats. I think this is maybe a little higher than I thought I'd put them but want to respect head to head. (NR)
20 Iowa State Cyclones Close games were bound to catch up to them. Iowa state didn't look great on defense here. (-6)
21 Arizona State Sun Devils fun team with only blemish against a pretty good Miss State that may still end up being like 3rd from last in the SEC. (+2)
22 Illinois Fighting Illini Pretty good resume but they just got absolutely blasted by Indiana which is still a huge blemish. Unsure how they'd fair against another actualyl good team. (+3)
23 Memphis Tigers Good win over a good Tulsa team to add on to their record. (-1)
24 USF Bulls Maybe the best team in the G5 that was just unlucky to get blasted by Florida State. (-)
25 Florida State Seminoles Debated replacing with ND but Fla St has an impressive win while ND doesn't so they get the nod. However, ND looked better in their losses and they're to better teams. (-10)

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