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Doogitywoogity Ballot for 2025 Week 8

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 12, 2025, 7:43 p.m.

Overall Rationale: I GOT THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY SIX SUGAR COOKIES BAKING IN MY OVEN RIGHT NOW. THESE TAKES WILL BE EQUALLY AS HOT

Rank Team Reason
1 Miami Hurricanes Notre Dame and USF are holding them up much more than FSU and UF. Still good wins over those squads even if they’re struggling rn. Louisville next week looks to be the hardest remaining game for the canes.
2 Indiana Hoosiers Illinois, Iowa, and Oregon. Those are some solid wins. One of the most impressive resumes at this point in the season. I still think Miami holds the edge over the Hoosiers, but they seem to have an easier road from here onwards. Maryland may be the most difficult remaining game after Penn State imploded.
3 Ohio State Buckeyes Illinois and Washington are the more impressive wins on their schedule so far, but that isn’t exactly great. I have started ranking Washington so that’s something to prop Ohio State up. I think it’s going to become increasingly difficult to justify Ohio State above teams that have the same record but against good teams. If I’m Ohio State I want Washington and Illinois to play a great remainder of the season. I still think OSU is one of the top teams this season, but they really won’t get to show it until the playoffs or B1G championship due to how texas, Penn State, and Michigan are not living up to expectations.
4 Texas A&M Aggies Big win over UF, to join the ND, Auburn, and MS St wins. The defense looks elite, and should be able to hold just about anyone most of the time. The offense is a bit suspect, it was particularly concerning seeing the offense fall flat for much of the game after the Moss’ injury, but it’s unclear to me if that was a play calling issue or an offense that struggles to adjust to personnel losses. If it’s the later, getting through the season and winning will become increasingly difficult.
5 Oregon Ducks I expected that if Indiana won this one, it would be by 3 or less. A 10 point loss, where Oregon only scored one offensive touchdown is a shocker. A large part of Oregon’s allure has been their offense, but I no longer believe they’ll be competent against a strong defense. Penn State’s collapse does not help the ducks either, with either Montana State or Northwestern being their most impressive wins. I do think that Lanning can keep this team in the running for the B1G, but they’re no longer in control. The Iowa, USC, and Washington games should all be much more interesting, and the best chances for Oregon to prove themselves.
6 Texas Tech Red Raiders A win over this Kansas squad is great, but an injury to their QB is not. That’s frankly a large reason I didn’t move them up over Oregon. They especially don’t need this before going to play at Arizona State, who is still a good squad despite their drop from the rankings. It seems the status of their QB is not totally known but not terrible, so maybe their defense can keep them in contention. It is quite concerning how often he seems to be getting injured, and given they have a serviceable if not quite good backup QB from what I can tell, they should really try and rest him to keep from further aggravating whatever injury is really causing issues here.
7 Ole Miss Rebels So I’m having difficulty with this team, in that they keep playing close to teams they have no business playing close. That is a dangerous game, and usually leads to heartbreak at some point in the season. Wazzu is not good this year. Kentucky is not good this year. Arkansas already fired their HC. It’s not a good look to nearly drop all three of those. Georgia and Oklahoma loom large, but both of those teams are struggling as far as I’m concerned right now as well.
8 Alabama Crimson Tide This squad is playing quite differently from the team that lost to FSU to start the season. They’ve had three relatively impressive wins in a row, and now they’ll have a shot to effectively kill Tennessee’s hopes for a good season, or choke away their own.
9 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Got a what reads to me as a decent win over Virginia Tech where Haynes King played well. Seem like the game the Yellowjackets needed after the close Wake Forest game that just happened. Duke, Pitt, and Georgia look to be the toughest remaining games, but that gives them plenty of chances to earn a spot in the ACC Championship game, and tune up for Miami.
10 Virginia Cavaliers If anything, the FSU game is helping them less now. I still find the NC State loss a bit perplexing given how (especially the offense) this team has been so far this year. Though if memory serves there was a significant weather delay partway through that game. Play better than Ole Miss vs Wazzu this week, and Duke will be the hardest remaining game for the season. They do benefit from the NC State game being OOC technically.
11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Past few games have been what the Irish need to answer after the Miami and A&M losses. USC is going to be a great chance to prove that they can still win against good teams. I may have been a bit hyperbolic in saying only Navy would be a potential ranked matchup. As I now have USC and Navy ranked, and Pitt isn’t too far out of the rankings.
12 Georgia Bulldogs This squad has been underwhelming. The loss to Alabama and closer than expected games to Kentucky and Auburn suggest this team is likely not elite as they have been the past few years. The Ole Miss game next week is going to help figure out both of those squads given their season and struggles so far.
13 USF Bulls My expectations going into that game were either USF would dominate and expose UNT or it would be close and USF would likely fall a bit in my rankings. They proved themselves well, and setup for a great matchup with Memphis in a couple weeks. Navy a couple weeks later is also nice, given that they’ll have easier times in between. The AAC race is a fun one this year once again.
14 Utah Utes Huge win for the Utes. And while this feels high, I have a hard time justifying many other teams higher. I did not expect a blowout like that. Both Utah and TTU must be pleased with that outcome. The Holy War is about to be a crazy matchup.
15 Memphis Tigers Nice to rest in a bad week for most of the top 25. Tune up vs UAB and face off with USF for control of the AAC.
16 Nebraska Cornhuskers A close win over Maryland, but given all the other chaos they’ve moved up substantially regardless. The close loss to Michigan certainly stings more as Michigan collapses, and the number of ints thrown should be cause to be worried with Raiola.
17 Missouri Tigers A close loss to Alabama isn’t the worst thing to have happen to you (see also Vandy), but without a marquee win it’s hard to justify having them any higher than this. Their season looks to continue to ramp up, with Auburn and Vandy coming up to redeem themselves. The Mizzou QB from PSU doesn’t really strike confidence in this offense after the double interceptions, and the end of that game looked pitiful and completely out of sync by Mizzou.
18 Cincinnati Bearcats I have a hard time judging against this year’s UCF. They haven’t done anything to impress me but they do seem to keep in close versus mid-upper tier teams. Cincinnati has moved down a bit in my own rankings because of how close that UCF game was. They need to beat up on OK State coming up before getting to the hardest part of their season to end the year.
19 USC Trojans I had largely discounted the Trojans after their Illinois loss, and I fear I’m giving them too much credit for beating a Michigan team that I’ve had unranked for weeks. They’ll have a great chance to prove themselves by beating Notre Dame coming up.
20 Vanderbilt Commodores Alright, bye week is over. LSU, Mizzou, texas, Auburn all back to back. This is where Vandy can prove they’re still a contender, or expose themselves as frauds. Personally, I have more faith in Vandy than most those four other teams, but they’re all teams that I wouldn’t be shocked to see beat Vandy either.
21 LSU Tigers A win over South Carolina is good, but certainly doesn’t carry the weight of the preseason expectations for that game. The upcoming stretch of Vandy, A&M, and Alabama gives them a chance to redeem themselves and get back into the fight for the SEC and playoffs.
22 Louisville Cardinals Alright the Bye week is over, this squad need to come out and prove themselves vs Miami if they want to stay in contention. They really cannot afford losses to Virginia and Miami if they want to stay relevant.
23 Navy Midshipmen Well, surviving Temple after surviving Air Force is certainly better than the alternative, but this Navy squad needs to make significant improvements if they want to stay in the fight with USF and Memphis. Between those two and Notre Dame, Navy has quite the difficult end to their schedule.
24 Washington Huskies Decent win after a slow start vs Rutgers. I don’t have much faith in this squad, but if they keep winning they’ll stay ranked. Michigan should be a good barometer, and Illinois and Oregon will be the defining games of their season.
25 BYU Cougars Close win against a decent Arizona team. This is the closest I’ve come to thinking maybe the Cougars could be legit this year, but their schedule is thoroughly underwhelming so far. The Holy War this week will be a huge game for both squads to prove themselves and the winner looks to be TTU’s primary challenger in the Big XII this year.

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