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_THE__BOULDER_ Ballot for 2025 Week 8

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 14, 2025, 10:43 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Just my personal opinions based on teams’ resumes and performances during their games. I do my best to make my selections before viewing the AP poll's and then compare mine with theirs as well as the CFB Poll's at large.

Rank Team Reason
1 Ohio State Buckeyes So far, they're looking good. No reason to bump them down as of yet.
2 Miami Hurricanes So far, they're looking good. No game this past weekend. No reason to bump them down as of yet.
3 Indiana Hoosiers Fantastic win over Oregon. Looking forward to see what else this team does over the rest of the season.
4 Texas A&M Aggies Solid win over the Gators. They look pretty good on both sides of the ball and were able to overcome a fairly good UF defense.
5 Ole Miss Rebels Tight win over a stuggling Wazzu at home. Definitely need to solidify themselves as, right now, they seem to be getting away with it. Curious to see how long they can keep that up. Moved them down from #4 this week.
6 Texas Tech Red Raiders The Red Raiders continue to look good and are undefeated, not having much trouble with any of the teams they've played so far. Pretty sure they'll end up in the BIG 12 championship game, but they might not have a real test until they play a decent BYU team in November.
7 Oregon Ducks Despite their signature win of the season taking a nose dive, I still think Oregon is pretty good this year. They will need to prove it though and win out as their schedule seems to get a bit harder as the year heads towards the end of the season.
8 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Solid win over VT, and they're 6-0, but they've had a few close calls this year which are preventing me from moving them up.
9 Alabama Crimson Tide Continuing their solid run after their initial beatdown by FSU, they beat a pretty good Mizzou team. This team seems to be getting better as the weeks go on, and I'm moving them up from #10 partially because of the win, partially because of the OU loss.
10 Georgia Bulldogs Looked a bit shaky in the first half, going down 10-0 to Auburn, but the second half was all UGA. The team still seems a bit shaky, but they do well to adjust in games under the Smart regime and this seems to have been another case of that. I think they're still kinda finding themselves, although they've done well this year despite that. Big test against Ole Miss this weekend.
11 LSU Tigers LSU is another team that seems to be getting away with it. Their defense is fantastic and can keep them in any game, but I would like to see them score more than 20 points against a team with a pulse. Big tests against Vandy, A&M, and Bama coming up over the next few weeks. I can't see them making it through that stretch undefeated, but who really knows in this chaotic sport of ours?
12 Tennessee Volunteers Tennessee had a solid 17 point lead a few minutes into the 4th, but Arkansas did not lay down for the count, with UT winning the game 34 to 31 after Arky scored 2 touchdowns in the 4th trying to catch up. Tenn has some wins by good margins earlier in the season, but I think their defense needs to improve to help them win against other top teams. The close wins against MSU in OT and Arky at home don't help their case, and they will need to focus hard to beat Bama in Tuscaloosa this weekend.
13 Utah Utes I try to rank everyone before I actually look at the AP poll and then see where my rankings are at compared to theirs. The Utes are a big point of contention with me for the AP poll, as I have them at 13 vs the AP Poll's 23. Their only loss this year has been to what looks to be a very good Texas Tech team. They've blown out every other team they've played, including a decent Arizona State team. I think their record is comparable to other highly ranked 5-1 teams, like Oklahoma, Tennessee, and LSU, and I will continue to rank them highly until I am proven otherwise. That may happen this weekend, with a ranked Holy War coming up, but, until then, keep trucking Utes.
14 Missouri Tigers I wasn't sure if Mizzou was benefitting from a weak schedule up to this point, and maybe they were, but I was questioning how good they really are as they went 5-0 into this past weekend's game against Alabama. They played pretty well, despite ultimately coming up short at home, with a chance to win the game or at least go to OT ending in an interception. I didn't move them down much as they played a team that was ranked fairly close to them, but they play Auburn, Vandy, A&M, MSU, OU, and Arky over their next 6 games, with Vandy, A&&M, and OU obviously being tough but the rest being nothing to sneeze at. Curious to see where they end up.
15 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma's signature win of the season so far has been Michigan, who was knocked out of the rankings by USC this past weekend. They struggled against Texas who has not been good as of late, but had a fairly good game against OU. Part of the issue may have been their QB Mateer's injury, but he threw some bad passes that a hand injury doesn't seem to be a reasonable explanation for, resulting in 3 turnovers. OU is 5-1 with some big tests over the next month and a half. After the performance this past saturday, I am struggling to find games where I'd put money on them winning. After playing South Carolina this weekend, they should hopefully be bowl eligible, but I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped 2-4 of the 5 games after that, with games against Ole Miss, at Tennessee, at Alabama, against Mizzou, and against LSU. Adjustments will definitely need to be made.
16 Virginia Cavaliers No game, didn't move up or down. But their schedule is very doable this year and they may be a dark horse to play in the ACC Championship game. They are currently #2 in ACC play after GT (Miami has only played 1 ACC game, beating FSU). I'm still inclined to think FSU might turn out to be decent this year - not 12-0 good but not 2-10 bad, and Viginia also beat what i think is a fairly good Louisville team in Louisville. I think the best team remaining on their schedule is probably Duke, but UVA has shown me that there is a possibility they win out. Even if they don't win out, dropping 2 games out of that stretch leaves them with a 9-3 season, and I think they're definitely capable of that.
17 USF Bulls USF ended up blowing out North Texas in what was probably the sloppiest blowout win I've seen in a long time. I hear the score was, at 63-36, both Scoragami and a palindrome, so that's kinda fun. USF came in as an underdog by Vegas despite being ranked and took care of business in the least clean way possible, giving up 3 turnovers - two of which were on their first two drives - and 70 yards in penalties. Still, USF won by capitalizing on North Texas's turnovers, of which their were 5, and scoring when they were given good field position by those turnovers. This team has been pretty entertaining this year and I look forward to seeing if they can challenge for the AAC title (I don't respect the conference name change) and potentially become the G5 playoff spot pick. Homecoming against FAU this week and a big game against Memphis in a couple weeks, and a good Navy team still on the schedule for next month.
18 Notre Dame Fighting Irish I might get some flak for this but I had knocked ND out of the rankings after starting 0-2, but I've been moving them up as they've won games. I know their losses were to Miami and A&M, both of which look to be very good and possibly elite teams. My expectation is that I will keep moving them up as they take care of business and I fully predict them to have a 9-10 win season. They've been taking care of business against teams they should be eating for breakfast, so that's been looking good since their initial losses, and they've only played P4 teams except Boise, but they've basically beaten the brakes off teams they should beat and lost to the good teams on their schedules. I want to see how they handle some of the stronger teams coming up on their schedule before I rank them too highly, and early season losses start to hold less weight in my mind as the weeks go on. That being said, potential big game against USC this weekend.
19 Vanderbilt Commodores Mainly moved up due to losses ahead of them, given they were on a bye this past weekend. Big game against LSU this weekend.
20 BYU Cougars I have BYU a little lower than the AP poll does, and I kind of held off from ranking them until this week. While they're 6-0, I don't think they've looked particularly impressive down that stretch, beating up on their first 3 opponents, but only defeating a middling Colorado team away by 3 and then a decent Arizona team away in OT. Still, 6-0 does count for something and I think they deserve to be ranked, but I don't think their record is as strong as many of the teams ranked above them. They will have to play well against Utah in the Holy War this weekend and, while I don't see them getting the win, I've been wrong before. Winning that game would do a lot to solidify their standing in my eyes.
21 USC Trojans USC has been bouncing in and out of the AP rankings but this is the first time I've ranked them this year. While they are 5-1, with their only loss being to a decent Illinois, team, none of their games thus far have been particularly impressive until the win against Michigan in which they won in palindromic fashion (31-13). I think this is the first game where they've really handled business against what is likely at least a decent opponent. They do, however, have a potential big game coming up against Notre Dame this weekend. Curious to see if USC can keep the upsets coming.
22 Memphis Tigers While Memphis is 6-0, and they've won most of their games by wide margins, I'm not particularly impressed with their schedule so far, so I don't have them ranked as high as their AAC counterpart, USF. Still, 6-0 counts for something, and those large victories should count too, so I have them in at #23 this week. They will be playing USF in a couple weeks, as well Tulane and Navy later this year, so we'll see if they can keep it up.
23 Washington Huskies Washington is 5-1 with a fairly big loss to Ohio State. They've been fairly on top of most of their wins, with a close comeback win at Maryland being their main blemish on that - while it showed they were able to come back and win after half time, it also showed they have some issues to work on. I'm not sure if they'll stay in my rankings - they have some potentially tough games coming up against Michigan and Illinois as well as ending the year against Oregon, but I think there is a potential for a 9+ win season here. Could be interesting.
24 Nebraska Cornhuskers Nebraska has won some close ones against Cincy and Maryland, and are now 5-1, with a loss to what is now a 4-2 Michigan in week 4. Their win against Cincy, though, is really what is propping them up for me, and many of the remaining games they have this season won't be easy. I'm not sure they'll stay ranked, but they've mostly done what they've needed to so far, so we'll see how it goes.
25 Cincinnati Bearcats Cincy seems to be a solid 5-1 team with their only loss being to Nebraska at the beginning of the season. Their signature win, Iowa State, was knocked out of the AP rankings this past weekend after losing to Colorado away. I think Cincy may still be decent, but it's hard to say how good they are given who they've beaten, with their other notable wins being a 3 point win at Kansas, and a 20-11 win over a pretty bad UCF team that probably wasn't actually that close if you watched but still not exactly impressive. They do play Utah, Arizona, and BYU later this year so they may end up doing pretty well, but I'm not entirely sure where I stand on them yet.

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