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Zef_Apollo Ballot for 2025 Week 8

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 13, 2025, 12:07 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.

Rank Team Reason
1 Indiana Hoosiers I can't believe I'm doing this but Indiana definitely deserves the #1 spot this week. I'm not completely sure still how good Oregon and Illinois are but I tasked Indiana with winning the few important games on their schedule and they have. They've done it more convincingly than some of their peers too. I think if Miami's opponents had continued to do well (Florida, FSU) then they'd still be #1, though.
2 Miami Hurricanes Miami is a close second for me because I still think they have some good wins highlighted by a surging Notre Dame. The rest are not really marquee but solid enough like USF. Florida may still have a pretty good defense and set of players with just abysmal coaching. Perhaps same with FSU. I don't fault anyone putting them below OSU this week, but I think on average their wins are a little better.
3 Ohio State Buckeyes Moving up after beating a maybe good Illinois? I still don't think I know much about OSU and frankly I'm not sure OSU does either. Indiana has far less talent and beat this Indiana team much more convincingly. I think OSU will work to figure it out over the course of the season. Right now I think they're winning because of player on player mismatch more than anything but will probably mesh well by the time they need it.
4 Texas A&M Aggies Honestly, not your dad's Texas AM. They look...legit. Florida isn't the most scary foe on the road but they have a solid enough defense. And they have shown that their offense can maybe potentially show up against a good defense (vs Texas) but maybe not on the road. Texas AM would 2 or 3 for me if their opponents just had collectively won one more game to make them look better. I think Miss St., Auburn, and Florida have obvious strengths but their faults are even stronger and it just limits how proud you can be after winning. But 2 for 30+ 3rd down attempts is crazy over 3 games.
5 Alabama Crimson Tide Best resume in college football right now if you only look at the wins column and even after the Indiana > Oregon game, I think Alabama still has the best win in the country over UGA. Oregon may be better than UGA but after the collapse of Penn State - it's hard to know what their best win is. Very few teams have faced 3 ranked opponents, let alone three currently ranked opponents and even fewer have done it in a row. I think UGA, Vandy, and Mizzou will all continue to be football teams the rest of the season. I won't be surprise if each of them drop 1-2 games more but they're all solid. Learning more and more each week that Alabama was sleep walking week 1 and FSU prepared 3 months for 1 game. W/L still matter but they've done about as much as any team can do to erase an L and they'll continue to have more opportunities as the next 3/4 opponents are also ranked inside the top 14 in the AP.
6 Ole Miss Rebels Everyone saw that. And I'm more concerned that Ole Miss may still fall flat on their face in 1-2 games like they do every year. Frankly, most of their wins haven't held up super strongly. Their best win is LSU (who still doesn't look super competent on offense) which is a very good, quality win - and then Tulane on paper? I think Arkansas has a good offense but a bad defense and after firing their coach they clearly weren't operating well. Kentucky is last in the conference. I think Ole Miss still is a very strong contender and if they even lose their next two games will be favored the rest of the way out. I think they're probably a playoff team minus some weird voodoo. They just need to win 3 out of the next 5: UGA, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Miss St, and Florida. I think it's very doable. Weak SOS outside of LSU
7 Georgia Bulldogs UGA has survived by the skin of their teeth twice this season at Tenn and Auburn. But it's hard to win on the road. Win over Tennessee still keeping them afloat this high because very few teams have top 15 wins. I also trust Kirby to win most games no matter what.
8 Texas Tech Red Raiders I'm starting to respect that raiders offense and the win over Utah...but the SOS in the 60s is still not impressive enough to be higher.
9 Tennessee Volunteers close loss over UGA still looks good for them plus good wins over Miss St and Arkansas who have strengths (but also some weaknesses. Also good win over Syracuse. Honestly had them lower but then I saw Georgia Techs FPI and SOS were like 30 spots lower than Tennessee.
10 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Crazy to have Georgia Tech at 9 I know but who else?!? Undefeated with 4 P5 wins and I love Haynes King. It looks like Clemson isn't ready to roll over yet either. So that will continue to age well
11 LSU Tigers Edge over Oregon in my poll because they have played just slightly better competition and the losses are pretty comparable. I think LSU will drop if they don't figure out their offense though.
12 Oregon Ducks Feels weird having them here after the last 15 days but Penn State has just looked worse and worse and worse and it's hard to find an impressive win on their schedule. Is it Northwestern or one of the two teams that fired their coach or is it a team that got relegated from the Power conferences? They'll move up as they'll continue to win, no doubt, but I just need to see more on the field. I personally don't think Penn State was THAT bad but the team just folded and it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better so we'll never know how valuable that game was only a few weeks ago.
13 BYU Cougars I don't know what to do, BYU honestly doesn't look great but they keep finding ways to win. They're about to enter the tough part of their schedule though. Will see how resilient they are.
14 Missouri Tigers Still best RB in the country. I think Pribula is still a good QB. Honestly, this game was closer than I was expecting. Missouri is a good football team but have the entire season ahead of them in terms of difficult teams remaining.
15 Oklahoma Sooners Absolutely embarassing. I don't care if Mateer was a little banged up (although that's probably slightly to blame for how bad it was), but you have to score a touchdown against this Texas team if you're a top 12 team. I think their close wins against Michigan and especially Auburn are catching up to them. Maybe they aren't the final product we all thought. I'm most surprised their defense didn't do anything against Texas while Florida's was hyper successful in sacking and interceptions.
16 Vanderbilt Commodores BYE so holding pattern. I still think they're lethal but unsure what's left for them.
17 Virginia Cavaliers win over clemson looking better, loss isn't great.
18 USC Trojans Good win, made Michigan look overrated and maybe they are.
19 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Welcome to the party ND. I finally feel good enough to put you into the rankings. It still feels premature based on wins. They have been impressive blowouts but against teams you should be blowing out. Since your 2 losses are within 5 points to my #2 and #4 teams by 5 though, I think an exception can be made. A win over USC next week and probably move up a few more spots.
20 USF Bulls Best g5 team in the country. best g5 coach in the country.
21 Cincinnati Bearcats another good win
22 Utah Utes good win
23 Nebraska Cornhuskers good win, resume has developed well
24 Memphis Tigers I think they're good but haven't had to prove it. Not sure if I'm keeping them here because I feel like I need to include a G5 opponent other than USF. Winner of that game in a few weeks stays while the other goes, I guess.
25 Illinois Fighting Illini Similar to how I had FSU last week, I don't see how I can drop them since their only losses are to my #1 and #3 teams + they have a ranked win over USC. In the top 25, only Alabama has a tougher SOS (4 vs 2) and only one other team has an SOS in the top 10 (UGA at 8). I can't believe I'm sticking up for Illinois but I'll let the winner of their next game against Washington say in the top 25.

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