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_THE__BOULDER_ Ballot for 2025 Week 9

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 20, 2025, 4:35 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Personal thoughts on the status of all 25 teams as of the end of Week 8.

Rank Team Reason
1 Ohio State Buckeyes Wisconsin may be bad, but OSU did their job and pitched a shutout while scoring 34 points on the road. Not much more you could ask from them and no reason to change their ranking at this time.
2 Indiana Hoosiers Moved up from #2 after Miami's loss and a solid win over Sparty.
3 Texas A&M Aggies The Aggies sort of got away with it this week if you only look at the scoreline, but they were leading basically the entire game with Arky only making it a 3-point game with 10 seconds left in the 4th. Their defense will need to improve in order to stay there, as they have games against ranked teams in Mizzou and LSU in the near future, but, overall, they're 7-0 in one of the strongest conferences in the sport and I have to give them props.
4 Alabama Crimson Tide Out of the One Loss teams, Alabama has the best resume. Wins over Tennessee, Mizzou, Vandy, Georgia, but a loss to a now 3-4 FSU. Week 1 is always tough, and Tally is a hostile environment, and when you combine that with their slate of wins, that loss is becoming less important as the weeks go on. Alabama will need to keep up their hot streak, however, with games against LSU, Oklahoma, and the Iron Bowl coming up over the next month.
5 Georgia Bulldogs This is not the UGA team of seasons past, their main strength isn't their defense, it's the offense. This team seems to be able to win shootouts, beating Tennessee and now Ole Miss in high scoring games. I'd like to see more out of their defense (that's a lie, I hate these guys, go Gators) to see them win games in a more complete fashion, but with their only loss being to an Alabama team who is currently challenging for top of the conference, they might be the third best team in the SEC and could potentially challenge for the title if Bama and TAMU drop a game or two.
6 Oregon Ducks Oregon is looking good but only has wins against some inferior competition - their best win is against a now unranked PSU. Doesn't mean they aren't challengers or contenders, but it's hard to put them over some other one loss teams.
7 BYU Cougars BYU is probably the biggest jump in any of my teams from week 8 to week 9, jumping from #20 to #7. I'm not really sure the jump was justifiable to anyone else but myself, but I was much lower on them than others likely were. They were getting it done against some inferior competition, and some of those games were pretty close, but they finally have what I would consider to be a good win against a fairly good Utah team - that I was admittedly pretty high on - whose only other loss is to what has been, this week notwithstanding, a pretty good Texas Tech team. They play some pretty decent teams in the near future with Iowa State, TTU, TCU, and Cincy all being on their slate, so they will get more chances to prove their legitimacy, but they did well to win in what was a solid iteration of the Holy War. They're 7-0, and have what I consider to be the 4th best resume out of the 5 undefeated P4 teams, jumping over Georgia Tech. Let's see how they can finish out the season.
8 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Georgia Tech is a team that I think is currently getting away with it, but they are 7-0 and I'm counting that for something. Their best win this year is against a Duke team that I think is better than their record shows, but they have been shaky against what I think are worse teams like Wake Forest, Colorado, and Clemson. Clemson plays Duke at the end of November, so we may be able to see a bit more about the strengths of those two teams, but I don't hold GT quite as high as some of the other undefeated teams in this ranking and probably won't until I see some more solid performances from them. They have what could be tough opponents coming up in the shape of NC State and Pitt, not to mention ending the year at UGA. They could definitely be a dark horse for the ACC championship, and I wouldn't be surprised if their only loss during the regular season was UGA, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they lose an extra game in the near future. Tough to really say with this team. I do think they have the worst resume out of the undefeated P4 teams, so I didn't move them up this week, and instead moved BYU ahead of them.
9 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss lost to a good team. Last week, I argued that they seemed to be getting away with it, and their win streak finally came to an end against a pretty good Georgia team on the road. They have some more tests to their legitimacy in Oklahoma and what might turn into some scrappy Florida (at least on defense, hopefully the offense improves now that Napier is out) and Miss St teams (it feels like the Egg Bowl is always a weird game), but I think there's a potential for them to finish the season with at least 10 wins, possibly 11, so there's still a lot of upside for them with their schedule.
10 Miami Hurricanes Tough loss to a pretty good Louisville team. Don't get me wrong, I think Louisville is good and I've probably had them ranked higher than a lot of others so far this year, but I did not have Louisville in the top 25 for the last few weeks since they were knocked out by a pretty good Virginia team, so I think the loss drops Miami a decent amount, 8 spots from #2 to #10 for me. The main reason they didn't drop more is because I think Louisville is better than people were giving them credit for (both the AP and Coaches' Polls had them outside the top 30 last week) so I don't think it's that bad of a loss and maybe fell into trap game territory. Don't get me wrong, 5 picks from Beck (one of them being called back for a pretty week RTP call) is pretty bad, but my argument is that Louisville isn't the worst team to lose to. Right now, Miami does still have some pretty strong wins in a win in Week 1 against ND, a blowout win over USF, and some solid performances against in-state rivals UF and FSU. They've weirdly only had two games since their game against UF (on 9/20), the FSU (10/04) and Louisville games (10/17), so they are only 1-1 in the ACC despite being 6 games into the season. But the rest of the schedule has no bye weeks, and games against some potentially decent SMU, NC State, and Pitt teams. While I wouldn't be surprised if they dropped another game (it's the Cristobal thing to do), they have the potential to go 7-1 in the ACC which would put them near the top and potentially in the ACC Championship, so let's see where the season takes them. Despite the loss, if they get back to how they were playing before, they're likely one of the best teams in the sport.
11 Vanderbilt Commodores Vandy had a pretty big jump for me - from #19 to #11 - after beating the team I previously had at #11 (AP Poll ranked #10) in LSU. Vandy did well to overcome the loss to Alabama and played with some swagger. They have some playmakers that Vandies of the past did not have - Diego Pavia is not their only weapon, they have some legit players on offense - and they have the potential to match or exceed their best records in the last 50 years (which came in the form of 9-win seasons under James Franklin). They have games against some solid teams coming up - home against Mizzou next weekend and at Tennessee at the end of the season (and a currently 5-2 Texas on the 1st of November that I hesitate to call solid) - and it would really be cool to see them keep it up. Going to be watching with interest.
12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Their only losses are to Miami and TAMU, and they've been blowing out their weaker competition. Still, USC is a fairly good team, and some have pointed out that they have one of the most explosive offenses in the sport, but Notre Dame was able to keep them to 24 points after taking the lead late in the 3rd quarter. If ND keeps cleaning up, they should end up with a 10-win regular season, with games against some potentially decent Navy and Pitt teams coming up but not many other speed bumps on the schedule. ND had one of the bigger jumps for me this week, from #18 to #12, as the main argument against them is that the lost to the best teams on their schedule (in very close games). USC is definitely their best win, but there are other teams with better wins and fewer losses ahead of them.
13 Texas Tech Red Raiders Prior to a loss at Arizona State this past weekend, Texas Tech was looking to be far and away the best team in the Big 12. They have been humbled a little bit, but still a solid team, having blown out pretty much every opponent, including a pretty good Utah team. TTU is still very much in the hunt for a Big 12 Championship and have games against Kansas State, BYU, UCF, and WVU to end the season. Potential playoff team here but we'll see how it goes.
14 Missouri Tigers Not the best showing but a win at Auburn in OT. Don't really feel like they should move up or down, so keeping them at #14 this week just like last week.
15 Oklahoma Sooners No movement from last week either. Good win against a not so good South Carolina win but no reason to move them ahead of anyone above them.
16 USF Bulls Another blowout win for USF. Moved them up a spot from #17.
17 Virginia Cavaliers No game this week but they did move down a spot from me moving up USF. No shade against Viriginia though, they're looking fairly good and their win over Louisville is looking even better after this past weekend.
18 Utah Utes Loss to BYU in the Holy War. Dropped from #13. They have a really good win over a pretty good Arizona State, making them probably the second best 2-loss team at this point in my opinion.
19 Tennessee Volunteers Loss to Alabama. Dropped from #12. After losing to Alabama and Georgia, and with no real signature wins, I think they're a solid 2 loss team and probably the next best 2 loss team after Notre Dame and Utah.
20 Louisville Cardinals A one loss team who I've had on the fringes (top 30) for a few weeks (ever since their loss at home to Virginia). Finally bringing them back in after a win over Miami in Miami. I've been thinking this team was solid, and I may have them a bit low for right now, but there's real potential for an 11-win season here and a dark horse ACC champion with notable games against Cal, Clemson, and SMU still on the docket for this year. Looking forward to seeing how this plays out.
21 LSU Tigers Losses to Ole Miss and Vandy, both good squads, but LSU doesn't really have any signature wins, and both teams they lost to lost to the teams Tennessee lost to (UGA and Bama) so I think Tennessee is a bit better than them right now. LSU finally managed to score more than 20 points against a P4 opponent, so that's good, but it was only 24 points, so they really took my request of them and completed it in the most sarcastic way possible. Big games against TAMU, Bama, and Oklahoma still left on the list, and Arky has been scoring some points against good teams lately so I would also be careful with them.
22 Cincinnati Bearcats Blowout win over a bad Oklahoma State team. Combined with losses by the teams ahead of them, moving them from #25 to #21.
23 Arizona State Sun Devils Good win over a good TTU team. Moving them from the fringes back into the rankings.
24 Illinois Fighting Illini I had dropped them out of the rankings after their loss to Ohio State last week which I probably shouldn't have done (had them at 19 the week before), but I was more impressed with some of the teams I had ranked ahead of them at the time, like Washington and Memphis. They're back in just ahead of USC due to the losses in front of them
25 USC Trojans Loss to Notre Dame, who are a good team, at Notre Dame. Other loss to Illinois, who are also pretty decent, at Illinois. Guess USC doesn't do well in that state, but those losses aren't anything to scoff at. They did beat Michigan pretty good, but they don't really have any other major wins so I'm not putting them over any of the other 2 loss teams ahead of them, but I am putting them above the 2 loss teams behind them (like Michigan), so to #25 they go.

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