Back to poll results >>

_THE__BOULDER_ Ballot for 2025 Week 10

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 27, 2025, 4:54 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Just my personal thoughts at the end of Week 9.

Rank Team Reason
1 Indiana Hoosiers Fuck it. Indiana #1. I'd been holding them behind Ohio State, but they have a better resume and have blown out nearly every opponent.
2 Texas A&M Aggies Very impressed by TAMU's second half performance last night. I asked for A&M's defense to improve last week and it did, keeping LSU's fairly anemic offense to under 20 points until the last minute of the game, in garbage time. Well done Aggies, at this point, with wins over ND and LSU, I'd say only Indiana has a better win AND is undefeated. Moving them up to #2 from #3.
3 Ohio State Buckeyes No game this weekend. Only moved down because Indiana and A&M moved up. Undefeated and possibly the best team in the nation but we won't know until the Big 10 Championship game. Their schedule is kind of weak though - since Penn State blew up, a decent Michigan team should be the only test on their schedule remaining - so if any of their games the rest of this year end up in close ones then that's on them. Granted, OSU can't be faulted for Texas's fall off, and they've beat some decent teams like Washington and Illinois without issue, but their resume just isn't as impressive as the two teams I've moved above them at this point.
4 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama did well to come back and win against South Carolina. While this USC isn't the best team this year, they do have some highs and lows and it looked like they were about to have a high this weekend. Alabama has definitely shown some resilience since their loss at FSU and seem to be acquitting themselves as the best of the 1-loss teams. While this weekend's game was a scare, they managed to get it done.
5 Georgia Bulldogs No game this week. No reason to move up or down. Given that they lost to Alabama, this is probably the second-best resume of all the 1-loss teams.
6 BYU Cougars Out of the Undefeateds, BYU has a good win in the Holy War against a pretty good Utah team but has had some rocky outings against worse teams. In my opinion, they have the 4th best resume out of the Undefeateds, mainly because of those unconvincing wins I mentioned before - a 3 point win over a middling Colorado team, OT to beat a (maybe) slightly above average Arizona team. In the past, I have accused them of getting away with it and, while they did well to pull away from Iowa State off of a pick-6, they were cutting it kinda close here as well. Granted, it was an away game against a decent Iowa State team, but BYU, despite doing very well to come from behind down 14 points, didn't control the game as much as I hoped they would. As a result, they're still top 10 but I have them as #4 out of the Undefeateds and #6 overall, after two 1-loss teams.
7 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets Rounding out the P4 Undefeateds, Georgia Tech has done a lot of getting away with it this season. However, they blew out Syracuse last night and that's a good result for them, moving them to 8-0. Their in-conference schedule is not very difficult, with the most troubling game on the schedule being a currently 6-2 Pitt. Out of conference, they have a pretty good Georgia team at the end of the year. While I think they have the fifth-best resume out of the P4 Undefeateds, I think that their record counts for something and I have them at 7th place.
8 Ole Miss Rebels Ole miss beat a fairly good Oklahoma team in Norman, advancing to 7-1 after their loss to UGA last week. With their current schedule, there's a decent chance they finish with 1 loss and make the playoffs. Teams like South Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi State could pose threats but Ole Miss should, theoretically, deal with them, especially being at home for the rest of the season until the Egg Bowl. With wins over LSU and Oklahoma though, Ole Miss probably has the third or fourth best resume out of the 1-loss teams, currently fighting with Vandy for that position. At this time, I am marking them as #3 out of those teams, just in front of Vandy, because I think Oklahoma might be slightly better than Mizzou, and we will get to find out later this year, and I also think Ole Miss had a much more impressive showing on the road than Vandy did at home.
9 Vanderbilt Commodores Vandy edged one out over Mizzou this past weekend and, combined with their win over LSU, I think it gives them the third or fourth best resume out of all the 1-loss teams. I think Oklahoma has a bit better of a team than Mizzou, but I also think Vandy got some breaks to win against the Tigers at home, so I gave the #9 position to Vandy. We'll be able to find out if I was right later this year when Oklahoma and Mizzou play, but I think Ole Miss is putting on a bit better of a performance at this time.
10 Oregon Ducks Since their loss to Indiana, Oregon had a good game against Rutgers but there was not a ton of offensive production against Wisconsin in a game that was basically played under a monsoon. I would have liked to see more offensive production during the Wisconsin game - 4 drives in a row ending in punts during the 1st quarter alone, no score until quarter 2 - but given the weather I can't really fault them and they did win, and that's what's most important. Taking their whole season into account, right now, Oregon don't have any signature wins (Penn State's blowup is doing them dirty) so, while I believe they're a good team, I have moved two other 1-loss teams in front of them as I think those teams currently have better resumes than them. Still top 10, and they do have some interesting matchups coming up against what seems to be a decent Minnesota team and fairly good USC and Washington teams.
11 Miami Hurricanes Right now, Miami's best wins are Notre Dame and USF. UF and FSU are not doing so hot, and Miami lost to the only other good team they faced in Louisville. They are only a 1 loss team, but other 1 loss teams have better resumes than them right now so, despite the win vs Stanford, I'm keeping them at 10th this week.
12 Notre Dame Fighting Irish No game this past weekend, didn't feel like they should be moved.
13 Texas Tech Red Raiders Great blowout win against a pretty bad Oklahoma State team. Doesn't mean I'm going to move them up or down, just going to keep them the same. I will say that I, personally, think they're better than this, but the loss to Arizona state moved them out of the top 10. They were without their starting QB the past two weeks, and they really got it done here even without that QB. They'll have some chances to move up and will likely be a Big 12 championship game participant, so I won't be surprised to see them in the top 10 later on.
14 Louisville Cardinals Louisville took control of the game in the 2nd quarter and BC was playing catch up from there. Solid win, moving them to 7-1, with a loss to Virginia and a win over Miami. No real notable results other than maybe beating a decent Pitt squad, but they're getting the job done and have the potential to be a dark horse ACC championship game team.
15 Tennessee Volunteers Tennessee started scoring against Kentucky and never really looked back. Other than two back-to-back 2nd quarter touchdowns from Kentucky, Tennessee really just kept piling it on. Kentucky's pretty bad, and Tennessee is definitely benefiting from teams in front of them losing to move up to this spot, but they played a good game this past weekend.
16 Cincinnati Bearcats Cincy has been looking pretty good ever since their week 1 loss to Nebraska, but doesn't really have any signature wins, instead just beating up on a lot of the inferior competition and winning some 1-score games against Kansas and Iowa State. They're solid, but they've got a real test playing against Utah this upcoming weekend, so let's see how they do there.
17 Utah Utes Beat the brakes off of a pretty middling Colorado team. Did well to bounce back after the loss in the Holy War but mainly moved up because teams ahead of them lost. They have a lot of blowout wins and close losses to BYU and Texas Tech, so they're doing pretty well, but we'll see how things play out since they have a big game against Cincinnati at home this upcoming weekend.
18 Oklahoma Sooners Eight-point loss to Ole Miss at home this past weekend. As said above, tough to separate Mizzou and Oklahoma in my mind. Oklahoma did lose to Texas, which is bad, because Texas isn't good, but they did beat South Carolina and Auburn, two opponents in common with Mizzou, by more points. Using the transitive property to say Oklahoma is the better team here.
19 Missouri Tigers One-score loss to Vandy on the road this past weekend. Between Mizzou and Oklahoma, I'm having a tough time deciding which of these two teams is better, but I'm giving a slight edge to Oklahoma on this one. A lot of close conference games, with one-score losses to Alabama and Vandy but one-score wins over South Carolina (technically 9 points so 2 scores but oh well) and Auburn.
20 Virginia Cavaliers A very bad UNC team took Virginia into OT. Virginia only scored 10 points during regular time. Both teams were scoreless in the 2nd half. Virginia won in OT after stopping UNC's attempt to win the game on a 2-point conversion (probably a good call by UNC as they are the less-talented team and, even at home, you never know if you're going to win in an extended OT). Honestly, terrible showing by Virginia and I am moving them down to #20 from #17.
21 Houston Cougars Houston is now a very quiet 7-1 team with a win over a decent Arizona State that has been moving in and out of the rankings like the tide does the beach. Most of the teams they've beaten aren't much to look at but wins over Arizona State and Arizona aren't bad by any means. Their only loss was a beat down by Texas Tech, but the Red Raiders are good this year and that's to be expected. They don't really have a tough schedule and could quietly finish 11-2 if they play their cards right.
22 USC Trojans Only really moved up because other teams ahead of them moved down and/or out. No game this past weekend.
23 Washington Huskies Washington beat up on Illinois, and both teams have been hovering around the edge of the rankings. A now 6-2 Washington team moves into the top 25 again. Welcome back Huskies. I like this squad, and when the offense gets rolling, it gets rolling. Curious to see how they finish the season, but this could be a fairly sneaky 9-win team.
24 Memphis Tigers A decent Memphis team came back from behind 14 points at home to beat a decent USF team 34-31. Am I happy with the results? No (I'll explain in the next ranking). But they did their job. Memphis seems to be a team that's getting away with it though and they'll really have to solidify their gameplay if they want to win the American and potentially make the playoffs.
25 USF Bulls This game pissed me off. I'm a bit biased towards the Bulls, so I was rooting for them. To use terms that our brothers and sisters across the pond use in their version of football, Alex Golesh and the Bulls absolutely bottled this one. Up 24-17, 4th & 3 at the Memphis 7, USF goes for the conversion instead of going up 2 scores to make it a 27-17 game. At the time of watching this, I told my friends it was a bad idea. Take the points. Because you then proceed to score another touchdown at the end of the 3rd, go up 31-17, and blow a 14-point lead, losing 34-31. You left 3 points on the field, and you lost by 3, missing a 51-yard field goal with 1 minute left that would have tied the game and sent it into OT. I guess the first thing that the Bulls should take from this game is not to give up a 14-point lead, but coaching decisions in this game also did not do the Bulls any favors. The Bulls move to 3-1 in conference play and 2 losses on the season. I believe the conference race is still wide open, but damn did they blow an opportunity.

Back to poll results >>