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LightningDusty Ballot for 2025 Week 16 & Bowls

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Dec. 8, 2025, 1:51 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Casual Fan Takes and Resumé

Rank Team Reason
1 Indiana Hoosiers = #1-#12 are all ranked based on seeding. 13-0 INDIANA CAME TRUE!!! Curt Cignetti needs to be poached immediately... by the College Football Hall of Fame. The Hoosiers are the team to beat in this playoff. I honestly think they match up well with everyone outside of the top four. Georgia and Texas Tech would obviously be difficult games, and a rematch with Ohio State is undesirable because it's extremely hard to beat a team that talented twice.
2 Georgia Bulldogs ↑1 The Alabama monkey seems to be firmly dead. That was a brutal beatdown. One bad enough that I believe the Crimson Tide deserved to drop out of the playoff. Of course, they did not because the committee is hypocritical and Alabama is Alabama.
3 Texas Tech Red Raiders ↑1 Is it reasonable to call this the scariest defense since 2021 Georgia? Ohio State and Indiana also sport elite defenses, but something about Texas Tech's D just pops. If the Red Raiders march their way to an improbable national championship, they'll be leaning on that side of the ball.
4 Ohio State Buckeyes ↓2 This drop is not at all about punishing Ohio State. If Georgia and Texas Tech had squeaked by their opponents, I'd probably have kept the Buckeyes at #2. However, I couldn't ignore those impressive performances by the other schools. The loss was more annoying than anything. Have a good playoff run and you'll be fine.
5 Ole Miss Rebels = Please win the national championship to spite Lane Kiffin. It'd be the most hilarious thing to happen in the history of the sport.
6 Oregon Ducks = Oregon is totally flying under the radar with all of the calamity surrounding the rest of the real bracket. Obviously everyone knows they're a very talented and capable team, but the spotlight is so far off of them. We'll see how they deal with James Madison. I hope it doesn't get too messy...
7 Texas A&M Aggies = Aside from Kiffinless Ole Miss, I'm probably the most interested to see how Texas A&M performs in the playoff. To put it mildly, the Lone Star Showdown did NOT go well for the Aggies. Go one and done in the playoff and this season suddenly turns into a wash.
8 Oklahoma Sooners ↑1 They're probably the "ugliest" P4 team in the playoff. Ugly football can sometimes work out in your favor, though! In my version of the playoff you'd be facing off against Notre Dame, but IRL you gotta play Alabama again. That might be a blessing based on how they've been playing for the entire second half of the season.
9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish ↑2 Notre Dame got fucking hosed. Make the arguments about whether they deserved to be in all you want. I can understand the argument for Miami to be in, even if I disagree with it. The sudden rug pull was disgusting, though. Why have ND ranked ahead for all those weeks if you didn't truly consider them better than Miami? What a total lack of consistency and integrity on the committee's part. They're a total joke. I wouldn't want to play in a bowl either if that happened.
10 Vanderbilt Commodores ↑2 LAST TEAM IN Anyone who actually looks at this poll will probably rage or scoff in disgust and downvote me after seeing this. When it comes down to it, I have Vanderbilt BARELY edging out Miami for two reasons. 1. Miami's losses are worse by a fair margin. 2. Vanderbilt has superior SOR and SOS. Literally the only thing Miami has over Vanderbilt is that marquee Notre Dame win. They have no other major wins to lean on. If Miami had another flashy win, better SOS, and/or more respectable losses, they'd be in. However, the bubble was simply too strong this season for me to put them in my version of the playoff. Oh yeah, those reasons I listed above also apply to why ND is in my playoff over Miami despite the head to head, though they're slightly different. Miami and ND have practically the same SOR and SOS, so that doesn't matter. It all comes down to ND having FAR better losses. I simply believe Miami's losses are too much for the H2H to override.
11 Tulane Green Wave ↑11 JON SUMRALL WILL BE GOING TO FLORIDA WITH SOME PLAYOFF EXPERIENCE HELL YEAH!!!!!!!!! GO STIR UP SOME CHAOS!!!!!!!
12 James Madison Dukes ↑6 You owe Duke every favor imaginable. We witnessed some Duke and Dukes love on Saturday. 💙💜
13 Miami Hurricanes = FIRST TEAM OUT I really believe those losses to middling 8-4 Louisville and SMU should've punished you more, but oh well. Honestly, the ACC's wonky ass way of determining it's CCG representatives contributed to this mess. Miami is either going to stab TAMU through the heart and prove me wrong or I'll be vindicated when Carson Beck throws five interceptions and they get blown out.
14 BYU Cougars ↓6 I'm sorry. I was beating the BYU drum for a good bit there, but there's no excuse for getting ran off the field by the same team twice. Play a competitive game and I honest to God have BYU holding firm at #8, MAYBE dropping to #9 at worst. Unfortunately, that performance was plain and simply bad. Also, I know these punishments for the Big 12 and SEC CCG losers seems harsh, but trust me, the rewards would've been plentiful if either of them won. I'm talking BYU would've been the #3 seed, effectively taking TTU's current spot, and Alabama would've been the #4 seed. Conference championship games are still part of your resumé at the end of the day. It is what it is. If the bubble were as weak as last season, both of them would still be in.
15 Alabama Crimson Tide ↓5 Alabama not dropping a single spot after that... "performance..." is simply heinous. They're now a three loss team, and two of those losses are revolting. Getting run out of Mercedes-Benz by UGA and the 14 point loss to 5-7 FSU are a disastrous combo. Throw in the sloppy Oklahoma loss and I don't see Alabama as a legitimate contender in the slightest.
16 Utah Utes ↓2 Not really going to type anything for many of these teams because they didn't play and weren't in the playoff hunt to begin with.
17 Texas Longhorns ↓1
18 USC Trojans ↑1
19 Michigan Wolverines ↑1
20 Arizona Wildcats ↑1
21 Virginia Cavaliers ↓6 I mourn your loss, my orange and blue brothers. At least it contributed to a worthy cause.
22 North Texas Mean Green ↓5
23 Navy Midshipmen =
24 Iowa Hawkeyes =
25 Duke Blue Devils = ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢀⣤⡄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢤⣤⡀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣰⣿⣿⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢻⣿⣆⠀⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⣰⣿⣿⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⣿⣿⣇⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⢀⣿⣿⣿⣧⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⢼⣿⣿⣿⡄ ⠀⠀⠀⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣄⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⣠⣿⣿⣿⣿⡇ ⠀⠀⠀⠘⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦ ⠀⠀ ⠀⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠇ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⢿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠃⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠘⢿⣿⣿⣿⡟⠀ ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠙⠋⠉⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠈⠙⠋⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

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