Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Aug. 14, 2026, 7:23 p.m.

Overall Rationale: These rankings are going to be wildly wrong by the end of the season, but I feel like I correct for poll momentum relatively well as we get real data. I made this by grouping teams into tiers of like 3-6 that felt fairly close to me. After getting to around 20 teams I ran out of ones I felt really strongly about ranking. Once I laid out my tiers I swapped around ones close together until it looked good enough to me. Preseason rankings are all a crapshoot anyway. Pick any group of 3 consecutive teams and I could hear an argument to flip them all around completely. It is what it is.

• Ballot
• Analysis

Rank	Team	Reason
1	Ohio State Buckeyes
2	Oregon Ducks
3	Indiana Hoosiers
4	Georgia Bulldogs
5	Notre Dame Fighting Irish
6	Texas Longhorns
7	LSU Tigers
8	Alabama Crimson Tide
9	Oklahoma Sooners
10	Miami Hurricanes
11	Ole Miss Rebels
12	Texas Tech Red Raiders
13	Michigan Wolverines
14	Texas A&M Aggies
15	BYU Cougars
16	Iowa Hawkeyes
17	USC Trojans
18	Houston Cougars
19	Utah Utes
20	Tennessee Volunteers
21	SMU Mustangs
22	Missouri Tigers
23	Illinois Fighting Illini
24	Washington Huskies
25	Virginia Tech Hokies

Teams Ranked:

Rank	Team	Unusualness
1	Ohio State Buckeyes	0.05
2	Oregon Ducks	0.00
3	Indiana Hoosiers	0.00
4	Georgia Bulldogs	0.00
5	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	0.00
6	Texas Longhorns	0.00
7	LSU Tigers	0.72
8	Alabama Crimson Tide	0.55
9	Oklahoma Sooners	0.03
10	Miami Hurricanes	-0.79
11	Ole Miss Rebels	0.00
12	Texas Tech Red Raiders	0.00
13	Michigan Wolverines	0.21
14	Texas A&M Aggies	0.00
15	BYU Cougars	0.00
16	Iowa Hawkeyes	1.21
17	USC Trojans	0.00
18	Houston Cougars	0.55
19	Utah Utes	0.00
20	Tennessee Volunteers	0.00
21	SMU Mustangs	0.00
22	Missouri Tigers	0.41
23	Illinois Fighting Illini	0.41
24	Washington Huskies	-0.42
25	Virginia Tech Hokies	0.00

Omissions:

Team	Unusualness
Penn State Nittany Lions	0.53
Louisville Cardinals	0.29

Total Score: 6.17