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Perryapsis Ballot for 2026 Preseason

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Aug. 19, 2026, 1:43 p.m.

Overall Rationale: For the preseason poll only - defending champions are first, then ranked based on gut feelings taking inspiration from the AP poll. I know that this will result in an unusual ballot, and I will trend more conventional once there are actual football games to evaluate the teams with.

Rank Team Reason
1 Indiana Hoosiers Defending Big Ten and National champion
2 Georgia Bulldogs Defending SEC champion
3 Texas Tech Red Raiders Defending Big 12 champion
4 Tulane Green Wave Defending American champion
5 James Madison Dukes Defending Sun Belt champion
6 Duke Blue Devils Defending ACC champion. I'm probably more bullish on the non-autonomous conferences than most and Duke was a weak ACC champion, so I don't think it's unfair to put them below Tulane and James Madison.
7 Boise State Broncos Defending Mountain West champion, even though they moved to the Pac for this year.
8 Western Michigan Broncos Defending MAC champion
9 Kennesaw State Owls Defending C-USA champion
10 Washington State Cougars Counting the Cougars as de-facto Pac-12 champions
11 North Dakota State Bison Shameless homer pick. Also technicalllllllly a defending conference champion.....
12 Ohio State Buckeyes From here on, I looked at the AP poll and basically added the best remaining teams in order based on gut feelings. Given that this is the preseason poll, I fully expect to be proven horribly wrong as the season goes on.
13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
14 Texas Longhorns
15 Miami Hurricanes
16 Oregon Ducks
17 Oklahoma Sooners
18 BYU Cougars
19 Texas A&M Aggies
20 USC Trojans
21 Michigan Wolverines
22 Ole Miss Rebels
23 Clemson Tigers
24 UNLV Rebels
25 Alabama Crimson Tide

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