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Justanother_0 Ballot for 2026 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 8, 2026, 9:04 a.m.

Overall Rationale: I only consider the top half of each Power Four conference (plus the independents if they perform well enough), along with who I believe to be the six best teams from the Group of Six in that given week. I then sort the teams by conference, ranking each team from best to worst within their own conference. The best of the G6 are all grouped into the same set for determining who the best among them are. The independents are also sorted into their own group as well. Finally, I use the six groups made (four P4 conference top 8's, one group of six for the best of the G6, one group for the independents) to create the top 25. Any teams that are absent that I think need explanation will be talked about in the [Notable Omissions] section below.

I try to prioritize the resume of a team as much as possible. Unfortunately, a decent amount of teams played East Walmart this week so their rankings are still mostly vibes based. As such, teams who played a cupcake will be marked with a (!!!).

Notable Omissions:

[Western Michigan] has perhaps the most impressive resume out of the G6 on paper with a road win against Michigan, but actually looking at how the Broncos played in that game I think that their offense was one dimensional and their secondary might have some issues against tougher competition. However, that O-Line play and run game is the stuff of legends. They’ll get on this list once I see them get some more wins.

[Texas A&M] (!!!) I think that this team is taking a step back this year. Huge gut feeling more than anything, but they’ll move into the list if they beat ASU.

[Penn State] (!!!) This team just doesn’t have the resume to crack into the top 25 just yet.
(Of course Campbell decides to move to the four man front AFTER leaving Ames...)

[Cal] Looked pretty good in their opener, but an over-reliance on hero ball and some sketchy defense killed them down the stretch. They're still a great team, but without any wins I can't rank them.

Regarding the G6:

The tricky thing about the G6 is that there are three different teams that you could argue are the “best” team. One has the best resume, one has the best on field performance, and one has the best team via eye-test. All three of these teams are listed in my top 25, prioritized in that order, and you could honestly order them however you please.

Thank you for reading!

Rank Team Reason
1 Miami Hurricanes (!!!) My pick to win the national title, Not a whole lot to report here.
2 Indiana Hoosiers (!!!) Hoover looks like a perfect fit for Cignetti’s system, and the defense looks to have remained stalwart. We’ll know more about this team when conference play hits, but for now they look to be the favorite to win the B1G.
3 Georgia Bulldogs (!!!) They covered the spread against their cupcake? Not something you see every week (still my favorite to win the SEC).
4 Ohio State Buckeyes (!!!) No notes here, best wide receiver paired with a competent QB will be enough to keep them in games.
5 Texas Longhorns (!!!) No notes. We’ll see what they’re made of next week.
6 LSU Tigers I debated not ranking these guys at all because of the whole ordeal with the NFL players, but since the players in question aren’t officially on the gameday rosters (sitting out the games), until things are settled in court I wont punish them. As for how good the team is I still think that they fall apart whenever Leavitt does but for now they have the statement win over Clemson to kickstart their resume.
7 Ole Miss Rebels Trinidad is the truth, and will be enough to keep them in the drivers seat of their games this year. Their secondary might be a bit of a concern but it should be offset by their scary passing game.
8 BYU Cougars (!!!) Still a speculative ranking here, but I remain high on the Cougars.
9 Oregon Ducks An incredibly sloppy showing against Boise State. Depth eventually took over but that same kind of penalty chicanery against competition of equal talent will start to cost the Ducks. That being said there’s still some insane talent here (those 4th quarter offensive drives by Oregon are gonna be replayed on draft day), so I’ll keep them in my top 10.
10 Oklahoma Sooners (!!!) Defense is good, but is there offense?
11 Virginia Cavaliers It looks like the Cavaliers are picking up where they left off from last year. If their pass game can even come close to their run game then they’re gonna be unstoppable on offense.
12 UCLA Bruins Look, I was pretty high on Cal going into this year and I still think they are gonna be a threat in the ACC. I say that because the performance that UCLA put on against the Bears late on Saturday was beyond impressive, and was the second best showing that a P4 team put up this weekend (behind LSU of course). Is 12 way too high? Maybe, but this UCLA team is gonna be fun to watch this year, and now they’re a dark horse candidate of mine to maybe make the trip to Indianapolis.
13 Texas Tech Red Raiders (!!!) Defense is still there, but the offense? Jury is still out on this one until conference play.
14 Washington Huskies Some penalty-heavy play out of the Huskies in their game against Washington State, but their QB will be both fun to watch and a headache for any opposing edge rushers.
15 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (!!!) The jury is out on this team until I see them play one of their big boy opponents. Until then they’ll be in the mid tens range.
16 Alabama Crimson Tide (!!!) The East Carolina game was fun to watch for all of one quarter, but then the Pirates ran out of steam. We’ll see how the Tide does against Kentucky.
17 USC Trojans (!!!) While they’ve got some depth problems on defense, it seems that Lincoln Riley has finally put together a competent unit. Now whether that defense holds against B1G competition is still unknown.
18 Houston Cougars (!!!) Speculative, I expect these guys to stay the course up to the Texas Tech showdown.
19 Utah Utes (!!!) The Utes still look competent through the coaching change, not much else to report.
20 Memphis Tigers Memphis has the best resume in the G6 at the moment. They’ve got a scary good defense, a competent offense, and a strong enough team to weather most whatever gets thrown at them. They’re my pick so far to make the playoffs out of the G6.
21 Arizona Wildcats (!!!) Nothing new to report, still need to see some serious games played for the Wildcats before I move them further up.
22 Louisville Cardinals I know that Louisville doesn’t have any wins, but these guys took a really good Ole Miss team down to the wire with one of the more exciting offenses that I’ve seen play this weekend. However, they need to work to offset this loss.
23 SMU Mustangs SMU looked the part for a top 25 team for a decent chunk of their opener. However, the turnovers, redzone offense, and secondary are very concerning for a team that has ACC title hopes. I’ll chalk this up to first week jitters though, the rest of the team still looks to be solid.

(also how did FSU manage to lose with a +4 turnover differential?)
24 North Dakota State Bison (!!!) NDSU looks like the best team out of the G6 in terms of just watching them play. Their O-Line bullies defenses, their offense is a well oiled machine, and their defense is competent. Their weaker schedule is gonna burden them a bit in these rankings, but if they run the table I have no doubt that the Bison will make the playoffs.
25 Boise State Broncos Boise State had the best on-field performance in the G6 this last Saturday with their outing against the Ducks. I will say that this game wasn’t like the heavyweight battle that the 2024 match was, and it instead looked like a game where Boise could only keep a lid on the Ducks as long as both the Bronco’s starters didn’t get gassed and Oregon stayed asleep, and they couldn’t surge back when that no longer was the case. That all being said, the Broncos are a big threat for the G6 spot in the playoffs this year if Madsen continues this kind of performance.

The next three G6 teams were Western Michigan, UNLV, and SDSU.

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