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IceColdDrPepper_Here Ballot for 2026 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 8, 2026, 9:08 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Largely same teams as pre-season; order changed based on my own personal assessments of each team's week 1. Top 8 are the teams I consider legit national title contenders. Michigan is out because even without the controversy around their "win" over Western Michigan, they did not look like anything close to a top 25 team. Other comments below.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs It was only Tennessee State but even the national championship teams didn't dominate FCS teams* like this (*TCU not withstanding). The o-line looks like one of the best in the country and I'd expect that to translate to the SEC slate
2 LSU Tigers If Sam Leavitt can stay healthy this team has the talent (NFL or otherwise) to be a championship contender. Beating Clemson like that has made me a believer that Lane could deliver something special in year 1
3 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State also looked great against lesser competition, I just have Georgia and LSU slightly higher
4 Miami Hurricanes Rounding out my definitive top 4 is Miami, who took the Stanford tree out to the chipper in Palo Alto. They should run away with ACC but it's a long season
5 Texas Longhorns Texas, ND, and Indiana didn't necessarily do anything to make me move them down, it's just that the teams ahead of them did more to move up
6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish
7 Indiana Hoosiers
8 Oregon Ducks Close wins against Boise State aren't necessarily omens of bad things for the Ducks (see 2024 13-1 B1G champs), but it is enough for me to put them behind the other natty contenders for now
9 Oklahoma Sooners If Western Michigan could put Michigan's offense and specifically Bryce Underwood in a box like that I dread to imagine what Brent Venables and Oklahoma will do
10 Texas A&M Aggies
11 Texas Tech Red Raiders
12 BYU Cougars
13 Alabama Crimson Tide
14 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss escapes with a win but that defense will need to improve if they hope to make it back to the playoff and beat the harder teams on their schedule (3 opponents in this week's top 5)
15 USC Trojans
16 Iowa Hawkeyes
17 Washington Huskies
18 Penn State Nittany Lions
19 Virginia Cavaliers
20 Utah Utes
21 SMU Mustangs
22 Missouri Tigers
23 Tennessee Volunteers
24 Louisville Cardinals Tough loss to Ole Miss but not enough to drop them out and saw some positives to take forward into the rest of the schedule
25 Houston Cougars

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