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T-Thugs Ballot for 2026 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 8, 2026, 3:18 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Each week I rerank teams based on their resumes so far. This causes some funkiness early in the year and I usually end up on most unusual ballots. It starts to look more like everybody else as the year goes on and teams have played real games. I also tend to put more weight early in the season into beating P4 teams, so that's why you'll see teams like UMass ranked for me. A p4 win I think means more than a blowout over a nobody. I basically count Boise as a p4 so Oregon is high as well.

Since the Big Ten violated replay protocol and the MAC has submitted a formal protest and requested that polls count the Western Michigan vs Michigan game as a win for Western Michigan, I have counted the game as a win for Western Michigan.

Rank Team Reason
1 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss is 1-0 with a win over Louisville. They're the only school with a win over an AP ranked team. Hard to know if those rankings will hold, but for now that probably gives them the top resume in the sport.
2 LSU Tigers LSU totally dominated Clemson, dropping 50 points on them. I debated putting them number 1 but think beating a ranked team probably trumps blowing out a Clemson team that may not be good anymore.
3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame started 1-0 with a 41-13 win over Wisconsin.
4 Miami Hurricanes Miami started 1-0 with an absolutely dominant win over Stanford (1-1, defeated Hawaii).
5 Western Michigan Broncos Western Michigan starts the season 1-0 with a win at Michigan.*
6 Oregon Ducks Oregon got a tough win over Boise State at home, starting 1-0. Boise looks like they've got a good chance to be the g5 playoff team.
7 Colorado Buffaloes Colorado I think I have rated way too highly for how good they actually are but they went on the road and defeated Georgia Tech who has been pretty solid the past couple years. For now that puts them here.
8 Auburn Tigers Auburn got a nice win with a totally awesome goal line tackle to defeat Baylor and start the season 1-0.
9 Virginia Cavaliers Virginia dominated NC State. That may end up being a pretty nice win for them.
10 SMU Mustangs SMU started the season 1-0 after defeated Florida State (1-1) on the road.
11 UCLA Bruins UCLA started the season 1-0 with a win over Cal.
12 North Carolina Tar Heels UNC started the season 1-0 with a nice win over TCU.
13 Cincinnati Bearcats Cincinnati defeated Boston College to start the season 1-0.
14 UMass Minutemen Umass looked dominant in a win over Rutgers, starting the season 1-0. This ranking won't hold as I expect Rutgers to stink, but a win over a p4 team means they've got a better resume so far than most other teams who haven't played a real game yet.
15 Tulsa Golden Hurricane Tulsa started the season 1-0 with a win over Oklahoma State. Like UMass, this ranking won't hold, but right now they've got a p4 win so I put them here.
16 Memphis Tigers Memphis looks like a contender for the g5 playoff bid. They got a really nice win over UNLV (1-1) to start the season and followed that up with a second win over Arkansas State. I'm putting them here for now because I thought UNLV had a good chance to be a g5 contender, too, and I think that's a pretty decent win.
17 Washington Huskies Washington started the season 1-0 with a win over Washington State. Wassu isn't p4 but I think it probably means a little more so I am ranking them here for now.
18 Houston Cougars Houston started the season 1-0 with a win over Oregon State. Like washington, I think this win is maybe one of the better g5s. We'll see if that holds, but for now I'm ranking them here.
19 Indiana Hoosiers Here marks the start of my rankings for teams that are probably really good and blew out nobodies. The reigning champs get to start that list. 1-0 with a dominating win over North Texas.
20 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State is 1-0 with a win over Ball State. Can jump to the top of my poll next week if they beat Texas.
21 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia is 1-0 with a dominant win over a nobody.
22 Texas Longhorns 1-0. Can jump to #1 if they beat Ohio State
23 USC Trojans 2-0, defeated nobodies.
24 BYU Cougars 1-0 blew out a nobody
25 Oklahoma Sooners 1-0, defeated a nobody

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