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Tornadohunter24 Ballot for 2026 Week 2

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 9, 2026, 9:52 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Well, there weren't as many upsets as I'd have hoped for (because I am deranged), but that was certainly a fun Week 0/Week 1! Always fun to have college football ruining my Saturdays. Just wish that my team didn't lay an egg last Thursday to start off the year...

Before we get started, I just wanted to remind you of a few caveats to my top 25: I'm including at least 5 spots for the G5, as an indicator of who I think is favored to make a run at the Playoffs out of those conferences. I also love pre-conference play variance, so you'll see a lot of that too. In addition, this poll, by nature, is meant to be overreactive. I'm not here to try to be predictive - I want this to be strictly resume, even if that resume consists of a single game. I'm not here trying to justify every single one of my top 25 staying in the top 25 week-to-week; that's just lame. And it's not the point of what I want to accomplish when doing these rankings. Even still, before you crucify me for this poll ballot... allow me to explain further.

Last week's poll was a *preseason poll*. It was submitted with 0 actual game analysis or even games played beyond a spring game. Why should it still dictate the rankings after the games begin to be played? Inevitably, it will still hold some amount of weight because it's not as if those rankings were entirely made out of the blue - we still have star ranking composites, camp reports, returning production, last year's records, and so forth. Hence why teams that blew out weaker opponents like Ohio State are still ranked. Similar stories exist for pretty much everyone, really.

So, a better question: why is the top 25 the way that they are? Well, I'm glad you asked, random stranger I made up in my head to dictate this interaction! Essentially, every team in said top 25 played a Power 4 opponent (or a high-ranked G5, such as Oregon who beat Boise State) in either Week 0 or Week 1 and emerged victorious. In honor of that scheduling quirk, I've ranked all of the winners and organized them by most impressive to least impressive win based upon margin of victory, perceived opponent strength, location of the game, and any other important or relevant factors. Does this make the poll have unreasonable amounts of instability? Probably! Do I care? Not really. It's Week 1 - everyone who deserves to be ranked will become ranked again soon enough. I'm not the committee; just keep winning, and things will fall into place.

That said, let's get on to the necessary business at the end of this. A lot of movement necessitates a lot of accounting.

| TEAMS DROPPING OUT: #11 Texas Tech Red Raiders [1-0], #12 Oklahoma Sooners [1-0], #13 Alabama Crimson Tide [1-0], #16 Houston Cougars [1-0], #18 Washington Huskies [1-0], #20 Michigan Wolverines [1*-0], #22 Penn State Nittany Lions [1-0], #23 Iowa Hawkeyes [1-0], #24 Tennessee Volunteers [1-0]

| HONORABLE MENTIONS: Texas Tech Red Raiders [1-0], Oklahoma Sooners [1-0], Alabama Crimson Tide [1-0], Houston Cougars [1-0], Penn State Nittany Lions [1-0], Western Michigan Broncos [0-1*], Iowa Hawkeyes [1-0], Tennessee Volunteers [1-0], Washington Huskies [1-0], Baylor Bears [0-1

| LAST YEAR'S FINAL BALLOT: https://poll.redditcfb.com/ballot/73668 | PRESEASON BALLOT: https://poll.redditcfb.com/ballot/73954

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