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CFBHurts Ballot for 2026 Week 3

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 13, 2026, 9:58 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Early season gets a ton of volatility in the ballots as we figure out who is actually good and who is actually trash. Expect wild swings until about halfway into the season.

You get rewarded for beating good opponents and for doing so convincingly. Given that this is only week 1 we're still guessing who actually counts as good opponents, so we rely on a bit of the eye test for that.

There was leeway in week 1 but by week 2 you need to have played an opponent with a pulse to be considered, which is why teams like Georgia and Indiana are omitted for now

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns Best win in the country as of today
2 LSU Tigers Clemson might be truly putrid, but for now that still counts as the 2nd best win in the country
3 Ole Miss Rebels Impressive win over Louisville should age well
4 Virginia Cavaliers Thrashed what may be a solid NC State team
5 Texas A&M Aggies Easily pulled away from a good ASU
6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Tight first half against Wisconsin ended up in a dominating 2nd half
7 Alabama Crimson Tide Shut down any hopes of an upset after halftime
8 Ohio State Buckeyes Hurray for quality losses
9 BYU Cougars Eventually put away a feisty Arizona
10 UCLA Bruins Comfortably beat a team with a P4 win
11 Utah Utes Completely manhandled Arkansas, though the hogs are on worst-P4-team alert
12 Mississippi State Bulldogs Walked all over Minnesota, a generally competent team
13 Louisville Cardinals Hanging on with a quality loss for now
14 Tulsa Golden Hurricane Just how good is that win over Oklahoma State? We'll see as more games are played
15 Missouri Tigers Eventually put away a hated rival
16 Tennessee Volunteers Solid win over a possible awful Georgia Tech
17 SMU Mustangs SMU is a tough call, on the one hand they completely dominated FSU down to down, but it was also their own unforced errors that kept FSU in the game. For now they're going in the middle of the pack
18 Miami Hurricanes Completely untested against overmatched competition
19 USC Trojans Solid win over Fresno State is carrying the resume
20 North Dakota State Bison This may be a bit of a reach but the win over Jacksonville State still looks pretty strong
21 Kansas State Wildcats The jury out on whether Washington State counts as a competent opponent but at least Kansas State beat them easily
22 UMass Minutemen Rutgers is abysmal but that was a quality showing regardless
23 Pittsburgh Panthers Miami OH counts as a decent win, but that UCF game was ugly in the moment and will probably age poorly
24 Duke Blue Devils Beating Illinois will probably continue to look better as the season goes on
25 Iowa Hawkeyes Shame on everyone who doubted the power of El Assico. Congrats to the Hawkeyes for the win, no matter how ugly it was

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