Back to poll results >>

Conn3er Ballot for 2026 Week 3

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 13, 2026, 2:08 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Eyeballs

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns Despite my best internal attempts to respect Indiana you can’t deny that Texas now has the clear best resume in country. I think they have regressed at DC and if they ever have to play an above average O-line I think there a lot of points to be earned on a relatively pedestrian defensive backfield.
2 Indiana Hoosiers Gotta respect the champs
3 Miami Hurricanes This may be the best offense in the country. Mensa scholar QB with Toney on the outside and a whole slew of other weapons that were good enough to tie for the 2nd in most offensive yards in a CFB game despite having a shortened 4th quarter.
4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish This is the most well rounded complete team in the country but they will not play anyone besides at best Navy that will be enough to convince people or pollers otherwise. You cant put them at 1 even if they probably are the best team on any given weekend.
5 Georgia Bulldogs The offense looks like it may be good enough to go the distance, but they’ve got to play team with a pulse before we rank them higher. Gotta trust their coaching staff more than anyone else.
6 Ole Miss Rebels Chambliss and Lacey are good, biggest game of their season next weekend
7 Texas A&M Aggies Reed simply isn’t consistent enough to give you any sort of confidence in their long term outlook

But you can’t ignore that defense. 3 turnovers caused in 5 plays against a well coached ASU team. That will win you a lot of games even with mediocre QB play. This is one the best, deepest, hardest playing defenses in the country.

The team feels a lot like Oklahoma last year
8 LSU Tigers Defense feels like it’s well put together

Offense is not there yet, impressive win over a Clemson team that I don’t think ever appears in the top 25 this year but when they start to play some SEC defense I think you’ll see some much lower scoring affairs.
9 Ohio State Buckeyes This is a top 5 team that is unfortunate enough to have Ryan Day coaching them

Coaching lost that game, no reason looking any deeper into it, really bad 2nd half from the staff.
10 Alabama Crimson Tide Kentucky had us thinking for a half there
11 BYU Cougars
12 USC Trojans
13 Penn State Nittany Lions
14 Texas Tech Red Raiders These guys are not the same team as last year. Sorsby drama may have rattled them a bit, one thing is for sure this team is no longer dominating all 4Qs
15 Tennessee Volunteers
16 SMU Mustangs This is offense is electric
17 Utah Utes
18 Iowa Hawkeyes
19 Houston Cougars
20 Michigan Wolverines Disgusting having to rank a 1-1 team but they handled OU in a way that makes you consider that week 1 may have been a fluke.
21 Missouri Tigers
22 Virginia Cavaliers
23 Florida Gators
24 Louisville Cardinals
25 Oklahoma Sooners Someone besides Oregon had to go here and I’m not ready for it to be Oklahoma State.

Back to poll results >>