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ToeInDigDeep Ballot for 2026 Week 3

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 15, 2026, 1:07 a.m.

Overall Rationale: OK for this week I'm doing something completely different and submitting a completely resume-based ranking. I'm throwing out everything from last week and preseason and going off-roading a bit to see what teams have the best wins so far. Winning and losing matter and this ranking reads winning (and, maybe more importantly, not losing) as the highest virtue.

To start I put together a spreadsheet of the results of games from the season. I'm discarding every team with a loss (because they have lost) which leaves 52 remaining. This is followed by setting aside anyone with an FCS win (because we value these wins as being the lowest) which leaves 20 according to my spreadsheet.

To sort these 20 I'm fairly directly sorting their wins over opponents by being judgemental and going off expectations and overall sense of perceived strength to sort them. This also takes the perceived strengths of both wins into account rather than simply highlighting one win over another.

These 20 teams have the best two (or three) wins of anyone so far without having lost any games. For the remaining five, I'm picking those with the most impressive combo of FBS and FCS win, generally following the same sorting rubric as above and applying a sense of value to the opponents beaten.

This is mostly fun for me to see who absolutely has played the best teams and beaten them. It also is an experiment for me I to test out how closely my own impressions for beliefs about the game line up with what's happened in stadiums across the country. I wasn't expecting to find Duke would be the top team in this, but looking at the wins its pretty clear they have the best notches in their bedpost right now. I don't know if it will make sense for to keep this up week after week -- either logistically or in terms of the reaction to this on the sub -- but for right now it feels good to rank teams this way. I like that this is completely honest and based entirely on what has happened on the field this season.

It feels less subjective and more methodological than a lot of what I've seen, and is intended to reflect only the results of the limited games we've had so far and to avoid preconceptions to the maximum degree possible.

Rank Team Reason
1 Duke Blue Devils Tulane and Illinois are two wins that already look very good and will be even more impressive by the end of the year. Blue Devils decidedly have the two best wins in the country right now.
2 Texas Longhorns Ohio State and Texas State. Have to say that the 'Horns looked horrible for three quarters, Ohio State beat themselves more than the 'Horns beat them
3 UCLA Bruins UCLA may have two of the toughest wins of the season over Berkeley and SDSU, both underrated this season and sneaky-good teams that play opposite styles of ball. UCLA is on a real run right now.
4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Wisconsin and Rice are two of the strongest wins anyone has in the country.
5 Tulsa Golden Hurricane How good does that win against the Cowboys look now? Honestly 5 might be too low for these Golden Huricanes, but Sam Houston barely qualifies as a FBS win.
6 Mississippi State Bulldogs Big wins over Minnesota and ULM, the Bulldogs are something we don't often see: an underrated SEC team.
7 Pittsburgh Panthers Netted wins over UCF and Miami OH, both coming off of bowl seasons and among the stronger two wins any team can claim so far
8 Auburn Tigers Southern Miss and Baylor are two strong FBS teams and Auburn is 2-0 against them.
9 LSU Tigers Two convincing wins over Clemson and La. Tech. Real test coming up this weekend.
10 Ole Miss Rebels 41 points in both outings over Louisville and Charlotte. Real test coming up this weekend.
11 Alabama Crimson Tide They've won their two games comfortably against Kentucky and ECU.
12 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Ok yes it's Purdue and Akron, but it's a B1G team and a game MAC team
13 Iowa Hawkeyes Wins over Iowa State and NIU from the Big XII and MWC respectively put Iowa in the top 15 of wins in the early season.
14 Washington Huskies Wazzu and Utah State from the Pac-12 both circled their games in Seattle as a hopeful season- or even program-defining upset, and both came away disappointed because the Huskies handled the very best they could throw at them.
15 USC Trojans Fresno State, San Jose State and Louisiana all beat everyone else they've played aside from USC, and USC absolutely smoked all three. They look as consistent as anyone I've seen so far and I'd put them higher if I wasn't doing this ranking this way this week.
16 Penn State Nittany Lions Shut out Marshall and a tough win at an upset-minded Temple from the AAC.
17 USF Bulls Army and FIU are two FBS teams both coming of bowl seasons last year and are wins that not all programs can claim at this point of the season.
18 Michigan State Spartans EMU and Toledo, regional "rivals" to the recently-beleaguered Spartans, damn sure looked at Michigan State as a P2 game they could win, and neither of them could pull the upset despite maximum effort.
19 North Dakota State Bison Moved up from FCS only to get three huge wins including an Air Force team that gives everyone fits with their triple option. These guys are damn good.
20 Nebraska Cornhuskers Ohio and Bowling Green are two FBS teams, and are the weakest two wins of anyone who didn't play an FCS program in the first two weeks.
21 Utah Utes Talent composites and football teams aren't the same thing, as they proved against Arkansas.
22 Texas A&M Aggies Their win over Arizona State is one of the best anyone has right now.
23 Texas Tech Red Raiders Oregon State is tricky good and Tech fought hard to come out of Corvallis with a win. Real test coming up this Friday night.
24 Houston Cougars Oregon State has played two top-25 teams very close and are a tougher opponent and therefore a more impressive win than they're being given credit for. Drubbing of Southern keeps 'em rolling. Real test coming up this Friday night.
25 Miami Hurricanes Two easy wins including over Stanford all the way across the country, and their defense hasn't given up much at all

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