Back to poll results >>

_THE__BOULDER_ Ballot for 2026 Week 3

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 14, 2026, 11:29 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Personal thoughts based on what I've seen on the tele and reports/highlights I've reviewed. I can't say I really have a specific methodology or algorithm to go by.
Biases: UF fan.
Keep in mind that this is after week 2 and I don't think we'll have the best grasp of where these teams are at until after more data is collected. For now, though, this is a fun exercise.

Honestly, I had a really tough time ranking the last few spots, as I'm not sure anybody deserves them. Here are my thoughts:
With Oklahoma and Oregon having lost this weekend, they're both 1-1 but I'm not entirely sure they're the type of 1-1 that deserves being ranked, like Louisville does, for example.

If Oregon is also not as good as we were expecting, this could devalue both OSU's win and Boise's close loss in Eugene.

It's also important to remember that OSU lost on the road to Tulsa, so they're not 2-0 but are, in fact, 1-1, and I'm not sure they're the type of 1-1 that deserves ranking either.

Michigan struggled heavily in week 1 and, although they had a good defensive performance over Oklahoma, their offense still looks sorely lacking.

I also don't think Florida is entirely deserving of a top-25 spot either, although they may be depending on their performance next week against Auburn.

Washington has also been struggling this year; I know I wrote last week that they had a good win, but, upon review, they did struggle somewhat, and they struggled again this week.

Miss St are 2-0 with a convincing win over Minnesota, but that doesn't yet mean that Miss State is deserving of the spot either.

All this to say, take the last few spots (22 - 25) with a grain of salt and more data is needed. In the end, I decided to kinda say screw it and go based on win record.

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns Texas shot themselves in the foot a few times in the first half, with that wild pick and some dropped passes by receivers, but they managed to pull out the win by playing hard for all four quarters and overcoming an OSU team that really slowed down in the second half. They ended up doing Matthew McConaughey this weekend and are deserving of the top spot this week, imo.
What should be a tune up against (an admittedly decent G6 team in) UTSA precedes a match up at Tennessee in 2 weeks. Battle of the UTs.
2 Miami Hurricanes Was really weird to see them on a Thursday. I understand a Friday, even if I don't like that either, but seeing Miami on a Thursday felt outlandish.
Anyway, they did their jobs and then some, scoring 77 points. Good result.
3 LSU Tigers Looked pretty rough in the first half against LA Tech but widened the gap in the second half. Ole Miss coming up this weekend, it's possible LSU was looking a bit too far ahead in the future, but they ended up getting the job done despite the sloppiness early on. Knocked them down a tick from last week due to the sloppiness of the first half, but they're still looking like a top 5 team.
4 Ohio State Buckeyes Although the fashion in which they lost wasn't great (giving up a 3 score lead in the 4th, only scoring 3 in the second half), they only lost to a top 5 team on the road by 1 point. I don't want to punish teams for scheduling games like this, and I'm inclined to believe this team is going to rebound. The 4th quarter wasn't a very good show of it, and Texas also helped to dig their own graves during the first half, but this defense is really good and kept things running strong until they were, by the 4th quarter, absolutely gassed. While Texas's defense is also elite, OSU may want to do some introspection on why they only scored 3 in the second half, because, with the players they have, that should not be happening. This team still has the air of a contender, however, and I won't knock them out of the top 5 for this loss. If this becomes a trend, however, we'll see how things go.
5 Georgia Bulldogs Not much to say here except that the Bulldogs did their jobs and I'm pretty sure Gunner Stockton either tied or set a school record for TD passes at 5. WKU unfortunately did not have the air of G5 relevance they've had in times not long past, and they were thoroughly outclassed. UGA has their first conference game this upcoming weekend, against an Arkansas team that just got blown out by Utah. While Arkansas has been known to make SEC play into a bit of a meatgrinder, I don't see UGA having too much of a problem here.
6 Indiana Hoosiers Ate and left no crumbs. A clean sheet. Hoosiers running strong and do not seem to have lost any steam after their title win last year. Curious to see how they keep it up against B1G competition and if Cignetti can keep this relatively new team firing on all cylinders.
7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Clean sheet against Rice. It wasn't against Texas, but I suppose Rice does these things because they are hard.
8 Texas A&M Aggies TAMU handled ASU. 48-20. This game was fairly close until all of a sudden it wasn't. TAMU really ran away with it in the 4th quarter, good win.
9 Ole Miss Rebels Solid game against Charlotte, not much to say there. LSU this week, in Oxford. Looking forward to some drama in - even though I don't like early-season rankings due to lack of data - what should be considered a Top-10 match up at this point of the season.
10 Alabama Crimson Tide Another game that was close until it wasn't. Alabama was down 17-13 at the half, and then proceeded to blank Kentucky in the second half and score 32 more points, all of this was in Lexington as well. A solid win for the Crimson Tide in the end, despite some first-half mishaps, including 2 interceptions and a fumble. They will need to be careful with ball security next week, or else they might come out of Tuscaloosa with a very ugly win against FSU (I'm highly doubting Bama loses at home) and end up looking like SMU.
11 BYU Cougars BYU's first conference game ended in a 28-17 win against Arizona, overcoming a slight deficit at the end of the first half and blanking Arizona in the second half. BYU was consistent, scoring exactly 1 time each quarter, each score for a TD. Many drives for BYU ended in punts after only a few plays, but they refrained from committing any turnovers, and, ultimately, got the job done.
12 Texas Tech Red Raiders A tight game until TTech scored two touchdowns in the 4th to take an 11 point lead over Oregon State. OSU has put up decent competition against both Houston and now TTech, so I don't think they're anything to be scoffed at, but now we'll get to see those two teams go head-to-head as TTech has Houston to play this upcoming weekend and I think that will be a fun match up to watch.
13 Tennessee Volunteers I know GT is now 0-2, but this was a solid win over an OOC opponent, with a 17 point 2nd quarter to start off what essentially became a 3-score lead throughout the rest of the game. Tennessee ripped off some big plays too, showing a dynamic offense. Tenn now has a tune up against Kennesaw St before attempting to find out who the real UT is in two weeks.
14 USC Trojans USC got out to a 3 score lead at the end of the 2nd quarter, jumping out in front even further by going up 35-10 within the 3rd. They were in full control of the game, and ULL has not a bad G6 in the last decade or so, but I am a little concerned by USC giving up 30 points to this team. They move up 1 spot from my poll last week because of other teams having been moved down, but I am reluctant to move them any higher.
15 Utah Utes While Arkansas has not been the SEC team with the best of records for some time, they have been known to pack a punch and really drag opponents down. Utah did not let themselves get bogged down in the mud, however, and fully handled Arkansas, scoring 43 unanswered points against the Razorbacks. There were some issues, like an interception in the 1st half, but they did, in the end, get the job done very successfully.
16 Penn State Nittany Lions Penn State has been off to a good start this year, and I will be curious to see how they do when they start conference play. Good performances in their tune up games so far.
17 Houston Cougars Solid 77-6 win over a cupcake match up in Southern University. They play TTech next week, let's see what happens.
18 Missouri Tigers Despite what looked to be a pretty even first half ending tied at 14, Mizzou won the Border War fairly handily in the second half, claiming victory in the 38-21 game. These two fan bases seem to legitimately hate each other, and it looked like it might be a real slugfest in the first half, especially with some miscues like a missed field goal and a fumble for Mizzou, as well as a missed field goal and an interception for Kansas, but Kansas turned the ball over twice in the 3rd quarter, allowing Mizzou to take a dominant 2-score lead and take control of the game from there on out. Mizzou has a match up with Troy next week before going to play Mississippi St away for their first conference match up in 2 weeks.
19 Iowa Hawkeyes I moved Iowa up 1 spot, mainly due to some other teams that got knocked down/out, but this was by no means an easy win for the Hawkeyes at home. With a 16-13 final score, both teams were kept scoreless in the 1st quarter, tied 10-10 at the end of the 2nd, before Iowa was able to shut out ISU in quarter 4 and score two field goals to take the lead. No turnovers, and not too many penalties, as well as an almost even TOP, but this game was quite the mud fight. In-state rivals can do this to even good teams, however, so I will let this one slide a bit. Iowa plays Northern Iowa next week, so they have the opportunity to tune a few things up before they play at Michigan for their first conference game.
20 Louisville Cardinals Good win against a cupcake in Villanova. Pretty sure they play SMU next week, which should be a good test as SMU seems to have had a good week after Week 1 shenanigans against FSU.
21 Virginia Cavaliers Easy win against a cupcake team in Norfolk State. Next game is against WVU and, while I would expect UVA to win, that might be an interesting one to look out for.
22 Michigan Wolverines I know Venables's teams at Oklahoma are known for their defense, but Michigan's defense really handled Oklahoma's offense well in this game, keeping a clean sheet throughout the first half and coming up with two turnovers in a first half fumble and a second half interception, with that interception directly leading to Michigan's go ahead touchdown. While this is a nice bounce back for Michigan, I'm not convinced either team is that good as of right now, especially after last week's debacle for Michigan. I've dropped Oklahoma out of the rankings, and Michigan is just barely in ranked territory in the 20s. Michigan plays UTEP next, and plays Iowa to open conference play. Please see "Rationale" section for further details.
23 Mississippi State Bulldogs Please see "Rationale" section for details.
24 Washington Huskies Please see "Rationale" section for details.
25 Florida Gators Please see "Rationale" section for details.

Back to poll results >>