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Tornadohunter24 Ballot for 2026 Week 3

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 15, 2026, 9:26 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Another weekend full of college football is in the books, and that gives me another excuse for re-racking and re-assessing everyone. Except for my Yellow Jackets, who are apparently destined for .500 at best this year. Unfortunate, that.

Before we get started, I just wanted to remind you of a few caveats to my top 25: I'm including at least a few 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.

The poll I submitted two weeks ago was a *preseason poll*. It was submitted with 0 actual game analysis or any 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 have only played weaker teams and blown them out (cough cough Indiana, uGA, etc. cough cough) are still ranked or at least mentioned. 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/well-regarded G6 program, like Boise State) in either of their first 2 (or in USC's case, 3) games and emerged victorious or suffered an honorably close defeat. In respect of those who actually went out there and either started conference play early or actually decided to play someone in non-conference play, I've ranked (almost) 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 still early on - 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. SOR is taken from ESPN for ease of access. And yes, I know it looks silly early on in the year, but considering how much I converge with it by the mid-season, I find it prudent to include.

NOTE: Apologies for slightly-abbreviated ballots so far - was meaning to include schedule + last season results, but haven't had the time to fully implement. Should hopefully see this done by next week.

| TEAMS DROPPING OUT: #4 Oregon Ducks [1-1], #11 Memphis Tigers [1-1], #12 North Carolina Tar Heels [2-0], #13 Cincinnati Bearcats [2-0], #14 North Dakota State Bison [3-0], #17 Indiana Hoosiers [2-0], #19 Georgia Bulldogs [2-0], #23 USC Trojans [3-0], #25 Boise State Broncos [1-1]

| HONORABLE MENTIONS: Oregon Ducks [1-1], North Carolina Tar Heels [2-0], Cincinnati Bearcats [2-0], North Dakota State Bison [3-0], Indiana Hoosiers [2-0], Georgia Bulldogs [2-0], USC Trojans [3-0], Pittsburgh Panthers [2-0], Western Michigan Broncos [1-1*], Boise State Broncos [1-1]

PRESEASON BALLOT: https://poll.redditcfb.com/ballot/73954 | WEEK 2 BALLOT: https://poll.redditcfb.com/ballot/74364/

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns [2-0] (+19) | SOR: #1
2 Ole Miss Rebels [2-0] (+1) | SOR: #5
3 Miami Hurricanes [2-0, 1-0 ACC] (-2) | SOR: #28
4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish [2-0] (-2) | SOR: #22
5 LSU Tigers [2-0] (-) | SOR: #12
6 Texas A&M Aggies [2-0] (+16) | SOR: #17
7 Tulsa Golden Hurricane [2-0] (+8) | SOR: #21
8 Virginia Cavaliers [2-0, 1-0 ACC] (-2) | SOR: #24
9 Alabama Crimson Tide [2-0, 1-0 SEC] (NEW) | SOR: #6
10 BYU Cougars [2-0, 1-0 Big 12] (+11) | SOR: #15
11 Tennessee Volunteers [2-0] (NEW) | SOR: #11
12 Utah Utes [2-0] (NEW) | SOR: #36
13 UCLA Bruins [2-0] (-5) | SOR: #10
14 SMU Mustangs [2-0, 1-0 ACC] (-7) | SOR: #4
15 Iowa Hawkeyes [2-0] (NEW) | SOR: #26
16 Duke Blue Devils [2-0] (NEW) | SOR: #3
17 Auburn Tigers [2-0] (-8) | SOR: #8
18 Michigan Wolverines [2-0*] (NEW) | SOR: #2
19 Colorado Buffaloes [2-0] (-9) | SOR: #9
20 Mississippi State Bulldogs [2-0] (NEW) | SOR: #18
21 Missouri Tigers [2-0] (NEW) | SOR: #13
22 UMass Minutemen [2-0] (-6) | SOR: #34
23 Ohio State Buckeyes [1-1] (-5) | SOR: #66
24 Louisville Cardinals [1-1] (-) | SOR: #74
25 Oklahoma State Cowboys [1-1] (NEW) | SOR: #46

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