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Tarmacked Ballot for 2026 Week 4

Ballot Type: Hybrid

Submitted: Sept. 22, 2026, 9:47 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Mix of eye test, Sagarin, and other metrics (+/-, etc.).
Note: This is an early iteration and is much more fluid given lack of samples. This should shift significantly until week 5-6.

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns No change
2 Ohio State Buckeyes No change
3 Ole Miss Rebels Two wins over Louisville and LSU is the best resume so far. Their run defense is a bit shaky, so lets how Florida goes. That being said I would love to ride this team if they keep proving it against a strong schedule and they could easily make the case for #1.
4 Georgia Bulldogs Playing very clean, just not as strong a resume as Ole Miss and I have to reward it.
5 Miami Hurricanes Wake was oddly close with a good chunk of turnovers (18 starters). At the end of the day I feel better about Mensah being consistent than the options below.
6 Alabama Crimson Tide Kentucky win looks pretty good. I'm not sure what the hell was going on with the single man coverage with no help, but again we saw a flash of the offensive ceiling. If they had played this cleanly i'd have them at #5 over Miami but something is always slightly off with this team. That being said FSU did play SMU close, so maybe they are better but it is Norvell so hard to judge without 4-5 more games in conference play for them.
7 Indiana Hoosiers We may finally get a true view into whether this is a 2024 Indiana or 2025 with the Northwestern game. I’m leaning heavily on upset but let’s see
8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish MSU was oddly close and you can tell the run game is lacking. BYU maybe gives some weight as to where they really are but the schedule is so yuck throughout the year it will be hard to guage until Miami.
9 Louisville Cardinals Win over SMU was great, and the Ole Miss game was tight to the wire. I think Ole Miss’ performance this weekend solidified that they’re better than we think. (This ranking may be overly optimistic
10 LSU Tigers Sam Leavitt is the most inconsistent passer known to man, but they are still managing to overperform his lackluster passing due to strong playcalling and Leavitts own legs.
11 Tennessee Volunteers Hitting on all cylinders, but I don’t think they have the experience to beat out Leavitt and company (even despite his poor arm so far).
12 Penn State Nittany Lions Some sluggish points, but overall closing where they need to.
13 Texas Tech Red Raiders Incredibly close win over Houston. I’m not confident in their quality of play (offense specifically) but I will honor a solid win.
14 BYU Cougars Bit concerned about the close game to Colorado state.
15 Houston Cougars Rather upset Houston couldn’t close, but I think they proved they aren’t a ranked in the 20’s team at this stage.
16 Kentucky Wildcats Give them credit, they played a strong game after collapsing in the second half against Alabama. While they were bottled up against Bama, they somehow carved up Elko and his A&M group which isn't an easy feat. I like the stock (Stein)!
17 Missouri Tigers I’m not sure what the hell went on with Troy
18 USC Trojans This defense is atrocious. It's going to get them hammered at some point.
19 Texas A&M Aggies "That boy ain't right" - Hank Hill. I'm not sure what the hell went on here but this rank can be very fluid depending on their next two weeks of performances (and not in a good way fluid).
20 SMU Mustangs FSU has come off as more resilient than I expected. I can probably make the argument they should be above Oregon
21 Oregon Ducks The Oklahoma State game fear wasn't really resolved by them beating up an FCS opponent. Also Stein is definitely looking like a big coordinator loss, which was my fear moving into this season.
22 Florida Gators Yes, they won in Jordan Hare. No, i'm not giving a ton of weight to it because we don't know what Golesh really is as their coach yet. Ole Miss performance will be a huge datapoint for us to really judge them under Sumrall in year one.
23 Mississippi State Bulldogs Kamario Taylor is that dude
24 UCLA Bruins It’s wild that they can have such an inept head coach, clean house, and immediately outperform Cal on the field the following year.
25 Northwestern Wildcats Big upset potential here against Indiana. Kelly+Chiles and a stout NU defense could turn the tide against an Indiana that has struggled to separate all year against lesser opponents.

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