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Justanother_0 Ballot for 2026 Week 4

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 21, 2026, 6:58 p.m.

Overall Rationale: I only consider the top half of each Power Four conference (plus the independents if they perform well enough), along with who I believe to be the best teams from the Group of Six in that given week. I then sort the teams by conference, ranking each team from best to worst within their own conference. The best of the G6 are all grouped into the same set for determining who the best among them are. The independents are also sorted into their own group as well. Finally, I use the six groups made (four P4 conference top 8's, 1 group for the best of the G6, 1 group for the independents) to create the top 25. Any teams absent that I think need explanation will be talked about in the [Notable Omissions] category below.

In an effort to curb poll momentum from my preseason teams, I reassessed the position of every team I had ranked in my prior poll. If a team hasn’t yet played a quality opponent by their own choosing (I.e, they filled their OOC with cupcakes intentionally), then their ranking will take a severe hit. General vibes of a team, while still considered, will take a backseat to a team’s resume from this week out.

[Notable Omissions]

[Penn State] took the Indiana OOC scheduling philosophy, but they don’t have the playoff expectation or roster to justify being ranked on vibes alone.

[Texas A&M] had a very deceiving win over Arizona State, and I wasn’t horribly high on this team to begin with.

[North Dakota State] passes the eye test the most out of any G6 team since 2024, but dear lord the Missouri Valley probably gave the Bison a tougher schedule than the Mountain West does. They’ll be waiting for those ahead of them to lose before they hop back in the list.

[Duke] may be undefeated, but that Tulane game is still fresh in my mind.

This is probably one of the wonkiest top 25’s I’ve ever put together. These things get cleaner to navigate later in the season, but for now we do the best with what we have.

Thank you for reading!

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns Not a whole lot changed this week for the Longhorns in my eyes. A test against Tennessee this upcoming week will be interesting to watch.
2 Ole Miss Rebels A massive win for the Rebels this week propels them way up my list. They’d probably be #1 if they didn’t lose their star running back in their revenge game.
3 Ohio State Buckeyes While the Buckeyes choked the Texas game away in stunning fashion, a one point loss on the road to the current #1 isn’t too big of a stain to a resume, especially when so many other teams fill their early year schedules with nothing but cupcakes.
4 Louisville Cardinals Huge reach? Maybe, but this is a team that is going to bruise and batter every team they face off against this year. I expect this team to make the playoffs on that offense alone. Now if that defense doesn’t start to gel then they probably won’t go too far into December. Even so, a three point loss to the second best team in the SEC is hard to really punish these guys for, especially after beating SMU.
5 Georgia Bulldogs A blowout win over Arkansas saves Georgia from skidding too far down this list from a lack of quality wins (even if ceiling Arkansas a quality opponent is the reach of the century). This will correct itself as SEC play begins.
6 Miami Hurricanes I worry how Miami will stack up against their tougher competition when they get there. That being said, they’ve got a Heisman finalist under center.
7 Texas Tech Red Raiders Is it true that the tab is probably gonna come due for the Red Raiders at some point this year? Definitely. Do they also have the best win in the Big XII right now with their classic against Houston? Absolutely.
8 BYU Cougars Close behind the Red Raiders, but no ranked wins so far. However, I remain high on the Cougars
9 Indiana Hoosiers The 16-0 run last year is doing a TON of heavy lifting in this ranking. If it weren’t for that, there wouldn’t be a whole lot to prop this team up on.
10 LSU Tigers This team breaks whenever Leavitt does. This holds especially true should he get too overzealous on a QB sneak and get KO-ed (or if he goes a little too hard in the pickup basketball games).
11 Utah Utes This is a tough one to rank. On one hand they didn’t schedule East Walmart in place of Arkansas, but on the other it’s not like scheduling Walmart is much better. I expect this team to be competing for the Big XII, but they just don’t stack up on paper to the teams ahead of them.
12 SMU Mustangs I am still very high on SMU despite their loss to Louisville (who I am extremely high on), can’t punish them too much for that. They’ll need more wins though to secure this spot.
13 Iowa Hawkeyes This is about the point in the list where the methodology of ranking by conference shows its flaws. Right now, the B1G is really Indiana and Ohio State followed by everybody else. Going on resume, Iowa is the first in that “everybody else” category. I’ll be shocked if they hold onto such a high ranking after this week, but somebody’s gotta be #13.
14 Houston Cougars I’m rewarding Houston for their performance against Texas Tech this last week. This team gives shades of 2024 Indiana to me, so make of that what you will.
15 Alabama Crimson Tide A Big XII classic makes me wonder what is going on in Tuscaloosa. I look forward to seeing how they somehow skate by their SEC slate and stumble into Atlanta inexplicably.
16 West Virginia Mountaineers The Virginia win here is doing most of the heavy lifting here. I was high on the Cavaliers, so I am rewarding them for their performance there (they’re also undefeated).
17 Notre Dame Fighting Irish If they beat their big boy opponents, then I’ll put them in the top 10.
18 Tulsa Golden Hurricane Tulsa home game for the playoffs. Book it.
19 Virginia Cavaliers I am still very high on the Cavaliers, but that West Virginia game is gonna hurt them a bit. Can they bounce back? I think so.
20 USC Trojans Look, if Rutgers lit up the Trojans as bad as they did, then how in the world are they gonna stop Oregon?
21 Kentucky Wildcats Huge win over A&M gives me the confirmation that I needed that this team is probably gonna be the Wildcats’ first step out of the gutter that they’ve found themselves in lately.
22 Boise State Broncos Sure, they got all they could handle against South Dakota, but the Missouri Valley is probably a better conference than the C-USA anyway so I'll count that as a quality win.
23 Western Michigan Broncos Undefeated with a chance to take the G6 mantle outright by hosting Boise State? I personally doubted that anybody from the MAC would find themselves in this position, but like Anton Ego said, “It’s not that anybody can cook, but rather a good cook can come from anywhere.”
24 Mississippi State Bulldogs Undefeated with a road win against SCar, I’m feeling high on these guys.
25 Oklahoma State Cowboys Their only loss is to a Tulsa team that could very well make the playoffs and they took down one of the most talented teams in the nation in Oregon. Time to flip a coin and see if their offense will be good or not this week.

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