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Tornadohunter24 Ballot for 2026 Week 4

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 22, 2026, 10:57 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.

While preseason rankings, perceived team strength, recruiting rankings, and all of those other factors will still play a role in the value I grant to certain teams, I ultimately want this ranking to be a resume-based one as stated earlier, not a power ranking. I'm always searching for ways to best optimize this and to best balance the two, especially early on, so am open to opinions. That said, this does mean that certain teams that have scheduled a weak opening slate/non-conference schedule will not be ranked until they play someone (*cough cough* Indiana *cough cough*). Teams that have gone out of their way to schedule difficult and perform well will also be granted grace, even if it resulted in a loss.

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 these first few weeks of 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. It is not the only metric I consier but it's the easiest to compare with my rankings.

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 (DO): #6 Texas A&M Aggies [2-1, 0-1 SEC], #8 Virginia Cavaliers [2-1, 1-0 ACC], #14 SMU Mustangs [2-1, 1-1 ACC], #17 Auburn Tigers [2-1, 0-1 SEC], #19 Colorado Buffaloes [2-1]

| HONORABLE MENTIONS (HM): Indiana Hoosiers [3-0], Oregon Ducks [2-1], SMU Mustangs [2-1, 1-1 ACC], Kentucky Wildcats [2-1, 1-0 SEC], Texas A&M Aggies [2-1, 0-1 SEC], Virginia Tech Hokies [3-0], USC Trojans [4-0, 1-0 B1G], Western Michigan Broncos [2-1*], Boise State Broncos [2-1], Houston Cougars [2-1, 0-1 Big 12]

| ESPN SOR, FPI, and other useful metrics: https://www.espn.com/college-football/fpi/_/view/resume

PRESEASON BALLOT: https://poll.redditcfb.com/ballot/73954 | WEEK 2 BALLOT: https://poll.redditcfb.com/ballot/74364/ | WEEK 3 BALLOT: https://poll.redditcfb.com/ballot/74836/

Rank Team Reason
1 Ole Miss Rebels [3-0, 1-0 SEC] (+1) | SOR: #2 | Notable Results: W 41-38 vs #19 Louisville [2-1], W 32-24 vs #21 LSU [2-1]
2 Texas Longhorns [3-0] (-1) | SOR: #1 | Notable Results: W 24-23 vs #16 Ohio State [2-1]
3 Alabama Crimson Tide [3-0, 1-0 SEC] (+6) | SOR: #4 | Notable Results: W 45-17 @ HM Kentucky [2-1]
4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish [3-0] (-) | SOR: #13
5 Miami Hurricanes [3-0, 2-0 ACC] (-2) | SOR: #11
6 Utah Utes [3-0] (+6) | SOR: #36
7 Georgia Bulldogs [3-0, 1-0 SEC] (NEW) | SOR: #25
8 Tulsa Golden Hurricane [3-0] (-1) | SOR: #19 | Notable Results: W 24-10 vs #25 Oklahoma State [2-1]
9 BYU Cougars [3-0, 1-0 Big 12] (+1) | SOR: #17
10 West Virginia Mountaineers [3-0] (NEW) | SOR: #7 | Notable Results: W 38-27 vs DO Virginia [2-1]
11 Texas Tech Red Raiders [3-0, 1-0 Big 12] (NEW) | SOR: #10 | Notable Results: W 28-26 vs HM Houston [2-1]
12 Northwestern Wildcats [2-0] (NEW) | SOR: #34
13 Mississippi State Bulldogs [3-0, 1-0 SEC] (+7) | SOR: #4
14 Tennessee Volunteers [3-0] (-3) | SOR: #18
15 Duke Blue Devils [3-0, 1-0 ACC] (+1) | SOR: #9
16 Ohio State Buckeyes [2-1] (+7) | SOR: #69 | Notable Results: L 23-24 @ #2 Texas [3-0]
17 UCLA Bruins [3-0, 1-0 B1G] (-4) | SOR: #16
18 Iowa Hawkeyes [3-0] (-3) | SOR: #24
19 Louisville Cardinals [2-1, 1-0 ACC] (+5) | SOR: #23 | Notable Results: L 38-41 vs #1 Ole Miss [3-0], W 41-31 vs HM SMU [2-1]
20 Pittsburgh Panthers [3-0, 1-0 ACC] (NEW) | SOR: #14
21 LSU Tigers [2-1, 0-1 SEC] (-16) | SOR: #32
22 Florida Gators [3-0, 1-0 SEC] (NEW) | SOR: #5
23 Michigan Wolverines [3*-0] (-5) | SOR: #6 | Notable Results: "W" 13-12 vs HM Western Michigan [2-1*]
24 UMass Minutemen [3-0] (-2) | SOR: #37
25 Oklahoma State Cowboys [2-1] (-) | SOR: #48 | Notable Results: W 39-31 vs HM Oregon [2-1]

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