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Yelich04 Ballot for 2026 Week 5

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 27, 2026, 2:53 a.m.

Overall Rationale: I split each conference into groups based on how many losses they have and rank them accordingly (ACC 1 loss teams, American undefeateds, Pac-12 2 loss teams, etc.). I then take a certain amount of these groups that are eligible for ranking (often grouping eligible G6's and edge cases into their own larger groups) and rank them together, comparing the next available from each batch with each other. In this manner I re-rank fully every week from scratch. I rank not just the top 25, but all teams who are eligible for ranking by whatever standards I decide to set each week.

This week, all undefeated and 1-loss teams were considered for ranking. No other teams were.

DROPPING OUT: #15 Louisville, #19 Penn State, #20 Kentucky, #21 SMU, #22 USC, #24 Tulsa

NEXT 5 IN: Pitt, West Virginia, Virginia, Michigan, Missouri

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns - (Best resume including two wins over teams I believe to be very very good, though by eye test and gut feel I don't think they are the actual best team.)
2 Georgia Bulldogs ^1 (I think Georgia is actually the best team in the nation, but they haven't played anyone near Ohio State or Tennessee's level to warrant me ranking them above Texas. But they look damn good.)
3 Florida Gators ^9 (Very impressive wins over FAU and Auburn turned into maybe the most impressive win of the season by any team thus far, beating Ole Miss by 24 after they dispatched of LSU and Louisville already this year.)
4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish ^1 (They look good, but their best win is over Wisconsin, and that isn't enough for me to break into the grouping of the top 3. But they are going to be a force to be reckoned with.)
5 Miami Hurricanes v1 (Similar to Notre Dame, their best win is over Wake Forest, who I do have ranked, but that also wasn't a really impressive win, and they don't have anything else but that imo, unless you think highly of Stanford, which I don't. They should waltz through the ACC.)
6 Ohio State Buckeyes - (Best team in the Big Ten by a country mile it seems. Best win is over Illinois, and that's not a great win so I can't put them higher. But they look great.)
7 Ole Miss Rebels v5 (Rough loss, but they have great wins, that's why they're my second best team with a loss)
8 LSU Tigers ^2 (LSU is for real, they're going to contend for the SEC and the playoff. Can't put them above Ole Miss.)
9 BYU Cougars v1 (Probably a little speculative considering their best win is a close one over Arizona, but they were dominant over Colorado State, and seem like the best team in the Big 12)
10 Mississippi State Bulldogs ^3 (Missouri is their best win and I am very hyped for Mississippi State. I don't think any of Minnesota, South Carolina, or Missouri are necessarily better than Arizona by a major amount, which is why I feel comfy putting them lower than BYU. But Mississippi State is a very fun team with a very solid resume.)
11 Indiana Hoosiers v4 (Eesh. That was the worst Indiana Cignetti game yet. Northwestern I think is good, but that isn't the Indiana I thought we had. Re-ranked accordingly given that's their only real win and it looked like a struggle.)
12 Alabama Crimson Tide v1 (Kentucky, Florida State, and South Carolina are not the best teams. The next 5 games will be much more telling about who Alabama is. I also think giving up 36 to Florida State is worse than Indiana's performance against Northwestern.)
13 Utah Utes v4 (Didn't pull away from Iowa State as much as I'd have wanted them to. Maybe Iowa State is better than I thought but had to re-rank Utah accordingly.)
14 Iowa Hawkeyes ^4 (Iowa football will likely get crushed next week against Ohio State, but a great win over Michigan, plus good performances in their other games gets them climbing up.)
15 Texas Tech Red Raiders ^1 (I think Texas Tech are frauds, they have underachieved in every game this year. They are due to get exposed at some point. But the Houston win is very good, and they are undefeated, so I have to respect that... but I think Texas Tech secretly sucks.)
16 UCLA Bruins ^7 (I hate life. I am a Maryland grad, and that was the worst game I ever watched. Take your #16 ranking and never look at me again in my life Bob Chesney.)
17 Oklahoma State Cowboys NR (The Oregon win was not an aberration, they backed it up with a great West Virginia win, so they earn their way up into the rankings.)
18 Oregon Ducks NR (Hope Dante Moore is okay. But great win over USC, and the Boise State win still looks good. And with the evidence that Oklahoma State is actually good, I think Oregon is actually good. So they earned their way back in.)
19 Tennessee Volunteers v2 (A good performance but that offense looked rough. An undefeated team with their only loss to the #1 team in the nation by one score is too good for me not to rank, especially with what the other options are below, but I don't think Tennessee is actually great.)
20 Wake Forest Demon Deacons NR (What a win! A win over Louisville on the road and their only loss being a competitive one against Miami (FL), they absolutely deserve to be ranked.)
21 Duke Blue Devils NR (I initially didn't have Duke ranked but a discussion with someone else had me looking at their record again. I can't deny an undefeated team with a road win over Illinois, a win over Tulane, and a smacking of Stanford, a spot in my ranking. It is better than Virginia Tech's resume, and I quite like Virginia Tech. So I have them here.)
22 Virginia Tech Hokies v8 (This is a correction. They dominated their first three games, and I thought at the time Maryland was a good team but Virginia Tech was great. May have been wrong about that (Maryland is a big stanky pile of poo). I'm not going to place much into the game with BC being close. That weather was insane and BC I think is sneaky decent, especially in these circumstances where it becomes a run-first game. They're going to catch one or two teams in the ACC this year.)
23 Northwestern Wildcats NR (The rare lose and enter the Top 25. Northwestern look good. The wins over South Dakota State and Colorado are impressive, and that performance against Indiana was extremely gutsy, and there were points in that game where they looked like the better team. They deserve to be ranked.)
24 Nebraska Cornhuskers NR (Undefeated with wins over no actual teams. But outside of like the first half against Ohio, which you can just chalk up to Week 1 with a new QB, I haven't really had time to doubt this team. Taking care of business is worth something, so here they are.)
25 Houston Cougars - (Wish they won by more this week, but they played Texas Tech real close, they beat an Oregon State team that I think is pretty good, we'll learn more over the next few weeks but at the moment, they are good enough to rank.)


SOME NOTES ABOUT TEAMS BELOW
Pitt - Undefeated, but unimpressive besides the Miami (OH) game. Wins are wins and beating UCF and Syracuse are wins over P4 teams... but I don't think those are good P4 teams. So 4-0 is 4-0 and I can't take that away, I can't put them in over Houston who looked good vs. Texas Tech.
West Virginia - West Virginia looks good! Close game with Oklahoma State, great win over Virginia. They're feisty. Not higher though because their loss is worse than Houston's, and Pitt is undefeated and has decent wins.
Virginia - Loss to WVU is rough but they still look good. The Delaware and NC State wins were dominant and I think both of those teams are of a similar quality (solid).
Michigan - I am counting them as 1 loss, though I should call them 2 loss. Great half team here and the Oklahoma win is more impressive than most of the wins below this. And their loss to Iowa was as close as close gets. Not higher because they don't deserve it.
Missouri - Kansas isn't great, they played Troy close and I don't think Troy is very good. But they played a very good Mississippi State team close on the road. Missouri is a good team. But I need it proven with a good win for me to boost them.
Cincinnati - I went to Cincy vs. K State! What a great time! Cincinnati's Miami (OH) first half is still haunting. I don't care if they are 4-0, I don't care I live in Cincinnati now and I root for this team. I don't trust these guys at all.
James Madison - They should go 12-0. They're only not higher because I did not like how they played Liberty, but JMU is very good.
Boise State - I wanted Western Michigan to win very bad but Boise State is probably the best G5 team.
Kentucky - A&M win looks worse now. And they struggled a bit this week with South Alabama.
USC - That resume sucks. Fresno State win is good but everything else stinks.

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