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TheUltimate721 Ballot for 2026 Week 5

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 27, 2026, 12:49 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Honorable mentions: Northwestern, Minnesota, James Madison, South Florida, Tulsa, Umass

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs
2 Texas Longhorns That was an ugly win that left a lot of longhorn fans feeling unsatisfied, and rightfully so. I don't believe Texas ever trailed in this game, but they never took command in a way that you would expect due to offensive miscues. Add on a litany of special teams issues, and they very nearly lost this game to Tennessee that they had been controlling for well over 90% of it.
3 Indiana Hoosiers If you're looking for a reason to be down on the Hoosiers I suppose that's one, but I am going to give more credit to Northwestern than I am going to dog in Indiana. They were very much still the better team, but Northwestern came in with a good gameplan for Aiden Chiles and had him looking frankly the best he's ever looked. A true dual threat QB like Chiles is incredibly hard to stop when he gets rolling. Credit IU's run game for shutting the doors on Northwestern even without Turbo Richard.
4 Miami Hurricanes CAN THESE GUYS JUST PLAY NOTRE DAME ALREADY I WANT TO FIND OUT IF YOU'RE GOOD OR IF I'VE OVERRATED YOU ALREADY
5 Ohio State Buckeyes Not perfect, but you don't really need to be when you have Jeremiah Smith on your team. Not to throw cold water on them though... but is anyone else on this offense going to do something?
6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Similar story to Miami. They're winning by a lot but I have no idea if they're actually good. In fact I think there's reason for pause regarding them based on previous results. Beating Purdue by a ton though is not a bad thing ever though.
7 BYU Cougars
8 Alabama Crimson Tide Bama has clearly separated themselves from the middle of the pack in the SEC in all phases. I have some concerns with how they look dead in the water for large stretches at times, but it is pretty hard to argue with the results.
9 LSU Tigers I want to be more down on LSU than the results allow me to be. I think that the results against Ole Miss last week gave me reason to doubt they will be able to compete against the Juggernauts of the conference, but I think they are going to be a team with a lot of splash still and make some noise regardless. Although I will say, Ole Miss' loss is now making me question if I should put LSU down even further
10 Oregon Ducks Pretty commanding result on the road against USC. Raiola looked good coming in for relief of Dante Moore, but I would tell anyone to hesitate before crowning him the next great QB for the ducks. USC's defense is not exactly what you would call good and credit to Oregon, they did make them look rather pathetic.
11 Utah Utes Pretty hard to argue with the results for the Utes so far, and Iowa State is not a bad team under Jimmy Rogers.
12 Texas Tech Red Raiders
13 Florida Gators This ain't your Daddy's Gators... or maybe it is if he grew up with the Urban Meyer Gators. Talk about a huge win over a conference favorite. I SERIOUSLY underestimated the Gators and I apologize for not ranking them to this point.
14 Iowa Hawkeyes There is a tweet that perfectly encapsulates what playing Iowa is like: "Playing Iowa's gotta the be the worst thing ever, they don't do anything for 54 minutes and suddenly you're losing." Welcome to the Big Ten Kyle Wittingham. https://x.com/ShehanJeyarajah/status/2103971689793036359
15 Mississippi State Bulldogs Kamarion Taylor's brilliance is honestly leading people to underestimate how good State's defense is. They've got a seriously good chance to make some noise in the SEC this year.
16 Tennessee Volunteers The Vols looked outclassed against Texas and still nearly stole the game, so I can't be too negative on them but I have serious doubts about their ability to compete in the SEC this year.
17 Ole Miss Rebels That was a disaster for the Rebs and there's not too many upsides for them. Trinidad Chambliss is brilliant, but you need more than a good QB to win at the highest level, and Pete Golding, for being a defensive head coach, does not seem to have a very good defense! I don't think you can simply point to them not having Kewan Lacy either, there's no RB that is going to make you 24 points better.
18 Boise State Broncos
19 North Dakota State Bison
20 UCLA Bruins These guys are ROLLING right now, particularly on the ground game. They get a bye week next week, but then they have a chance to really assert themselves against Oregon the week after. Nico should also be significantly higher than he is currently in draft discussions.
21 Oklahoma State Cowboys It's really hard to deny Drew Mestemaker's talent, and a win to open up Big 12 play is huge.
22 Duke Blue Devils Duke has pretty quietly assembled a really good resume so far. They beat one of the better G5 teams in Tulane, went into Champaign and beat Illinois, and they're 4-0. Maybe they'll be the ones to challenge Miami instead?
23 Nebraska Cornhuskers 6 sacks and 10 TFL against Michigan State, plus a great game from Anthony Colandrea. They will more than likely be 5-0 and hosting Indiana. Underestimate the Huskers at your own peril this year.
24 Houston Cougars
25 USC Trojans I had half a mind to drop the Trojans out entirely but that is an embarrassing loss in almost all facets for Lincoln Riley's program. It's year 6 in LA for Lincoln Riley and he still has yet to put up even a passable defense. Their behavior around the play that injured Dante Moore was downright embarrassing for all involved. More than that they let Oregon's WRs embarrass them both in YAC and at the point of catch. Dylan Raiola didn't even need to do much against htem, just dump it off for easy completions and let Oregon's receivers do the rest. I have zero confidence in these guys to be serious challengers in the Big Ten.

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