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T-Thugs Ballot for 2026 Week 5

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 28, 2026, 12:38 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Each week I completely re-rank all teams based on their resumes so far. Due to this, some teams that we know are good (Ohio State) but who don't really have any impressive wins yet won't really be ranked where they probably belong based on how good they are. I don't really believe in not moving teams if they continue to win though, so as soon as teams like OSU have some quality wins they'll jump up in the polls to where they belong.

Of note: I'm counting Western Michigan vs Michigan as a win for Western Michigan as that's what the ncaa rules committee says should have happened.

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns Texas is my #1 team with two really impressive wins over Ohio State (3-1) and Tennessee (3-1).
2 Florida Gators Florida makes a huge jump in my poll after dominating Ole Miss (3-1, wins over LSU and Louisville), who I previously had as #1 and who I still think has a resume of a very good team. Florida also has a nice win over Auburn (3-1, wins over Baylor and Vanderbilt)
3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame dominated yet again. The Irish are 4-0 with wins over 3 big ten schools. They've got a very nice win over Wisconsin (3-1, beat Penn State) and also wins over Michigan State (2-2) and Purdue (1-3).
4 Mississippi State Bulldogs Mississippi State got a really big jump in my poll after a nice win over Missouri (3-1, beat Kansas). They also previously dominated Minnesota (3-1, beat Washington).
5 Miami Hurricanes Miami is 4-0 with what now looks like a pretty solid win over Wake Forest (3-1, beat Louisville). Also beat Stanford (2-2)
6 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama is 4-0 with p4 wins over Kentucky (3-1, beat Texas A&M), Florida State (2-2) and South Carolina (2-2).
7 Texas Tech Red Raiders Texas Tech is 4-0 with a nice win over Houston (3-1)
8 BYU Cougars BYU is 3-0 with a nice win over Arizona (3-1)
9 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss is my top 1 loss team at 3-1 thanks largely to their impressive win over LSU (3-1). Also have a win over Louisville (2-2, beat SMU). Though the Louisville win lost a little luster this weekend when they lost to Wake Forest.
10 Oklahoma State Cowboys Oklahoma State is tricky to rank. They've got a pretty bad loss to Tulsa, but they have two really nice wins over Oregon (3-1, beat USC) and West Virginia (3-1, beat Virginia)
11 Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa is 4-0 with a win over Michigan (2-2, beat Oklahoma). Also defeated Iowa State (2-2)
12 Indiana Hoosiers Indiana is 4-0 with a nice win over Northwestern (2-1, beat Colorado)
13 Cincinnati Bearcats Cincinnati is 4-0 with wins over Kansas State (3-1) and Boston College (2-2). This is probably a little too high for Cincy based on how good I think they actually are, but their resume probably puts them here.
14 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia is 4-0 with dominant wins over Oklahoma (2-2) and Arkansas (2-2). I think this is probably one of the best teams in the country. They'll have a great chance to move up in a couple weeks when they play Alabama.
15 Utah Utes Utah is 4-0 with wins over Iowa State (2-2) and Arkansas (2-2)
16 UCLA Bruins UCLA is 4-0 with wins over Cal (2-2), Maryland (2-2), and Purdue (1-3).
17 Pittsburgh Panthers Pittsburgh is 4-0 with wins over UCF (3-1, beat TCU) and syracuse (1-3)
18 Duke Blue Devils Duke is 4-0 with wins over Illinois (2-2) and Stanford (2-2)
19 Nebraska Cornhuskers Nebraska is 4-0 with a win over Michigan State (2-2)
20 Virginia Tech Hokies Virginia Tech is 4-0 with wins over Maryland (2-2) and Boston College (2-2)
21 LSU Tigers LSU is 3-1 with a loss to Ole Miss and wins over Clemson (3-1) and Texas A&M (2-2). LSU will have plenty of chances to move up in my poll.
22 Auburn Tigers Auburn is 3-1 with only a loss to Florida and has wins over Baylor (3-1) and Vanderbilt (3-1)
23 Wisconsin Badgers Wisconsin is 3-1 with a really nice win over Penn State (3-1). Only loss is to Notre Dame.
24 Oregon Ducks Oregon is 3-1 with a loss to Oklahoma State. Have a really nice win over USC (4-1, beat Rutgers)
25 West Virginia Mountaineers West Virginia is 3-1 with a loss to Oklahoma State. Have a nice win over Virginia (3-1, beat NC State).

Also Considered: Wake Forest, Minnesota, Ohio State

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