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Muffinnnnnnn Ballot for 2026 Week 5

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 27, 2026, 9:45 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Wins and losses matter most. If you have the same record as a team and beat them head-to-head, you must be ahead of that team. It's relatively early season, so kneejerk reactions should be the norm until we get more information. This is probably the week I've made the most changes, as the paradigms surrounding certain teams appear to be false. We're far enough away from the preseason at this point that I'm starting to give boosts to teams who are undefeated or only have 1 loss to undefeated teams. After most teams have played 4 games, I'm starting to reward results on the field. I thought I would find a way to get all 22 undefeated teams in my top 25, but I just couldn't leave off Ohio State, Wake Forest, Ole Miss, and Houston of the one-loss teams. Undefeated USF would be my #26, as they have not really impressed so far this season. Since surely several of my ranked teams will lose next week, all USF needs to do is beat Temple and they probably drift their way into the top 25. A new #1 for me this week as Georgia took Oklahoma to the woodshed. Is OU some great team? No. But they looked to have a pretty good defense that Georgia completely shredded. Georgia's strength of schedule is pretty terrible through their first four games of the season, but Texas has shown so many deficiencies lately that I just can't keep them #1 anymore. Florida is a big mover up to #5 from #22 last week, as sad as that makes me to type out. I think Ole Miss and LSU have been and continue to be vastly overrated. HOWEVER! Florida not only beating Ole Miss, but demolishing them in that fashion has made me shift them much higher than I thought I would in a Florida win. A lot of adjustment of teams not looking amazing, despite being undefeated (Indiana, Texas Tech, among others). There was a whole chain of teams that received massive adjustments in the Ole Miss/LSU/Louisville/SMU/Wake area. Ole Miss had a walk-off win vs Louisville where Louisville, I thought, looked like the better team. You also had Ole Miss beat LSU in a game where LSU never led. Then you had that demolition of Ole Miss by Florida. Louisville on the other hand had that close loss to Ole Miss where they competed better than LSU did, and a nice win vs SMU. SMU this week was only up 3 late in the 4th quarter vs Missouri State after the 3rd game with multiple turnovers (FSU, Louisville). Louisville this week lost to Wake Forest at home. Here's what I did for all of those: A combination of Louisville's loss and BOTH of Louisville's other "good" opponents looking terrible plummeted them from #7 to out. Ole Miss goes from #4 to #17 after getting brutalized by Florida. LSU's "quality loss" doesn't look good anymore, and they don't have any great wins to make up for it, so they are also out (from #18). SMU's 10-point loss to Louisville and close games vs FSU and Missouri State drop them from #19 to out. Finally, Wake Forest goes from unranked to #16 after their win over Louisville. They have a relatively competitive loss to Miami as their sole loss, and Wake and Ole Miss have a common opponent in which Wake performed better, giving Wake the one-spot edge.

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