Back to poll results >>

_THE__BOULDER_ Ballot for 2026 Week 5

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 29, 2026, 10:39 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Personal thoughts. Combination of win total, strength of competition, and the eye test. Can't claim I'm not subjective, and I am biased towards the Florida Gators.

Teams that dropped out this week:
USC
Penn State
Michigan
TAMU
Louisville

New Teams In:
OKST
Oregon
Boise St
Duke
Virginia Tech

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns Texas really should have won this game against Tennessee by more, but shot themselves in the foot and allowed this game to finish much closer than it should have. Their offense has not been entirely clicking and needs to become more cohesive. RB play wasn't great, with Texas only having 61 yards rushing, and it looked like Smothers was sorely missed. While Arch did have 200 yards passing this game, he threw for no touchdowns and an interception. An interception and 7 punts is not going to be enough to win it all. That being said, Texas is a contender for the best defense in the nation. Will Muschamp has those boys playing some lights out defensive football. TEN SACKS. This defense will allow the offense to find itself and, if last year is any indication, Texas likely will find itself. After wins over OSU at home and Tennessee in Knoxville, Texas does combine for the two best wins in the nation, leaving them in first place, but they need to become more consistent on offense if they want to stay there.
2 Miami Hurricanes Miami played a cupcake this week, but has a good win in Wake Forest. That singular win is what currently puts them over UGA, in my opinion. Miami's defense is one I would like to see more out of, but the offense is a machine. Miami plays Clemson next, and I doubt that the defense will have too much trouble handling Clemson's offense, so I don't know if it will be much of a test there.
3 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia was spotted 14 points by Oklahoma in this game, with Mateer's fumble for an 85 yard touchdown return going to go down as one of the blunders of the season, and another fumble by Oklahoma 2 drives later leading to a short-field touchdown as well. Georgia's defense did well to help create these opportunities, but a lot of it also comes down to the ineptitude of Oklahoma's offense. In the second half, UGA had a bit more trouble scoring, only putting up 13 points, and I don't think this can be attributed entirely to taking their foot off the gas as the Oklahoma defense did come away with both an interception and a fumble recovery, indicating that they were playing better in the second half than the first. That being said, UGA was able to get some good chunk plays in the first half and moved the ball well. UGA seems to be firing on all cylinders though, with 2 conference wins under their belt. I have moved UGA up from 4 to 3 this week, but they really have only played bottom tier SEC teams, so this could change back after other teams start to get into the bulk of their schedules. UGA does play a Vandy team that just lost to Auburn, and they play in Athens, so I don't think it will be too much trouble for UGA until they play Alabama in 2 weeks.
4 Ohio State Buckeyes I don't think Illinois is bad, but I am unsure if they can be considered good yet either, as they had a close loss to Duke, who many people have as a ranked team, but the jury is still out and, judging based on this past Saturday, I don't think they can really compete with the upper echelons of CFB this year. That being said, OSU put BTA against a conference opponent, with Jeremiah Smith tying OSU's record with 4 TD catches. Other than the Texas away loss, though, I'm not certain OSU's other games are enough to keep it above UGA, so I'm going to move OSU down from 3 to 4. OSU does play Iowa this weekend, but I don't think they'll have too much of an issue here, given Iowa's offensive issues.
5 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame is coming off a 49-10 win at Purdue, and they had good showings against other somewhat interesting teams in Wisconsin and Michigan State. That being said, I am not too impressed by Wisconsin yet, although I do think they're better than they have been in recent years. I do absolutely believe ND is a good team, but I don't think their wins are enough to put them over the four teams in front of them. They really don't have an adequate test on their schedule until they play AT BYU on October 17th, so I'm inclined to keep them at 5th for now, barring any other teams having some good results and moving up. That being said, ND is doing what it needs to do - putting BTA against its opponents - to stay where they are, it's just a matter of time before we see how they actually stack up against higher tier competition.
6 Indiana Hoosiers So I was wrong last week. I doubted that Indiana would have too much trouble beating Northwestern. I have actually enjoyed what I've seen from Northwestern this year and thing they might be a good team (lowercase g), and Indiana was, despite being ahead the entire game, unable to shake them off and break free, with NW's offense playing pretty well and the whole team playing well in the 2nd half. This is not last year's Indiana team - Hoover is not Mendoza - but they're still good. The running game did end up with 271 yards, and the passing game with 200 yards, but I think it's still arguable that the offense isn't entirely clicking yet. Turbo Richard's injury doesn't seem to be long term, which is good, because - while I don't think Lee Beebe Jr. played poorly (as evidenced by his 203 yards on 24 carries) - Turbo Richard seems to be exactly that, a fast back who I believe probably would have taken some of those breaks that Beebe Jr. had to the house. Where Beebe Jr. had 40 and 70 yard runs that took Indiana within the NW 10 yard line, Turbo has the top-end speed to take those home. Curious to see how Indiana (and Beebe Jr.) adapt to Turbo being out. But, luckily, Indiana has two very winnable games in Rutgers and Nebraska coming up, before they host OSU on October 17th.
7 Alabama Crimson Tide Even though the Gamecocks are a mess, Alabama looks really good. They had a great defensive showing against Kentucky, showed offensive resilience against FSU, and looked pretty complete against South Carolina this past weekend. Their passing game had a year's worth of yards, Keelon Russell was 21/27 on the day with 4 TDs. Alabama had some efficient running from EJ Crowell and 5 receptions from Ryan Coleman-Williams for 98 yards and 2 TDs. The offense seems to be improving from game to game, and it's important they keep this trend going as they have Miss St this week and Georgia on October 10th, not to mention Tennessee on October 17th. I cannot wait to see if all 3 of these games live up to the hype and if Alabama can make it through this stretch of games unscathed.
8 Florida Gators While there are still things to talk about defensively (despite a pretty decent defensive front, there were not as many TFLs or sacks as I would have hoped, but it is important to also note that Ole Miss does have a great mobile QB in Chambliss), UF put up a very good showing in this game, and the defense came up with two takeaways (although the second was while UF was up 24 points with 2.5 minutes left), so there is a lot to be proud of. I was there, the Swamp was loud and proud, and, once again, Ole Miss leaves the Swamp disappointed. Not only is Jaden Baugh the guy (for Heisman) and looking unstoppable, Duke Clark also put in a fantastic showing at running back, breaking off some huge plays and gaining 126 yards on 12 carries, including a 45 yard touchdown run. Florida's offensive line has been phenomenal lately, allowing Aaron Philo to stay protected and deal the ball to his outstanding wide receiver core (arguably best overall core in the SEC, even if they are not, individually, the top WRs). Almost 200 yards on the day for him, with a passing touchdown. UF maintained the lead the entire game, going up 17-3 early (17-6 at the half), taking Ole Miss's shots to fight their way back into the game (Ole Miss fought back to only be down 3 in the 3rd, getting as close as 24-21), and subsequently put them away. Jon Sumrall's Florida has been flying offensively, scoring over 50 points in 3 of his first 4 games. Currently mentally struggling to wrap my head around the idea that UF might be Good again (upper case G), as the last few years had taught me not to hope. With this high-flying offense, UF is likely favored in all of its remaining games save Texas and Georgia. Mizzou this week, a lot of work still left to do.
9 BYU Cougars Bye.
10 Ole Miss Rebels After a euphoric win over LSU at home, Ole Miss traveled into the Swamp, where only Gators get out alive (this year, so far, at least). Ole Miss did well to battle back into the game in Q3, but a slow start definitely hurt them, and then add the fact that UF was able to pull away in the back half of the 3rd and then in the 4th quarter. Chambliss is still an outstanding college QB, but both offense and defense pulled up short. Going into the game, the concern was the defense, and people were unsure if UF would be able to keep up in a shootout, but the shootout didn't quite materialize. Ole Miss is still a good team, though, and has some big games coming up in October with Mizzou and Texas being on the list. Curious to see how this team finishes down the stretch.
11 Texas Tech Red Raiders What should have been a cupcake game actually looked a bit frustrating for TTech. Despite finishing 49-14, this game felt a lot closer. Two pick-6s on back to back drives by the same player put a little bit of distance between TTech and Sam Houston, but the Bearkats stayed in it for a bit, bringing the score to 21-14 TTech at one point, and managed to nick 3 interceptions off of Will Hammond on 3 back to back to back drives too. Not sure Will Hammond is the guy that will lead TTech to another conference championship, but they did, ultimately, get the job done here.
12 LSU Tigers While LSU absolutely blew out TAMU, finishing 35-6 with over 500 yards of offense, I'm not entirely sure where TAMU actually falls on the table (currently off the table and out of the top 25), so I cannot say for certain how good this win will end up being. Don't get me wrong, it's good for LSU that they won, obviously, I'm just not sure yet if TAMU has collapsed and is like a 6-6 team or if they'll still end up being like 8-4 or something. They very much have 4 winnable games on the schedule in Arky, Citadel, SCAR, and Oklahoma, not to mention I think they certainly have a shot at Mizzou, but we have to see how things go. Now, back to LSU. Last week, I started to question why all this money went to Sam Leavitt to play QB when it seems like his first instinct is to tuck it and run rather than to throw, and I know I'm not the only one who had that feeling. Leavitt seems to have heard us and threw for over 300 yards on Saturday, ending up 17/23, with two TDs and one INT. It's kind of funny because I believe his staying in the pocket was necessitated by a small leg injury that impacted his mobility, but it looks like he might actually be willing to sling it and they're gonna need that from him. Jackson Harris looked great out there as well, with over 160 yards on only 6 receptions and for two TDs. This kind of passing game is what LSU needed to put together, especially after last week, and they will need to continue this passing game trend in order to really be competitive against teams like Alabama Texas, and even Tennessee, Miss State, and Kentucky who show up on their list of future opponents. While they play McNeese State this weekend, they play @ Kentucky in two weeks and, while I feel like we're still sussing out how good Kentucky is, they look to be trending in a positive direction, so I won't claim that to be an easy win for LSU.
13 Utah Utes A solid 2-score win over a conference opponent to move to 4-0, and Utah has now scored 30+ points in each of its first 4 games for the first time since the 1990. A road conference win is a great way to start the season, although, while Utah covered, I couldn't help but feel like this could have been a bigger if not for some of the penalties in the second half. A bit more consistency will be necessary if they want to challenge for this conference, but I don't think they should have too much trouble until they play Houston in a few weeks.
14 Mississippi State Bulldogs I don't particularly like having Miss St quite this high, but with three P4 wins, one of whom is ranked (Mizzou), and with none of the other teams in this area feeling quite worthy of this spot either, I am tentatively placing the Bulldogs here. They look good on offense, but have some defensive issues to sort out, and I think they may, low key, be a good (lower case g) team. They have a chance to prove how good this weekend when they host Alabama, and they will likely lose. But that doesn't mean they can't enjoy being highly ranked for a bit, assuming they do lose. Now, onto the actual game.

Kemario Taylor had an absolute day out there, 27/38, 360 yards, 3TDs, 1INT. Fluff Bothwell had 25 carries for 122 yards and 1TD. Overall, almost 500 yards of total offense. The Bulldogs went up two touchdowns in the 1st, only for Mizzou to battle back to take the lead in by the end of the 3rd, 24-17. Mississippi State then scored two touchdowns in the 4th quarter, winning 31-24. Kemario Taylor is getting some Heisman hype and I think the attention is well-deserved. He's just one of those players that you enjoy seeing out there slinging it. This is Miss St's first ranked win as a ranked team since 2014, and it does feel like this program is trending in the right direction. Last year's team probably would have lost this game, especially after Mizzou took the lead. The one, two punch of Kemario and Fluff is exciting to watch. I'm pretty sure Miss State also had 3 or so dropped INTs, which means that the defense could have potentially put up a much better performance. That being said, I wasn't excited by some of the decision making of the coaches in this game, as it seemed like Miss St tried to sit on their lead at the end, which led to them punting the ball back to Mizzou to give them a chance to tie the game. However, if the Bulldogs can pull that all together, they will graduate from a plucky, good little football team to a real force to be reckoned with. Two-thirds of the season left to try and make that happen, and Alabama is a huge team to make it happen against.
15 Iowa Hawkeyes After the games against N Illinois and Northern Iowa, I was hoping to see more offense from this Hawkeyes team. That is not to say that Iowa didn't do what it took to win, because they did win it on the last play of the game, and they did it off of a great back-shoulder throw over a very good DB in Smith Snowden. They also managed to drive 75 yards in 7 plays to score at the beginning of the 4th. That being said, their first TD came off of a kickoff return, so it's not like their offense was super productive. The offense did not score until the 4th, and then there was a field goal attempt with a little over 2:30 left in the 4th despite being down 5 points? I guess the thought process was centered around getting two FGs to win it, but the kick went wide-right from 51 yards, forcing them to have to force a 3 & Out and then drive. Still, this is a game they probably would not have won in this fashion - driving to win it against Michigan on the road - in previous years, and it certainly looked to be an emotional win coach Ferentz. I have elected not to improve Iowa's rank from last week to this week, as I feel like they did the bare minimum here to not be moved down - they won against a team they were ranked higher than (in the AP Poll by 1 rank, in my poll last week it was 15 vs 24 - I'm not that high on Michigan). I would like to see them build more offensive consistency, but I'm not confident it's going to happen, especially when they host Ohio State this Saturday.
16 Houston Cougars Houston is another team I like but don't necessarily like the fact that I have them ranked this highly. I'm just not sure other teams deserve to be ranked at 16 over Houston. Although GA Southern is not a bad Sun Belt team (2 of their 3 losses are from P4 teams, Clemson and now Houston), they gave up more points to GA Southern than I would have liked. GA Southern managed to tie it up at 14 midway through Q2, but Houston pulled away again before half by going up 28-14, and then even further by going up 35-14 in Q3. As a result, while it got a tad scary, Houston was not in much trouble in this game, but I would like to see a better defensive performance from them going forward. Conner Weigman looked good again, going 17/22 for 4TDs and 240 yards. The Houston O-Line stood pretty strong and managed to prevent any sacks or TFLs, as well as assist in over 200 yards rushing, with Re'Shaun Sanford II going 120 yards on 17 carries. I did not want to necessarily move Houston up from last week (I had them ranked 17th), but they really moved up due to others in front of them moving down. Houston does have some interesting games a few weeks out, with OKST, Utah, and WVU on the schedule, but their next couple games are against UCF and Kansas St, and I think Houston should be able to keep things rolling through those games.
17 Tennessee Volunteers Tennessee's offense left a lot to be desired out there, but there's room for positivity too. The O-Line play sucked and their freshman QB got rattled due to getting sacked so often, which I think caused him to miss opportunities against Texas, but he is young and this can be learned from, plus he did end up getting a touchdown to try and give Tennessee a chance to win it late in the 4th. However, Tennessee's defense and special teams played well, including a punt return for a TD, Tennessee's defense gave up less than 300 yards, and really only gave up a few chunk plays of decent yardage in the air, and no run plays that went for more than 11 yards. Then special teams got the onside kick (although there is an argument for it having been a violation), only for it to be wasted on the final offensive drive. The Vols will really need to improve their O-Line play and have their QB settle down a bit to have a shot at anything big this season, but that defense played well and could be a big factor to keeping them in games.
18 Oklahoma State Cowboys OKST is up to 3-1 with notable wins over Oregon and WVU and a notable loss to Tulsa (who just got spanked by Arkansas). Prior to this past weekend, it was very hard to figure out what to do with them but now, with the win over WVU, I'm starting to believe. Drew Mestemaker threw 20/27 for 389 yards, 3TD, and 1INT. Caleb Hawkins ran for 180 yards and a touchdown on 31 carries. Wyatt Young had 8 receptions for 192 yards and 1TD. Young did also have a fumble but it was recovered by his fellow WR in Chris Barnes. The defense came away with 1INT and 3TODs which spanned the end of the 3rd and into the 4th quarter. This was, all things considered, a very good game from OKST over what I consider to be a WVU team that is currently somewhere between decent and good. OKST got ahead and slammed the door behind them, which is what you want to see out of your program. With two notable wins, combined with other teams moving down or out, I have decided to move OKST into the top 25 - and what a jump they made - at number 18. The Tulsa blunder is still a blunder, but OKST is trending in the correct direction and now has more data for me to be able to really start forming an opinion about them. I look forward to seeing OKST keep this consistency up, if they can, and seeing how they do against UCF this week and Houston the week after.
19 Oregon Ducks I had been reluctant to rank Oregon until I knew what to do with the OKST team who had beat them, and that Tulsa blunder was very much holding OKST back. Oregon's close win at home over Boise looked good (but not great) for Oregon at the time, but then the loss to OKST drew both Oregon AND Boise into question as, although I try not to base rankings off of the previous year's team as much as I can, that team went 1-11 last year and it was hard to imagine such a drastic change in fortune. All that being said, all 3 of OKST, Oregon, and Boise have looked good since their respective losses, giving me a clearer idea of what to do with them for now. With that being said, let's talk about the game:

Oregon's starting QB, Dante Moore, went down early due to a play that was called targeting as he was hit during a slide, and even had to leave to go to the hospital, so praying for a speedy recovery for him. Football is a dangerous game and, realistically, these things happen, so it is how you respond to these events that can really make a team, and boy did Oregon respond. Backup QB Dylan Raiola went in, having transferred from Nebraska, and had a game with a consistency I don't think I had ever seen from him while he was with the Cornhuskers. Raiola went 19/25 for 289 yards and 2TD in Oregon's 41-27 win over USC. Tight End Jamari Johnson tallied 7 receptions for 119 yards, leaving the game as Oregon's top receiver on the day (prior to this game, Johnson had 4 receptions for like 57 yards, so this was a big breakout game for him, and possibly highlights how the Moore and Raiola tenures as starting QB may differ going forward). Overall, Oregon totaled 366 passing yards on the day. Oregon did have two RBs with over 60 yards each, Jordon Davison and Dierre Hill Jr., tallying 16 carries/1TD and 15 carries/2TDs, respectively. While Oregon's offense didn't really come alive until midway through the second quarter (affected by the Moore injury no doubt), once they scored their first TD, they never really looked back as they managed to score on every drive but 1 after that. While the game was tied 10-10 midway through Q2, Oregon went up 13-10 at half, scored again right after to make it 20-10 early in the 3rd with a 4 play/75 yard/2 min drive, and then USC was basically playing catch up from then on out. USC did tie it at one point, early in Q4, at 27 a piece, but Oregon pulled ahead by 14 points after that and sealed the game.

I had kept USC at about 14/15 for the last few weeks, but they had started to show defensive issues that were finally exploited in Saturday's game. While it may seem harsh that I dropped USC down so far after losing to Oregon (and moved Oregon from Unranked to #19), I have considered dropping them in the past but, due to their winning (even if the margins were slim) I was unsure of what to do with them. Now that the dam has broken and the have finally lost against their first real piece of competition, USC will have to worm its way back into the rankings by improving their team's play.

As for Oregon, as mentioned in my OKST write up, I had been unsure of what to do with this team given the OKST loss as I was currently unsure of what to do with OKST. Now that OKST, Oregon, and Boise have been able to show some consistency, I'm more inclined to rank them all. Combined with other teams moving out of the rankings, these 3 schools have made a pretty good sized jump.
20 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Wake now has a very close win @Purdue, a not-terrible loss to Miami, and a very close win @Louisville (and a home 38-16 win over Akron). I believe Louisville to be a good team and, despite them now being 2-2, have them ranked 25th. I think that this win over Louisville is enough to propel Wake into the rankings, but they will need to keep trudging along to stay in. They play Stanford next, and the Stanford offense did just have a good game against GT, but I would expect the Demon Deacons to take this one. Curious to see how this team will do going forward.
21 Boise State Broncos A close loss on the road to Oregon, an 18 point victory over Memphis that many thought helped to seal Boise in as a top G6 contender, a close game against South Dakota at home that required a couple Q4 touchdowns for Boise to seal the win, and now a dominant win at Western Michigan (and, therefore, a transitive win over Michigan /s). I have been reluctant to rank Boise until I knew what to do with OKST and Oregon and, while the South Dakota game raises an eyebrow, I do think Boise has shown consistency and currently is the G6 front runner. I think Boise will have a pretty good run of things for the foreseeable future, but they do play Fresno St and Oregon St down the stretch, both of whom I believe are low key decent teams. I don't think Boise will really be tested again until those games, and I look forward to seeing what happens.
22 Kentucky Wildcats Other than a really wacky 2nd Quarter, in which both teams scored a combined 38 points (21-17 in favor of South Alabama), Kentucky had this game under control. During that second quarter, Kentucky's Jason Patterson ran for a 75 yard touchdown on the first play of the drive and yet somehow wasn't Kentucky's leading rusher. Kentucky had 3 100 yard rushers: Patterson logged 12 carries for 137 yards and 3TDs, CJ Baxter tallied 16 carries for 149 yards and 1 TD, and Jovantae Barnes ran 8 times for 100 yards and 1TD. While that defense needs to work on some things, Kentucky is now 3-1. What's kinda hard to figure out is how good they might actually be against P4 competition. They have a blowout home loss to Alabama, a win in College Station against a TAMU team that actually may not be good (they got blown out by LSU, but the jury is out on how they will do the rest of the season).
23 Duke Blue Devils Duke is 4-0 with a close win @ Illinois and 3 blowout wins vs Tulane, Stanford, and William & Mary. Illinois might not be bad, but the other competition they've played are definitely not what I would currently consider good. Stanford just beat GT, who is Duke's next opponent on October 10th (they have a bye this week), and I think Duke will win that game, but I will definitely be curious to see how they do against UNC, Virginia, Miami, Clemson, and Wake, who definitely add some toughness to Duke's back half of the schedule. Tentatively ranked at #24.
24 Virginia Tech Hokies VT is 4-0 with notable wins being over Old Dominion, Maryland, and Boston College. That BC game was a bit scary, as VT needed two touchdowns in the 4th, including a 76 yard TD run, to come back in Chestnut Hill. VT has a new coach and will need need to build consistency as there are definitely kinks that need to be worked out, but James Franklin has, overall, had a good start to his tenure at this program with the 4 victories. Taking a look at this week, VT hosts Pitt - another 4-0 team that also needs to build consistency - in Blacksburg, Pitt seems to have a deeper passing game than VT, with Heintschel averaging 2 more yards per completion, but has a lower completion percentage on roughly the same amount of passes. VT's Grunkmeyer does have 8TDs and 0INTs so far this year though, and VT seems to have the better running back in Jeffrey Overton Jr, who has 409 yards and 4TDs on 60 carries to Pitt's Damon Ferguson Jr. who has 239 yards and 2TDs on 45 carries. Curious to see if VT can defend their territory this weekend.
25 Missouri Tigers Mizzou lost a back & forth game in Starkville after a 4th Quarter Rally by Mississippi State. The Tigers had a slow start, not getting on the board until midway through Q2 with a FG, but capitalized off an interception to set them up with a short field TD and get back in the game after being down 14-0 to start. Mizzou then took the lead in the 3rd at 17-14, and proceeded to end that quarter up 24-17. Unfortunately, Drinkwitz did what Drinkwitz does and seemed like he attempted to sit on the lead, which led to Miss St tying it and then eventually taking a 31-24 lead. Granted, when this happened, Mizzou had just gotten an 11 yard run to get a 1st down, but then had a 10 yard holding penalty the next play, after which Simmons threw an incomplete pass and then they decided to just run it twice despite needing 20 yards. I think Mizzou has a decent squad here and am still ranking them as such for now but, looking at their schedule, it's going to be a tough year for the Tigres. There seem to be only 4 games remaining in which they could be favored: TAMU, Arky, Kentucky, and Oklahoma. They host Florida this week, who is coming off a big and emotional home win, which could end up leading to Florida falling for a trap game, but their other games are against Ole Miss, Texas, and Georgia, all of which I think they'll be hard pressed to win, especially @ Ole Miss and @ UGA. Curious to see how things go.

Back to poll results >>