Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Sept. 28, 2026, 2:55 p.m.

Overall Rationale: All Human Baby!!

26. Duke
27. USC
28. USF
29. Virginia Tech
30. Wisconsin

I guess I should share my methodology since I am part of the poll now. Here is my current methodology. It will change as I mature, gain more experience, etc. For now though, this is my methodology.

My method changes as the season progresses, but it is all a human poll. Preseason is purely speculative, as in, who would be favored on a neutral field. The team that I think is hypothetically better will get the better ranking. Early on this is recruiting ranking, talent retained, etc.

Slowly through the season, I add in more weight to the resume. When teams have played 5 games, is when I weigh expectations and resume equally. I also view 9 games played as the marker when resume will have 100% weight, and expectations have none.

By resume, I try to look purely at how difficult I think providing that resume would be. This takes into account strength of schedule and margin of victory. I tend to favor consistent teams over streaky ones. In practice, that means I punish teams with bad losses more than teams that don't have good wins. I also do not take head-to-head into consideration. I look hard at the resume if the team's name was missing.

I also try to "overreact" a bit when it comes to rankings. While I try to be fair, if a team gets a bad loss, if I struggle where to put them between 2 spots, I will end up putting them lower. The reason is, I am scared of poll momentum being a crutch, where teams just stay where they are. Moving them forces me to get out of the rut, and actually analyze them.

One other quirk I have is, I believe winning is hard. Any team that is 5-0 or better will be ranked. It causes some silly rankings that first week, but I think it is important. Mainly because if forces me to pay attention to smaller schools.

I'm also leaving notes on games I watched, or have significant opinions. I won't try to guess on explanations where I have no real opinion.

• Ballot
• Analysis

Rank	Team	Reason
1	Texas Longhorns
2	Georgia Bulldogs
3	Notre Dame Fighting Irish
4	Miami Hurricanes
5	Ohio State Buckeyes
6	Indiana Hoosiers
7	Utah Utes
8	Alabama Crimson Tide
9	BYU Cougars
10	Iowa Hawkeyes
11	Texas Tech Red Raiders
12	LSU Tigers
13	Ole Miss Rebels
14	Pittsburgh Panthers
15	Florida Gators
16	UCLA Bruins
17	Tennessee Volunteers
18	North Dakota State Bison
19	Oregon Ducks
20	SMU Mustangs
21	Oklahoma State Cowboys
22	James Madison Dukes
23	Boise State Broncos
24	Mississippi State Bulldogs
25	UMass Minutemen

Teams Ranked:

Rank	Team	Unusualness
1	Texas Longhorns	0.00
2	Georgia Bulldogs	0.00
3	Notre Dame Fighting Irish	0.00
4	Miami Hurricanes	0.00
5	Ohio State Buckeyes	0.00
6	Indiana Hoosiers	0.00
7	Utah Utes	0.54
8	Alabama Crimson Tide	0.00
9	BYU Cougars	0.00
10	Iowa Hawkeyes	0.25
11	Texas Tech Red Raiders	0.00
12	LSU Tigers	0.00
13	Ole Miss Rebels	0.00
14	Pittsburgh Panthers	1.23
15	Florida Gators	-1.55
16	UCLA Bruins	0.00
17	Tennessee Volunteers	0.00
18	North Dakota State Bison	3.02
19	Oregon Ducks	0.00
20	SMU Mustangs	1.46
21	Oklahoma State Cowboys	0.00
22	James Madison Dukes	0.39
23	Boise State Broncos	0.00
24	Mississippi State Bulldogs	-1.38
25	UMass Minutemen	0.00

Omissions:

Team	Unusualness
Duke Blue Devils	0.39
USC Trojans	0.32
Nebraska Cornhuskers	0.11
Houston Cougars	0.32
Virginia Tech Hokies	0.06

Total Score: 11.03