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HieloLuz Ballot for 2026 Week 6

Ballot Type: Hybrid

Submitted: Oct. 5, 2026, 5:26 p.m.

Overall Rationale: See previous weeks for description, for the teams not ranked that you would except based on the AP poll, my previous polls, and drops (I rank the top 30 manually, after that its just computer rankings:
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Next 5: Auburn, Cincinnati, UCF, Duke, UCLA
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Cincinnati (7>drop; computer-40): Blowout loss to Arizona |3| sends them tumbling down and out of the rankings. Still has one quality win over Kansas State |4|. |
Iowa (9>drop; computer-47): Blowout loss to Ohio State |2| sends them tumbling. Also lost only quality win that was maybe Michigan |5| after they drop another.|
Duke (14>drop/29; computer-21): Heavy drop despite the bye. No quality wins, and 2 close games against Tulane |5| and Illinois |5|. Their resume didn't change much at all, but other teams around them picked up tons of quality wins they don't have. |
Virginia tech (15> drop; computer-30): Last second loss to Pitt |2| isn't a bad one, but their best wins are Maryland |6| and Boston College |6|.|
USF (21>drop; computer-51): Very weak schedule, and the loss to Temple |6| sends them plummeting. |
UCLA (22>drop; computer-19): Another team that lost the bye week badly. No quality wins, and 3 close games against bad teams hurts.|
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Auburn (computer-31): Has a quality win over Baylor |3|, but the 2 losses are too much right now. Best win of any unranked team. |
UCF (computer-36): Has a quality win over Georgia State |4|, but not going to overcome the 2 losses, even if they are both close losses to good teams.|
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LSU (computer-24): Lacks a quality win, and Ole Miss falling hurts a lot.|
SMU (computer-53): Louisville |6| loss looks really bad, and no quality wins at all. Throw in 3 close games against bad teams and it will take them some time to ever get ranked. No clue why the AP has them ranked at all.|
Kentucky (computer-32): Sketchy win against South Carolina |6|, and no quality wins at all. Blowout loss to Alabama hurts. |
Wake Forest (computer-35): No quality wins, and the loss the Miami (FL) isn't the best. Also had close games against Purdue |5| and Louisville |6|.|
Northwestern (computer-26): No quality wins, close loss against Indiana |2| is good, but nothing to get ranked on.

Rank Team Reason
1 Texas Longhorns Texas regains the top spot after a bye thanks to Florida |tier 2| getting thrashed and Ohio State|2| finally beating a real team. Ohio State and Tennessee |3| are the best wins anyone has right now.
2 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama, Pitt, and Texas Tech all have very similar resumes. They all have 2 quality wins against a tier 3 and 4 team, Mississippi State |3| and Kentucky |4| for Alabama. Alabama goes ahead since they have blown out both of those teams.
3 Pittsburgh Panthers Pitt has wins over Virginia Tech |3| and UCF |4|, but the UCF game was close.
4 Texas Tech Red Raiders Texas Tech has wins over Houston |3| and Oregon State |4|, but had close games against Oregon State and Colorado |5|.
5 Oregon Ducks Oregon rises 8 spots on a bye, largely thanks to their opponents all doing well. Wins against Boise State |3| and USC |2| are looking good, and their loss to Oklahoma State |3| continues to look better by the week. They are tied with Texas for the best wins so far, but the loss will keep them down for a bit.
6 Indiana Hoosiers Quality win over Northwestern |3| is the best of anyone else right now without a loss.
7 BYU Cougars Basically identical resume to Indiana right now, with a quality win over Arizona |3|, but they had a close game against TCU |5|, while Indiana has taken care of business against all their lower tier teams.
8 Miami Hurricanes Blowout of Wake Forest |4| looks good, and they don't have any other close games.
9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Similar Resume to Miami (FL), with a blowout win over Wisconsin |4|. Only lower because they've had a slightly easier schedule
10 USC Trojans USC is a hard team to place. They have 2 quality wins over Louisiana |4| and Fresno State |4|, and lost to Oregon |2| in a game that wasn't as close as the box score indicates. They also struggled to put away Rutgers |7| and had to come back against Washington |5|. But for now the 2 quality wins keep them in the top 10.
11 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State is finally ranked for the first time all year by me. They finally beat a quality opponent in Iowa |4| and did so handily. And the Texas |1| loss really isn't holding them back at all besides having a 1 in the L column. They will have plenty of chances to prove themselves with 5 teams currently in the top 30 on the schedule.
12 Mississippi State Bulldogs The middle group of SEC teams is fun to figure out, and is going by head to head at the moment. Mississippi State has wins over Missouri |2| and Minnesota |4|. But the blowout loss to Alabama |2| is hard to overlook and keeps them lower for now.
13 Missouri Tigers Missouri shoots into the rankings after trouncing Florida |2|, who I had as the #1 team last week. It's a great win but I can't move them ahead of Mississippi State due to the loss.
14 Florida Gators Florida may have the best wins of the mid SEC group with FAU |4|, Auburn |4|, and Ole Miss|4|, two of which were blowouts. But the blowout at the hands of Missouri makes them fall 13 spots and to the back of the head to head group of low teen SEC teams.
15 Houston Cougars Houston has two quality wins over Oregon State |4| and UCF |4|, however both games were close, setting them firmly behind the other teams with decent wins that weren't as close. Close loss to Texas Tech |2| is a good loss that won't hold them back long term.
16 Oklahoma State Cowboys A very weird team to rank. Last week they were 32 in the computer model, but ended up 12th, the highest ranked 1 loss team, largely because I felt that they and Oregon |2| were in the same bucket of teams, and head to head mattered. Oregon was 23 in the computer last week.

This week both teams were on a bye, but the Tulsa |5| loss continues to look worse and worse, while Oregon's opponents have looked better and better. Its going to be a very weird team all year. This week Oklahoma State is ranked 29 in the computer, while Oregon is all the way up to 7, separating them into different tiers entirely.
17 James Madison Dukes Liberty |4| is currently a quality win, but Liberty themself has been very suspect. Another loss by Liberty will send them tumbling, and JMU will go with them. But they have otherwise taken care of business
18 North Dakota State Bison Very similar resume to James Madison, with a single quality win over Air Force |4|. Outside of that their opponents have been slightly worse, giving JMU the nod for now.
19 Boise State Broncos The loss to Oregon |2| continues to look better, and they have a quality win and blowout over Memphis |4|. But the close game against South Dakota is going to hold them back a bit
20 Tennessee Volunteers They have a close quality win over Auburn |4|, and much like Boise State played their top team loss close.
21 Ole Miss Rebels The Louisville |6| win that helped get them ranked #1 2 weeks ago is worthless now. LSU |3| is a quality win still, but getting the brakes blown off by Florida |2| is a bad look.
22 Arizona Wildcats Picks up a quality win and blowout over Cincinnati |4|, and the loss to BYU |2| was a close one.
23 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia, Nebraska, and Utah have near identical resumes at this point. No quality wins yet. And no close games outside of 1 by Utah. But the options were undefeated P4 teams with no quality wins, or teams with quality wins but multiple losses, and I'm leaving these 3 here for now. Georgia has a big prove it game against Alabama this week.
24 Nebraska Cornhuskers Exact same thing as Georgia, ultimately Georgia is higher because their fbs opp win% is 42% while Nebraska's is 40%
25 Utah Utes Shares the same 40% FBS opp win% with Nebraska, but one close game against Iowa State |5| will put them at the bottom of this group.

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