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ResearchFlaky5912 Ballot for 2026 Week 7

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 11, 2026, 10:51 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Dropped out: Duke ; Florida
Honorable Mentions: Wake Forest ; Boise St

Yes the ACC has one team ranked (the whole conference, besides Miami, looks horrible this year). Wake is closest to being ranked, but they have beaten absolutely nobody. I refuse to rank Boise St for the same reasons. USC has two wins that are better than Boise St (Rutgers and PSU both better wins than Memphis) and the same loss. I just don't see how the AP has Boise ranked.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs After beating 'Bama, Georgia is clearly the best team in the country. Probably would have been the case without Texas's loss. As of right now, Georgia is my favorite to win it all.
2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Continued to look dominant. Floats up a spot as Texas falls out.
3 Miami Hurricanes Same as ND
4 Indiana Hoosiers Despite looking shaky against Nebraska (who I'm high-ish on), this team still finds a way to win. Keeping them above 'Bama is the fact that they are still undefeated and the defending champs. They move up two spots due to 'Bama and Texas losing.
5 Alabama Crimson Tide Stays at 5 despite the loss because (1) it was a very close game against the best team in the country (2) they still have a better "best win" than Ohio State (3) Texas's loss makes Ohio State look a little worse while also creating a spot in front of 'Bama for them to move up.
6 Ohio State Buckeyes Moves up one because Texas falls out from in front of them. Stuck behind 'Bama because they do not have a better win and their loss is worse. Winning against Indiana would probably springboard them in front.
7 BYU Cougars There is a huge dropoff between #6 and #7 here. I do not think that any team outside of #6 has any chance to win it all. Still, the undefeated Cougars deserve a high ranking for being undefeated while in the B12.
8 Texas Tech Red Raiders Similar reasoning to BYU. Win against Houston keeps them unquestionably in the top 10 despite an underwhelming schedule besides that. Being undefeated in a power conference runs the day.
9 Texas Longhorns Dropping to #9 after a loss. Win against Tennessee keeps them higher than the Vols. I am not faulting them too much for the loss because it was an away rivalry game, but Texas has not looked very good in recent weeks.
10 Tennessee Volunteers After an underwhelming performance against Arkansas, they stay put.
11 Utah Utes I considered Utah to jump Tennessee after Texas's fall and Tennessee looking mid, but I am not quite ready for that change yet. Utah did not exactly annihilate a very mid Kansas team either.
12 UCLA Bruins UCLA stays put from my last poll after barely beating Oregon (who I'm low on relative to AP) in Eugene. I expected them to play better, but the same can be said for a lot of teams in this range (#10 to #17), so they are all staying put.
13 Kentucky Wildcats Back-to-back wins in overtime against decent SEC teams. Kentucky's single loss looks better also. Another ranking where I felt vindicated having them much higher on the poll than AP or the rest of r/CFB and seeing them pull off the win (see UCLA also).
14 Iowa Hawkeyes Dominant win against Washington as 3 point underdogs. Traveled across the country and pummeled them. I still think that Kentucky's win at home against LSU is better, so no movement here.
15 Northwestern Wildcats Another underwhelming performance in this range of teams, but not enough to knock them down. Their best win also looks shaky (Penn St is 0-3 in the Big 10).
16 Mississippi State Bulldogs No movement after a bye.
17 Missouri Tigers Performed how I expected them to against a bad A&M team. No movement.
18 Arizona Wildcats Very convincing win against a WVU team that I think is better than their record indicates. With a dominant win over Cincinnati the week before, Arizona looks decent. They go up 2 after Duke played terrible and Nebraska lost a close one at home.
19 Houston Cougars Houston's loss to Texas Tech is very forgivable. They move up over Nebraska as the Huskers show that they are gonna struggle to close out games.
20 Nebraska Cornhuskers I will not punish this team (much) for losing a close home game against the defending national champs. Still, they squandered a pretty strong lead and let Indiana get two huge plays in their comeback. I remain high on Nebraska relative to AP.
21 Oregon Ducks I move Oregon up 2 after a loss because they outperformed my expectations against a UCLA team I am very high on. Further, both OKST and USC enter the rankings today, strengthening their best win and minimizing their only loss.
22 Ole Miss Rebels Dominated a pretty bad Vanderbilt team. Florida's drop out makes them look worse, but not worse enough to drop them.
23 LSU Tigers Also moving LSU up after a loss because it was an overtime away loss to a team that I am high on. They fill the vacancies created by Duke and Florida.
24 Oklahoma State Cowboys As the season progresses, the Tulsa game looks more and more like a fluke. Still a terrible loss, but as Oregon hangs around and OKST keeps winning, week one losses matter less and less.
25 USC Trojans While PSU is undoubtedly bad this year, winning by 8 in Happy Valley on a white out still means something (I think). And, honestly, I can't leave out a power-two team that has a single loss. With USC at #25, every undefeated or one-loss Big 10 or SEC team is ranked. I think that makes sense. (sorry ACC)

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