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HieloLuz Ballot for 2026 Week 7

Ballot Type: Hybrid

Submitted: Oct. 12, 2026, 11:57 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Use a computer poll to sort teams into buckets. From there compare the teams within each bucket almost exclusively quality wins + losses (and Head to Head if applicable). For the teams not ranked that you would except based on the AP poll, my previous polls, and drops (I rank the top 30-40 manually, after that its just computer rankings):
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Next 5: Ole Miss, Wisconsin, Wake Forest, Cincinnati, USC

-Ole Miss (computer-39): Part of Bucket F, but the blowout to Florida is rough, and their only quality win is LSU, who I consider in the 35-40 range right now.
-Wisconsin (computer-33): Part of Bucket F, but lacks any quality wins. Their loss is comparable to Iowa, but Iowa's wins are overall just better for now.
-Wake Forest (computer- 28): Last team in Bucket F. No quality wins and a not very close loss the Miami (FL), very similar resume to Iowa and Wisconsin
-Cincinnati (computer-35): Kansas State is no longer a quality win, and their blowout loss to Arizona is rough.
-USC (computer-14): This will be my biggest outlier this week, and the computer still really likes them, but they have no quality wins anymore. Last week they got buoyed with quality wins over Louisiana and Fresno State, but those teams both lost and dropped from the quality win department. They have their loss to Oregon, and 3 close games against bad teams.
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Drops: Pitt (3), USC (10), North Dakota State (18), Ole Miss (21)

-Pitt (3>UR; computer- 25): Virginia Tech is still a quality win, but UCF no longer is, and North Carolina is a bad loss.
-North Dakota State (18>UR; computer- ): Air Force is still a quality win, but the loss to UNLV drops them. They'll still hover in the computer, but without more quality wins they'll struggle to gain any traction while other teams pick them up more and more.

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Other teams of note:

-SMU (computer- 45): Not really sure why SMU is ranked at all. Their loss to Louisville is bad, and their best win is surviving Florida State. They've also had very close games against Missouri State and Boston College
-Oklahoma (computer- 46): Oklahoma has two quality wins, New Mexico and Texas, but their losses to Georgia and Michigan are both bad for different reasons. If they beat Kentucky they will probably find themselves ranked.
-Duke (computer-40): Duke still hasn't played a quality team all year, and was Georgia Tech loss is a tough one. The computer had them ranked all year but I struggled to rank them with their multiple close games to start the year.
-New Mexico (computer- 37): Excited to see what this team can do down the stretch. No quality wins, but their loss to Oklahoma showed they can compete with this tier of competition.
-Oregon State (computer-31): The 2 losses keep them unranked for now, but I have them as the clear 2nd best 2 loss team. No quality wins, but close losses against Houston and Texas Tech won't hurt them a ton down the stretch.
-LSU (computer- 30): I haven't been sold on LSU all year. They pick up a second loss, and have no quality wins to speak of.
-Auburn (computer- 41): Noting Auburn because they count as a quality win for a couple of teams. They have the 2 losses which firmly keeps them from ranked conversation, but the quality win over Baylor is holding more weight as the season goes on.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia finally picks up a quality win with a huge win over Bama. Also benefits massively from Oklahoma's win as they count as a quality win for now too. Best wins of any team without a loss.
2 Indiana Hoosiers Northwestern and Nebraska are both top 25 wins right now, which are among the best of any undefeated teams.
3 Texas Tech Red Raiders Houston win still looks good, and the Oregon State win has gone from a concerning close game, to a quality win over a team with a ton of offensive firepower.

End of bucket A, clearly great undefeated teams.
Bucket B ↓
4 Texas Longhorns Texas has the best wins in the country with Ohio State, Tennessee, and UTSA all being quality wins. But the rough loss to Oklahoma knocks them out of the top spot.
5 Alabama Crimson Tide Blowouts over Kentucky and Mississippi state continue to look really good. The loss to Georgia drops them a couple of spots, but it won't hold them back long term as they still looked really good in the game
6 Miami Hurricanes Wake Forest win is looking great still. Win quality a clear step down from Texas and Alabama despite their losses.
7 BYU Cougars Arizona win keeps getting better and better, but for now is their only quality win. Below Miami since Miami took care of Wake Forest while BYU has a closer game against Arizona
8 UCLA Bruins UCLA finally picks up a quality win over Oregon, but the 3 close wins to start the year will hold them back for a while.
9 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Wisconsin looks like a good blowout win, but not much else going on right now. Big game this week against BYU that will define both teams seasons.

Bucket C ↓
10 Mississippi State Bulldogs Has a very good win against Missouri, but the blowout loss to Alabama hurts. Top of Bucket C for having the best win of the group
11 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State has had a pretty easy schedule so far, with Texas and Iowa as the only meaningful opponents. The blowout win over Iowa is good, but it's all they have right now. That changes going forward, as Indiana, USC, Oregon, Northwestern, and Nebraska remain on the schedule.
12 Houston Cougars Close game against Oregon State keeps looking better, but for now is their only quality win. Loss to Texas Tech doesn't hurt much. For now the Iowa win is a bit better than Oregon State, so Ohio State stays ahead
13 Missouri Tigers Blowout over Florida remains a quality win. But their loss is worse than the teams with losses above them, including the head to head against Mississippi State.
14 Arizona Wildcats Blowout win over Cincinnati is their only quality win, and is the worst win of the bucket. But the close loss to BYU still looks okay.

Bucket D ↓
15 Boise State Broncos Bucket D is a bunch of really weird teams with questionable wins but not bad losses. Boise's Loss to Oregon continues to be weird, and Memphis is their only quality win for now. They will have to run the table to have a shot at the playoff.
16 Kentucky Wildcats Kentucky is a part of the "SEC teams that may all be really good or may all be incredibly mid". It's really hard to tell right now, but Kentucky finally gets a quality win over LSU. Win is better than Boise's, but their loss is much worse.
17 Northwestern Wildcats Northwestern joins the rankings in part because week 6 is when I begin to consider FCS rankings, and South Dakota State being ranked #1 counts as a quality win. But it's all they have right now. Close loss to Indiana, but is hard to compare to others still.
18 Tennessee Volunteers Quality but close win over an Auburn team that is also very hard to pin down. Close loss to Texas is among the best of the bucket, but their win is the most suspect.

Bucket E ↓
19 Oklahoma State Cowboys Bucket E is a small one. Oklahoma State is at the top due to their quality win over Oregon, but their loss to a bad Tulsa team is hard to swallow.
20 Oregon Ducks I'm keeping Oregon ranked for now, and they're going to get the longest explanation of anyone. They are 2-2 against FBS teams, with all 4 games coming against teams in the AP top 25. Those teams are 18-1 outside of their games against Oregon.

UCLA and Oklahoma State are clearly functional teams that will be making playoff noise late into the season, and their wins over USC and Boise State are quality ones and among the best of any team. They have yet another good team coming to town this week with Nebraska, which will tell us a lot about both teams.
21 James Madison Dukes James Madison and Utah are undefeated, but neither has really faced anyone of note. JMU did beat Liberty, which will keep them above Utah for now.
22 Utah Utes Utah lacks any quality wins, but has mostly taken care of business, with a 14 point win @Iowa State their closest game of the year. They get one more easy game this week before the schedule finally gets going with Houston, Cincinnati, BYU, and Arizona all in a row.

Bucket F ↓
23 Nebraska Cornhuskers This final ranked bucket is the group of teams that don't have much except a good loss going for them, plus Florida. Nebraska gets the top spot for having the close loss against Indiana.
24 Florida Gators This Florida team is impossible to rank. They have quality wins over FAU, Auburn, and Ole Miss, 2 of which were blowouts. But then they also got blown out by Missouri and South Carolina. the 3 quality wins are tied with Texas for the most, but none of them are top 25 wins imo.
25 Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa's best wins are close games @Michigan and home v Iowa State. Not much positive going on, but that's about how everyone looks around here. I have them ahead of Ole miss since their loss is against a much better team.

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