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d1sportsball Ballot for 2026 Week 7

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 13, 2026, 12:25 a.m.

Overall Rationale: A mix of the eye test, actual resume ranking and in almost every situation of same record teams, head to head competition. This combination of factors properly accounts for what we've seen on the field, ignoring preseason rankings and only slightly using talent composite as a measure. Quality losses can and often are better than wins, and early on it doesn't make sense to view losses more harshly. As the season goes on and more teams lose, the value of a loss against your ranking increases, but for now a 5-1 team can very well be better than a 6-0 team.

And please, take these rankings with a grain of salt. 6 weeks is enough in my opinion to properly rank all teams, however with such a small sample size, weird results can happen like Texas playing like what comes out of my dog's rear end but having a H2H win over OSU.

Rank Team Reason
1 Georgia Bulldogs The Dawgs have the best win in the country and are currently undefeated. Not much more needs to be said.
2 Miami Hurricanes Miami is continuing to roll their opponents despite injuries, and their quality win over Wake Forest gets better by the week. However with such a weak ACC, they will have to keep this up to stay at #2.
3 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama barely lost to Georgia, and their quality wins are great. A dominant performance at Miss State and a second half annihilation of Kentucky are carrying them to the best 1 loss team in the nation.
4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame stays undefeated, but their best win over Wisconsin is getting weaker in part to Northwestern and USC beating PSU much more convincingly.
5 Texas Longhorns I absolutely hate to do this. Texas is NOT the #5 team in the country, but I can't punish OSU for playing 1 bad quarter of football while Texas played 1 perfect quarter of football. Its gonna take a lot of wins for Texas to rise any higher, and if OSU loses this week then Texas may end up dropping into the teens even if they perform well vs Florida.
6 Ohio State Buckeyes OSU has a worse loss and 1 less quality win compared to Bama, but with their schedule that could quickly change.
7 Indiana Hoosiers Indiana completed a comeback against Nebraska, but that showed more about Nebraska than it did Indiana. Wins over Nebraska and Northwestern have surprisingly become quality wins for the Hoosiers.
8 UCLA Bruins UCLA wins again, and now we can say they are for sure legit. Nico did go out for the season, which is concerning, but their resume and play throughout the year are looking dead ahead towards the playoff.
9 Utah Utes Utah continues to roll, but the schedule must be called into question. They pass the eye test, but who they have played hurts them in ranking undefeated teams.
10 BYU Cougars BYU has a big win over Arizona, but outside of that has shown some struggles. Granted, their RB room is decimated and they responded well vs Iowa State, but those struggles are enough to keep them behind Utah.
11 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss's wins are falling apart, as LSU falls to 2 losses and Louisville sits at 3 losses. Furthermore, their loss is much more embarrassing. Still, they seem to be improving based on the eye test and fixing many of their early season issues.
12 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Wake Forest decimated NC State, and their win vs Purdue isn't looking nearly as bad as it once did. Their loss to Miami is very good, but their wins still look fairly poor compared to Ole Miss.
13 Oklahoma State Cowboys Oklahoma State has been dominating in their wins this year, looking like the best team in the Big 12. But that loss to Tulsa hurts them a ton. If they had beaten Tulsa like Tulsa beat them, they'd probably be #3 this week behind Miami.
14 Texas Tech Red Raiders Texas Tech has struggled in every game this year, playing to their opponent no matter what. Being undefeated helps a ton, and if not for that win over Houston, they would for sure be outside of my top 20.
15 Mississippi State Bulldogs Miss State has a H2H win over Missouri and their Minnesota win looks worse. A good team no doubt, but Kamario Taylor's injury is concerning.
16 Missouri Tigers Missouri's win over Florida means jack squat now, as they were exposed as the weak link in the circle of SEC cannibalism from last week. But their very close loss and play is enough to keep them above Arizona and Kentucky.
17 Arizona Wildcats Arizona looks really good, and has a great quality loss at the hands of BYU. No one is talking about them right now and in a few weeks they go to Texas Tech in one of many Tech games that are getting harder than expected.
18 Kentucky Wildcats Kentucky survives again, and the Cardiac Cats have beaten two of the most preseason overrated teams in the country. They look good, but keep finding themselves in close games. Its hard to tell at this point but I'm all aboard the Will Stein train.
19 Nebraska Cornhuskers Nebraska showed how close they are to being a playoff caliber team, but right now that quality loss to IU is the only thing doing them favors with the rest of their schedule.
20 Northwestern Wildcats Northwestern is a lot like Nebraska, but their loss to IU wasn't as close. That's really the only thing separating these two.
21 Houston Cougars Houston lost close to Texas Tech, and despite many struggles along the way, finally rebounded by demolishing Kansas State. Still, the Cougz will have to do more to climb the rankings over the pair of N letter Big 10 teams.
22 Iowa Hawkeyes Iowa whooped a truly terrible Washington team, but their big loss to OSU and their Michigan and ISU wins getting weaker keep them in the 20s.
23 Oregon Ducks Oregon is the best 2 loss team in the country with wins over Boise State and USC and a quality loss to UCLA. Compared to OU, they have been much more consistent.
24 Boise State Broncos I'm not inclined to rank a 2 loss team over a 1 loss team even if they do have a H2H, but because Boise and Oregon's rankings got so close, I thought I might as well honor it. Boise is still the best G6 team in the country with JMU and UNM close behind.
25 Oklahoma Sooners Oklahoma had a huge win over Texas... but thats about it. They nearly lost to UNM, and did lose to a 3 loss Michigan and get demolished by UGA. They are looking better than Tennessee though, so yes, even in the SEC a 2 loss team can be better than a 1 loss team.

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