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ChBass Ballot for 2026 Week 8

Ballot Type: Computer

Submitted: Oct. 18, 2026, 8:11 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Each team's performance is compared to their opponent's opponents' performances, with adjustments for wins & losses depending on the quality of the opponent. FCS games are not taken into consideration.

After this week, it's worth noting that the win/loss adjustments are weighted based on the difference between the opponent's power rating and the top power rating. So, losing to the top power rated team doesn't hurt at all; everyone is expected to lose to them. When there's parity, losses don't hurt as much as when there are incredible teams at the top and everyone else at the bottom. These adjustments allow me to make comparisons between the values of losses and gains.

Rank Team Reason
1 BYU Cougars Well good morning Provo - BYU wakes up at the top. Their defense is now the best rated unit in cfb and it held ND just long enough to get their biggest win since the Ty Detmer days. The only speed bump between them and the playoff is Utah in a few weeks. Monster day for the (Monster) Big 12.
2 Ohio State Buckeyes Welcome back to the front, Buckeyes... the Indiana win makes up for 3 longhorn losses. Ohio State has the third best offense in college football and while 19 isn't a lot of points, only one team has scored more on Indiana thus far.
3 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Ok, Notre Dame... it's not that bad. BYU was power rated #3; that loss doesn't hurt much, it's roughly offset by the Purdue win. You are still one of two teams with both a top-10 offense and defense, and this year, one loss will not knock you out of the playoff.
4 Indiana Hoosiers Ok, Hoosiers... it's not that bad. Ohio State was power rated #4; that loss doesn't hurt much, it's more than offset by the North Texas win. You are still one of two teams with both a top-10 offense and defense, and this year, one loss will not knock you out of the playoff.
5 UCLA Bruins Undefeated UCLA beat a Wisconsin team that's still kinda good to get to the top 5, despite offensive & defensive squads ranked between 35 & 25, respectively. The only ranked opponent left on their schedule is USC after thanksgiving, so we could see baby blue in the playoff if they don't take their eye off the ball.
6 Texas Tech Red Raiders Texas Tech is still undefeated, beating Arizona State despite the Sun Devils throwing for 380. That's the thing with Tech: anyone can throw on them, which drags down their defensive rankings to the mid-50s. But keep winning, and you're in.
7 Miami Hurricanes Barely undefeated Miami survived a Seminole scare and makes it here. Their best win so far is still Wake Forest, and their one chance to jump people here is when they face Notre Dame next month.
8 Kentucky Wildcats Kentucky came back to beat OU to stay in the top-10 despite an offense ranked in the 40's and a defense ranked in the 30's. But they sit tied with Georgia atop the SEC, and they're in the top 10 here.
9 Utah Utes Utah held off a surge from Colorado, and is still undefeated, still has the 4th best offense in cfb, and they still have their best win over... Iowa State? Houston comes to town next week, and BYU comes later, so there are opportunities for this team to prove itself on the big stage.
10 Northwestern Wildcats It was a little closer against Michigan State than they would have liked, but a win is a win. The loss to Indiana doesn't hurt at all, but they're going to have to play better against the middling teams to have a shot against the good teams.
11 Ole Miss Rebels The Florida loss is almost completely offset by the LSU win, and the Mizzou win is worth about 5 ranking spots.
12 Tennessee Volunteers The Bama win is worth, say, one and a half longhorn losses, and that's how you bounce back. Tennessee has a top-10 defense that can get after a quarterback and give the offense a shot to light the cigars.
13 James Madison Dukes James Madison is still undefeated, and yes, their best win is still Liberty, but they do have a top-15 offense, so they just may be the G5 Cinderella that goes to the playoff.
14 Houston Cougars UH got their best win against Okie Lite this week, which made up for about a third of the Texas Tech loss.
15 Georgia Bulldogs Why, Georgia, why? The Auburn loss hurt more than all of your wins helped you, combined. Georgia will has a top-5 offense and a top-15 defense, and proves that nobody makes it out of the SEC unscathed.
16 Iowa Hawkeyes The loss to Ohio State doesn't hurt too bad, but the Hawkeyes will need bigger wins on their resume than Michigan to move up.
17 Texas Longhorns The Florida loss hurt about as much as the Ohio State win helped. The longhorns still have the 2nd best defense in cfb, but while the offense can score, the run & pass games are middle of the road.
18 USC Trojans The Oregon loss is hurting worse and worse over time; it's just barely under two Penn State wins. USC still has a top-10 offense, but a middling defense is holding them back.
19 Alabama Crimson Tide The Georgia loss was offset by the Mississippi State win (their best win of the season), but you'd need another two Cowbell wins to offset losing to Tennessee. Bama still has top-25 offensive & defensive squads, but they'll need to play flawless football in the home stretch.
20 Wisconsin Badgers Okay, Wisconsin has a chance to prove me right and their defense (5th in the country) held up their side of the bargain, so I will downgrade Wisconsin from "good" to "pretty good".
21 Arizona Wildcats The BYU loss doesn't hurt much, but their best win is against Cincinnati, so there are chances ahead for Arizona to make their mark.
22 Mississippi State Bulldogs Turns out that Kamario guy is pretty integral. The math says that Cowbell is the 6th ranked offense in cfb, but that will keep dropping until he comes back.
23 Nebraska Cornhuskers The loss to Indiana doesn't hurt, but a loss to Oregon does. Nebraska still has top-25 offensive and defensive rankings.
24 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Wake Forest has a top-15 defense and a win against Louisville that offsets a third of losing to Miami.
25 Florida Gators Okay, Florida, we can't do anything about the South Carolina loss, but beating the longhorns offsets losing to Mizzou. That, and a top-15 offense (who scored more in Austin than Ohio State did) will get you in the rankings.

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