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GrimmacingGrinny Ballot for 2026 Week 8

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 18, 2026, 1:46 p.m.

Overall Rationale: After an eventful Saturday, I’m completing this ballot trying to view the overall resume. As we’re further in the season and have more information on teams, we can start to get a feel for the actual quality of wins and losses.

Rank Team Reason
1 BYU Cougars The obvious marquee win from this week against Notre Dame, as well as a win against Arizona that is very solid boosts BYU over Miami for me. While it is an incredibly wide open race, I think BYU is deserving of the vote based on their overall resume to this point.
2 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State picked up a win it very much needed, over Indiana. With the loss to Texas continuing to lose some of its “quality”, OSU’s resume at this point hinges on the wins over Indiana and Iowa.
3 Miami Hurricanes Miami was able to hang on in 2OT, and in a week when so many top teams fell that is enough. The top win for Miami is Wake Forest, and their next best would be Clemson. While I value being undefeated, the lack of strong competition to this point pushes them down slightly for me.
4 Ole Miss Rebels Soundly beating Missouri, Ole Miss completed the circle of confusion between them and Florida. As their lone loss was to Florida and by a not insignificant margin. That being said, they also have some key wins in beating LSU, Missouri and an ok Louisville team. The overall strength of their wins pushes them up the board.
5 Tennessee Volunteers Tennessee captured their biggest win of the season on the backs of their defense over Alabama. Their overall resume now has 2 quality wins in Alabama and Auburn, with the lone loss being a close game to Texas.
6 Texas Tech Red Raiders Texas Tech hasn’t played a strong schedule to this point but there have been a couple of games that may be key for their resume. Their win over Houston continues to look good, and their win over Oregon State is improving as Oregon State appears to be legitimate contenders for the P12.
7 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia fell to Auburn, and their best win also lost. With Alabama losing soundly to Tennessee, the teams we thought were atop the SEC really aren’t. It also makes Georgia’s resume much more difficult to evaluate as it has a good win over a now 2 loss Alabama team, a loss to an unranked Auburn team and no other wins against teams above .500.
8 Indiana Hoosiers After a disappointing loss to Ohio State, the overall resume for Indiana isn’t the strongest. With wins over Nebraska and Northwestern as the key points for this Indiana team.
9 UCLA Bruins The Bruins continue to march along, undefeated to this point. Defeating a Wisconsin team that shocked Penn State earlier this year, although now we know that may have been more that Penn State is not good rather than the strength of Wisconsin. The overall strong points of the Bruins resume rest on defeating Oregon, and Wisconsin.
10 Kentucky Wildcats Kentucky held on to beat Oklahoma, and move to 6-1 on the season. Their resume struggles from the fact that Texas A&M is not as good as we thought they were when Kentucky upset them. That leaves just 1 key win in the LSU game. Both Oklahoma and South Carolina are .500 but that should not move the needle too much. Their lone loss was to Alabama, in a game that was close at half but ended up loosing by a large margin.
11 Notre Dame Fighting Irish With their loss to BYU, the overall strength of the resume for Notre Dame to this point is relatively weak. Their best win is either Wisconsin or North Carolina. Notre Dame has been pushed down, and is in a similar tier to the next few teams in terms of resume.
12 Utah Utes Utah is difficult to evaluate. On the one hand, they are undefeated. On the other, they have not played a team that is currently over .500. Their best win is Iowa State? The only team they have faced currently sitting at .500.
13 Iowa Hawkeyes The Hawkeyes have just the lone loss to Ohio State, but also don’t have huge wins to point to. Their best win best wins they have to this point are over Michigan, and Washington.
14 Houston Cougars Houston picked up its best win of the season this past week, over Oklahoma State. With their lone loss being a close game to Texas Tech, I could see them continuing to move up.
15 Alabama Crimson Tide A brutal loss to Tennessee marks 2 in a row. Looking over Alabama’s season to date, their key win has been the win over Kentucky. With a win over Mississippi State also serving as a solid resume point.
16 Arizona Wildcats Arizona is a team that I believe is being underrated. Their sole loss was to a BYU team in a game they led at half. Their best win is over Cincinnati, with their next best being over West Virginia.
17 Texas Longhorns Texas is so difficult to evaluate. 2 wins over top ranked teams, and 2 losses to teams that were unranked. Their wins over Ohio State and Tennessee continue to look great. But their loss to Oklahoma looks even worse, and with loosing to Florida the team has little to no margin for error moving forward.
18 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Wake Forest’s best win is likely over Louisville, as they are the only team over .500 that Wake Forest defeated. With their lone loss being to Miami, they have an opportunity to hang around.
19 Northwestern Wildcats Northwestern’s best win over Penn State continued to degrade as they fell to Michigan. Having faced very little other serious competition, their lone loss in a close game to Indiana is serving as a reference point.
20 LSU Tigers LSU beat Mississippi State, and picked up its best win of the season. That being said, Mississippi State was down Taylor and Fluff but LSU shut them out regardless. LSU has 2 losses to teams in my top 10, but also no wins over teams in my top 25, leaving them in an interesting position.
21 Oregon Ducks With wins over Nebraska and USC, and losses to UCLA and Oklahoma State, this Oregon team is still alive in the playoff chase and is borderline top 20 based on their resume but any range of outcomes for the remainder of the season would not surprise me.
22 USC Trojans The lone loss for USC on the season is to Oregon. However, they only have 1 win to hang their hat on and that is over the 4-3 Washington Huskies. The win over Penn State is not a resume point any longer, but USC will have some chances in the upcoming weeks as they play Wisconsin, Ohio State and Indiana.
23 Missouri Tigers After a brutal beatdown by Ole Miss, Missouri suffered its second loss on the season. With losses to Ole Miss and Mississippi State, and their best win being over Florida.
24 SMU Mustangs SMU just picked up its best win of the season through beating Virginia. A schedule that has been relatively underwhelming, their lone loss was to a now 4-3 Louisville team.
25 Florida Gators Florida has 2 key wins and 2 losses. Their key wins are over Texas and Ole Miss, while the losses were to South Carolina and Missouri. I have them 25th simply due to the losses being worse than those of the other 2 loss teams I have ranked. The highs are very high for this Florida team, and the lows are very low.

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