Back to poll results >>

tbraptors Ballot for 2026 Week 8

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 18, 2026, 9:39 a.m.

Overall Rationale: General priority is: Overall Resume, head to head, then performance

Rank Team Reason
1 BYU Cougars A top 10 win and a top 25 win, with no losses, put BYU head and shoulders above any other team
2 Miami Hurricanes Still unclear how good Miami is. They have 1 top 25 win against Wake, and could easily be below Ohio St in these rankings
3 Ohio State Buckeyes
4 Texas Tech Red Raiders Texas Tech jumps up after last week's bloodbath, and their wins against Oregon St and Houston looking better each week
5 UCLA Bruins UCLA's perfect record with solid wins against Oregon and Wisconsin put them at #5, but still unclear how good they are
6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre Dame fall to 6, with solid wins over Wisconsin and UNC, with a close road loss to the #1 team
7 Utah Utes Utah is another team where it's unclear how good they are. Next week's game against Houston will be informative
8 Texas Longhorns I was shocked when I put together this top 25 and Texas didn't drop out of the top 10. However, instead of their two bad losses moving them down, it instead devalued the SEC. Texas, outside of their great win against Ohio St, beat Tennessee. Tennessee has a slightly better resume than Georgia, who beat Alabama, meaning Texas must be ranked over Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, Kentucky, and the rest of the SEC. This won't hold if their free fall continues (which I expect it will) but for the time being they stay at #8.
9 Tennessee Volunteers
10 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia fall all the way from #1 to #10, with their best win against Alabama being devalued. Also, losing at home to Auburn doesn't help
11 Indiana Hoosiers It's still unclear how good Indiana is, and time will tell if they are being overrated from what they did last year
12 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama now has two losses, but beat Kentucky and Miss St
13 Ole Miss Rebels
14 Kentucky Wildcats
15 Houston Cougars Houston jumps up after a good win against Oklahoma St and Texas Tech jumping in the rankings
16 Arizona Wildcats As I said last week, Arizona has a very underrated resume, with their only loss being on the road to the #1 team in the country, and two solid wins over Cincinnati and WVU
17 Iowa Hawkeyes
18 LSU Tigers
19 Mississippi State Bulldogs Still being held up by their wins against Minnesota and Missouri
20 Missouri Tigers
21 Florida Gators Florida jumps back into the top 25, alongside Auburn, after a big upset win against Texas.
22 Auburn Tigers
23 Northwestern Wildcats
24 Wake Forest Demon Deacons
25 Oklahoma State Cowboys Oklahoma St stays ranked because they beat Oregon, who beat Boise St and USC, meaning Oklahoma St must be ranked above those 3. The only other team I considered for this spot was JMU, but their schedule is seriously lacking.

Back to poll results >>