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Maladroit44 Ballot for 2026 Week 8

Ballot Type: Computer

Submitted: Oct. 18, 2026, 3:18 p.m.

Overall Rationale: what the hell happened last night

Rank Team Reason
1 BYU Cougars Between the three realistic choices for #1 right now, none has been absolutely convincing. Part of how I'm approaching my ballot is through tiers, and this is the first week in which I've left the uppermost rank completely empty. But among mortals, BYU is undefeated, just got what I have as the second-best win in football this season, and saw the other unbeaten #1 contender play worse last night than they have all year. Why shouldn't they be on top?
2 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio State pulled off a great road win by the skin of their teeth, which was about as much as you could ask of any top team this week. I was tempted to rank them #1 despite the imperfect record, because I feel that a one-point road loss is something that can be excused under the right circumstances. Unfortunately...while the Buckeyes to some extent put that loss behind them this week, it's also rapidly getting worse as Texas continues to participate in football games. Neither team is *completely* the same as when they played, and that should matter, but OSU's offensive weaknesses were very apparent in that game and were in this one too, despite the win.
3 Miami Hurricanes Do I believe that game was rigged? Eh, not really. Both of the 4th down calls were 50/50s that could excusably go either way (even if I have some questions about why the term "simultaneous possession" never came up in the ACC review room). But for one thing, I think it's hard to argue that those calls would've gone against Miami if the roles were reversed (see the "win" over VT two years ago); and for another, even taking the win at face value, it was a *very* ugly win. To me, it's hard to justify jumping a team to #1 when they have just one ranked victory and showed massive deficiencies this week. The jury's out for another three weeks until they head to South Bend. Speaking of which...
4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Okay, let's get this out of the way: no, I don't care about the extra second, because the clock also *started* over half a second late. By rule, Notre Dame probably should've gotten an extra play, but by common sense, they ran a play that took ~4.1 seconds with the clock starting at :04; they really have nothing to complain about. That being said, a four-point road loss against the new #1 is by no means bad, at least not to me. People really don't like it when you say this, but a team that loses in the last minute against 1-2 playoff contenders and obliterates all its other opponents? Is actually, shockingly, a playoff-level team.
5 Georgia Bulldogs What the hell, guys? This was the one team I felt truly confident in after the last couple weeks, and then they come home and completely dash that confidence against a thoroughly unremarkable Auburn. To make matters worse, the schedule suddenly looks...not particularly revealing, to say the least. The Bulldogs will finish the season with two ranked games against Alabama and Ole Miss, but will they have any others? I certainly don't think Florida and Mizzou are good enough to deserve a spot right now, nor are they good enough to tell us more about Georgia. Well, unless *they* beat the Dawgs, too.
6 Indiana Hoosiers It's a game of inches. Indiana could've so easily had this one, and the win would've come in true Indiana fashion: trailing most of the way, yet using gritty defense to ensure the game never got out of hand while eventually building up to a spectacular game-winning drive. They did about 99.9% of that, then set one foot out of bounds and it all fell apart. I know some people think this sounds insane, but I do kinda miss the days when that high drama was accentuated further by knowing that the Hoosiers would now need to win out and get some help to re-earn their shot at a championship. As it is, they'll need to win out and get some help to...get a first-round bye.
7 Utah Utes The Utah we saw in September looked like a potential national championship favorite, but unfortunately, they've only slipped further with every passing week. Certainly not a good sign when they're about to finally hit the real meat of their schedule: Houston this week, then Cincinnati, then BYU in a massive Holy War showdown, and a trip to Arizona to round out the four-game stretch. The Utes have been shuffling around my rankings a spot or two at a time all season, but that's about to change, either for the better or the worse.
8 UCLA Bruins This is, believe it or not, the lone undefeated team in either the Big Ten or the SEC. Even at 6-0, though, we don't really know much about them, and this week was not particularly revealing in that regard. I don't put a ton of stock in beating a Wisconsin team that Notre Dame blew to kingdom come, at least not when you do it with 3.2 yards a carry, 13 (!) conversions on 20 (!!!) third downs, and a lot of help from opposing miscues for the second week in a row. The Bruins are still undefeated, and you have to credit them for that, but there has to be a convincing win against a solid team in them somewhere. Right?
9 Tennessee Volunteers As a Tennessee fan, I've been saying all season that we don't have a quarterback, and as a result we won't be able to beat any really good teams. Fortunately, the feature of "really good teams" was removed from the sport after last season! The Vols' offense absolutely did its best to throw this game away, with missed opportunity after missed opportunity, but...as I am also an Oklahoma State fan, I know very well that you can play like shit on offense and still win if you have the legend himself Jim Knowles guiding the defense. Bama's drive chart this game went fumble-punt-INT-punt-punt-TD-punt-fumble-FG-downs-punt-punt-INT. I've never seen anything so beautiful in my life.
10 Alabama Crimson Tide The AP Poll has five two-loss teams ranked, all from the SEC. Four of those deserve thorough questioning, but the same shouldn't be said for Alabama, which unlike any of the others, has both entirely excusable losses and a ranked win. That being said, when the Tide's weaknesses are this obvious *and* their resume is a bit underwhelming, I feel very hesitant still putting them in the top ten. Even with the AP's generosity towards the conference, Bama has just one ranked game left, and I'm increasingly worried that we'll be stuck with a 10-2 or 9-3 team that sits right on the fringe of the playoff yet again.
11 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Speaking of teams with less-than-revealing schedules, what do we make of Wake Forest? They've certainly looked the part of a highly-ranked team; if you told me that, say, Texas Tech would have the same results against this slate of foes, I wouldn't be surprised. But it's certainly possible this is just a decent team that punched above its weight against Miami, caught Louisville early enough to get a ranked win and top-25 consideration out of it, and has played its way into the middle of the rankings as a result. I'm not entirely sure, and I don't know if a road win at SMU in a few weeks will prove enough to be any more sure.
12 Boise State Broncos DNP this week. The power conferences will all complain about how the depth and difficulty of their league isn't being properly appreciated, but the Pac-12 might be the conference that suffers from it most. This league is pretty good—it went 9-4 against other mid-major conferences and competed well in most of its P4 matchups—but its two best teams got three of the league's best non-conference opponents (Oregon, TTU, and Houston), and its other teams have all beaten up on each other. It may be easy to look at this conference in November, when Boise State faces off against Oregon State, and see those as the only teams in the Pac-12 worth a damn, but it wouldn't be entirely fair to do so.
13 Texas Tech Red Raiders I still don't like putting confidence in this team, but I must begrudgingly admit that the tenor of their season has changed dramatically over the last few weeks. A couple blowout wins, plus Oregon State and Houston looking better and better as close-ish victories early in the year, has the Red Raiders a bit more comfortable in the role of playoff contender. I still hesitate to rank them *really* high without more meaningful wins on the resume, but those opportunities are coming up: at Cincy this week, vs Arizona the next, and a titanic trip to Stillwater two weeks after that.
14 Ole Miss Rebels The SEC picture continues to bemuse. I'm hesitant to believe in Ole Miss after two close wins and a blowout loss in their first three P4 games—none of which were against teams I currently have ranked above #23—but they still only have one loss, and they looked pretty dominant out there against Mizzou. At least this is an SEC team we still have more to learn about: they go to Texas this week, then return home for games against Auburn and Georgia. Win two of those three and we can probably feel comfortable forecasting them as a playoff team; lose two of three and I think they should be out, at least in a just world.
15 Iowa Hawkeyes DNP this week. I'll be honest, I don't have a whole lot to say here. It's Iowa. The offense is a little less awful than usual, but it's still Iowa. They got beaten up by the one playoff contender they've played, and they've otherwise taken care of business with close wins against Iowa State and a traditional Big Ten powerhouse that's now struggling mightily. That's, like, the most Iowa season ever, man.
16 Oregon Ducks Oregon, meanwhile, is sorta the opposite of Iowa. There might not be a team in the sport that's having a less characteristic season than the Ducks right now, and that's not *just* in the sense that they're worse than expected. They're also inconsistent yet show flashes of potential, they haven't had a decisive FBS win *or* loss yet, and their QB situation grows increasingly unprecedented with every passing week. Somehow Dylan Raiola was the hero this time around? I'm holding out hope that a light matchup with Illinois will provide enough time that Dante Moore should be back for Oregon's next meaningful game, against Northwestern in two weeks, but until then I don't think I can say anything about this team with confidence.
17 Arizona Wildcats DNP this week, but hey, the AP Poll finally threw them a top-25 spot! Despite the bye week, it's a sensible time to give Arizona a little more love, considering their only loss is a close one on the road against currently-ascendant BYU. The Wildcats might have the best opportunity of any team to stir up the Big 12 standings, as they'll face two of the league's three unbeatens—Texas Tech and Utah—in the coming weeks, interspersed with some pretty light matchups against ISU and TCU. Stir them up enough, and who knows? An 11-1 (8-1) Arizona would be very much in play for the conference title game, and ought to be firmly in the playoff picture regardless.
18 Houston Cougars Houston's conference slate has been unusually frontloaded compared to the other Big 12 contenders, so after their trip to Utah this week, they'll mostly just be sitting around hoping for things to go their way. That gets a whole lot more likely with a win over the Utes, of course, but beating Oklahoma State ensures the door will at least be ajar even if the Cougars are headed for a 7-2 finish in the league standings. Pull off the upset here, though, and the route to Arlington becomes much clearer, at least assuming UH can take care of business throughout the final month of the season.
19 Northwestern Wildcats Northwestern technically didn't lose, but as is the case with Miami, a close win against an opponent this bad isn't much better. The Wildcats drop a lot in my estimation because they had so few meaningful results before their 24-21 escape at MSU; the close loss at Indiana was the only real data point, and that also looks a little worse now. Still, they're 5-1 and should roll to bowl eligibility with a win over Rutgers this week, and the remaining schedule should provide a baseline of at least eight wins. How far NW can fly above that depends on how good they actually are; I'm ready to find out.
20 Nebraska Cornhuskers "Nebraska wins all its blowouts and loses all its close games" is an easy narrative to buy into, and I told myself I wouldn't buy into it after last week. And then the Cornhuskers went and lost 17-14 on a last-minute miracle from Dylan Raiola, because of course they would do that. This team is now 5-2, but on the upside, it *will* be 8-2, provided it doesn't find a way to lose against Washington, Illinois, or Rutgers. The season now narrows to two decisive games: find a way to beat Ohio State on home turf and Iowa on the road, and NU is probably playoff-bound. Anything else, and they'll settle for a nice bowl.
21 Oklahoma State Cowboys Ahhhh, *there's* the traditional Oklahoma State letdown win right when you started to believe anything was possible. The Cowboys could've had this one about a dozen different ways—better defense, better red-zone play, better third downs, fewer penalties, no baffling interception from Mestemaker, any real rushing game, and so on and so forth. That the result was still just a three-point loss to a ranked team on the road says something about what OSU still managed to do right...but it also means they have no margin for error left. Only two really tough opponents (KSU and TTU) remain, but the Pokes can't afford a loss to either—or to anyone else—if they want to stay in the conference title race.
22 Kentucky Wildcats I do not get the hype for this team. Even if you take the AP's current rankings at face value, is a 6-1 record with one ranked win (down to the wire over #18 at home) and one blowout loss (to #13 at home) really deserving of a top-twelve spot? Actually I'm not gonna let you answer this one, it's no, the answer is no. Kentucky is not a playoff-level team, which should be obvious to anyone who's seen them play. They're fine! They're pretty good! But #12 Kentucky is a complete mirage, and I believe that so firmly that I'll place my confidence in my own Tennessee Vols to disrupt the illusion in a few weeks' time.
23 LSU Tigers As mentioned above, the AP Poll ranked five two-loss teams from the SEC this week. I really don't love that, and I think the downsides with Florida, Texas, and *especially* Mizzou outweigh the arguments for them to earn a spot, but I am still reluctantly ranking LSU. Unlike those teams, the Tigers' losses were both to ranked opponents by close margins, which to me suggests they're probably a top-25 caliber team themselves. Without a win better than Mississippi State, though, it's hard to have much confidence in them. Fortunately, this is a problem that will solve itself: they play Alabama, Texas, and Tennessee back-to-back-to-back in a few weeks' time. You've just gotta resist the urge to assume, wrongly, that we've seen anything truly impressive from LSU until then.
24 James Madison Dukes I've been waiting on a cue to bring James Madison, the last unbeaten non-P4 left, into my rankings, and this week provided. Georgia State was 4-1 heading into this game, with four blowout wins and a very competitive loss to UCF—and the Dukes absolutely rocked them, cruising to a 35-10 halftime lead and an eventual 49-22 victory. That's the kinda thing that puts a 7-0 G6 team over the top, and now I just have to hope they don't immediately embarrass me by blowing it against App State this Thursday.
25 Oregon State Beavers Oregon State, meanwhile, hasn't provided a single obvious cue to jump them into the top 25. But when a team wins five straight games by a combined margin of 255-94, while their two early-season losses both remain undefeated outside a game against each other, you can only ignore them for so long. The Beavers have looked *really* good in Pac-12 play, and it's looking more and more like that Nov. 14 trip to Boise State will be a critical showdown in the race for the G6's playoff bid. Is it wishful thinking to look at a Week 11 slate full of underwhelming matchups like Texas-LSU, UF-UK, and USC-Indiana, and hope it might somehow get GameDay, too?

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