Back to poll results >>

d1sportsball Ballot for 2026 Week 8

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 19, 2026, 4:13 p.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 2 loss team can be better than a 1 loss team, and a 1 loss team better than an undefeated team.

For terminology, a close win indicates a back and forth game against a good to great team, a good win indicates a win vs a good to great team where the winner was in control, dominant describes a blowout vs a good to great team, struggle is a close game against a mediocre to bad team. Quality losses are a close game vs a good to great team, okay losses are either less close or vs a slightly worse team, bad losses are to mediocre to bad teams or a complete blowout vs a good to great team. Its very subjective and unclear but so are rankings in general.

Rank Team Reason
1 BYU Cougars Undefeated, close wins over Notre Dame without LJ Martin and Arizona, as well as a more dominant win over Iowa State without LJ Martin.
2 Miami Hurricanes Undefeated, good win over Wake Forest, dominant win over Clemson, struggle win over Florida State.
3 Ohio State Buckeyes 1 fluke loss to Texas after the perfect storm in the 4th quarter, was dominant for 3 quarters straight. Close win over Indiana, dominant win over Iowa.
4 Texas Tech Red Raiders Undefeated, close win over Houston, good win over Oregon State.
5 Ole Miss Rebels 1 okay loss to Florida that was closer than the score would indicate, dominant win over Missouri, good win over LSU, close win over Louisville.
6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish 1 quality loss to BYU, good win over UNC, dominant win over Wisconsin.
7 UCLA Bruins Undefeated, close wins over Oregon and Wisconsin.
8 Indiana Hoosiers 1 quality loss to OSU, close win over Northwestern and Nebraska.
9 Utah Utes Undefeated, good win over Iowa State, struggle win over Colorado.
10 Tennessee Volunteers 1 bad loss to Texas, 2 struggle wins vs Auburn and Arkansas, dominant win over Alabama.
11 Georgia Bulldogs 1 bad loss to Auburn, close win over Alabama and dominant win over Oklahoma.
12 Houston Cougars 1 quality loss to Texas Tech, close win over Oklahoma State.
13 Wake Forest Demon Deacons 1 okay loss to Miami, dominant win over NC State, close win over Louisville.
14 Alabama Crimson Tide 1 quality loss to Georgia, 1 okay loss to Tennessee, good win over Kentucky, dominant win over Miss State.
15 Kentucky Wildcats 1 okay loss to Alabama, 2 close wins over LSU and OU.
16 LSU Tigers 2 quality losses to Ole Miss and Kentucky, 2 dominant wins over Miss State and Clemson.
17 Arizona Wildcats 1 quality loss to BYU, 2 dominant wins over West Virginia and Cincy.
18 Oklahoma State Cowboys 1 quality loss to Houston, 1 terrible loss to Tulsa, good win over Oregon, dominant win over West Virginia.
19 Oregon Ducks 2 quality losses to UCLA and Oklahoma State, 2 close wins over Boise State and Nebraska, good win over USC.
20 Iowa Hawkeyes 1 bad loss to Ohio State, 2 close wins over Iowa State and Michigan.
21 SMU Mustangs 1 okay loss to Louisville, good win over Virginia, struggle win over Florida State.
22 Boise State Broncos 1 quality loss to Oregon, good win over Memphis, dominant win over Western Michigan.
23 James Madison Dukes Undefeated, no real wins of any quality but 7-0 is 7-0.
24 Northwestern Wildcats 1 quality loss to Nebraska, struggle win over Michigan State.
25 UTSA Roadrunners 1 quality loss to Texas, 2 close wins over USF and Texas State.

Back to poll results >>