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nw____ Ballot for 2026 Week 8

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 20, 2026, 9:17 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Next up: SMU, North Dakota State, Nebraska, Florida, Pitt, Liberty, Mississippi State

Rank Team Reason
1 Miami Hurricanes Survived a squeaker, but a win is a win. Not going to ding them too much for a rivalry game. It got my attention though.
2 BYU Cougars Undefeated with a huge signature win. Idk how they do it but they do it. Did not think they could hang with ND on the lines of scrimmage. They did. At this point, it doesn’t matter what I thought they’d be or how good I think they are—they’re winning and they deserve all the credit for that. If this is too high, it will correct itself.
3 UCLA Bruins Super tough team. Bob Chesney is the man. I don’t think Wisconsin is a slouch either—been impressed with their defense this season. That’s a good win, IMO.
4 Georgia Bulldogs Probably falling victim to my bias here. I still think this is the best team in the country. I should probably have them lower though, especially since you can’t even blame the Auburn loss on Jordan-Hare voodoo magic. Auburn just bullied them. They Georgia’d them. Was it a letdown after a huge game v Bama or is Georgia worse than I thought? I’d pick UGA in a rematch and yet Auburn’s win did not feel fluky to me.
5 Utah Utes Tell your kids about a possible top 5 vs top 5 Holy War. Squeaking by Colorado raises some eyebrows but a win is a win…though a win I did slightly ding them for.
6 Ohio State Buckeyes Only behind UGA bc of the Sayin injury. I’ve got questions about how sustainable this is even with Sayin, but I’m going to wait for it to play out.
7 Indiana Hoosiers Probably should’ve won. Left feeling better about Indiana’s future than tOSU’s. Hoover looks better and better every week.
8 Texas Tech Red Raiders Felt like they should’ve stopped this game at halftime. Yikes.
9 Ole Miss Rebels Did not expect them to push Mizzou around like that. Seriously shocked.
10 Kentucky Wildcats Probably should’ve lost, but this is an extremely well coached team that never panicked, waited for their opportunity, and took that game from Oklahoma. Painful to watch as an OU fan, but I could not be more impressed with Stein and the Kentucky offensive line.
11 Tennessee Volunteers Big win after a shaky performance against Arkansas. I don’t understand this team. Sort of feels like I’m stuck between what I think Tennessee under Heupel has been (high flying offense, aggressive but leaky defense) and what they actually are this season (more game control, defense that is both aggressive and really good)
12 Houston Cougars How are they getting this out of Weigman? Slade Nagle is moving into that Buster Faulkner tier for me—the thing that convinced me Faulkner was a great OC was how he and Chris Weinke got the absolute most out of Haynes King (another alleged bust that initially went to A&M…hmm). Nagle (and Fritz, too) are doing the same thing with Weigman. IMO, it’s time to stop sleeping on this team. They nearly got it done against Texas Tech, and at this point I might take Houston in a rematch.
13 Iowa Hawkeyes Bye
14 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Dickert is one of the only coaches that is keeping me from declaring Will Stein is the COTY. I know it was only Cal, but traveling coast-to-coast and just bullying them is not nothing.
15 USC Trojans Bye
16 Northwestern Wildcats Would’ve put them a spot or two higher if they hadn’t needed some magic to beat Michigan State. That said, I think they deserve credit for rallying the way they did with the blocked FG and especially that game winning drive from the offense. They might be brewing something special here.
17 Boise State Broncos Bye
18 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Is their best win the 41-13 week 1 victory over Wisconsin? I do have a little bit of sympathy for them with the last play against BYU—I am ok with the no call on the DPI, but it definitely seems like there should’ve been 1sec left on the clock. We’ll never know if they would’ve scored if they had another chance, but that’s unfortunately the way it goes in CFB. That said, they had the other 59m:59s to work with and have no one to blame but themselves for being in that spot/leaving the game up to the refs. If they are the team they’re supposed to be, they should’ve won by…what, like 13? 20? They didn’t. They can absolutely rocket back up the rankings with a good win against Miami and, to a lesser extent, SMU. If this is too low of a ranking, it will work itself out by the end of the season.
19 Arizona Wildcats Bye
20 Alabama Crimson Tide Not sure they should be ranked at the moment, to be honest. Their huge win over Kentucky is doing them a lot of favors for my rankings.
21 New Mexico Lobos That defense is really good. Nice comeback win when they could’ve folded…I guess? I would’ve moved them up but Hawaii is…not good. A win is a win though.
22 LSU Tigers Not sure how much stock to put into this with Mississippi State being without Kamario Taylor. A shutout against a Lenny offense isn’t nothing, though.
23 Oregon State Beavers Two losses, but relatively close ones to two top-4 teams in the Big XII. I think the defense is *bad* bad, but that offense is kind of unbelievable. That said, this sort of feels too high at the moment. Washington State has looked awful most of the year and somehow hung 30 on Oregon State (again, very bad defense). It’s another ranking that I’m willing to let work itself out in the coming weeks.
24 James Madison Dukes Won’t pretend I have watched much of JMU this year, but giving them credit for being 7-0. Haven’t had a bye yet and just keep winning. At some point, my opinion of the sun belt is irrelevant. I’ll let this work itself out.
25 Missouri Tigers Lucky to be ranked. Just when I thought this was a really underrated team, they got absolutely shoved into a locker. At this point, idk what to make of Mizzou.

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