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ResearchFlaky5912 Ballot for 2026 Week 9

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 25, 2026, 12:01 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Dropped out: Iowa ; Mississippi St ; Auburn ; Oregon
Honorable Mentions: Boise St ; Iowa

Another chaos week. Utah vaults to #3, UCLA #4. Despite SEC upsets, not much of a shakeup in the middle of the poll (6 SEC teams in a row). 4 teams out and 4 teams in. Plenty of [highly] ranked teams have unranked losses. Is anyone good (besides Miami)?

Rank Team Reason
1 Miami Hurricanes Undefeated with the talent to be #1.
2 Ohio State Buckeyes Lost a ranked win (Iowa), but Texas (loss) and Indiana (win) both rise. Indiana win is the second best win in the country.
3 Utah Utes Undefeated. Does not have the talent of either Miami or Ohio St, keeping them to #3. But undefeated at this point in the season (one of the last three) should be at or near the top.
4 UCLA Bruins Many of the same reasons as Utah. Struggled against some bad teams unlike a top 5, but at least they won them all.
5 Indiana Hoosiers Indiana benefits from the BYU, ND, TTU, Tennessee slide to move up a couple spots despite really struggling against a bad Michigan. Got jumped by two teams for the poor performance, but still rose overall.
6 Georgia Bulldogs 5 teams in front of them lose and they go up 5 spots.
7 BYU Cougars Bad loss to UCF knocks them from #1. Still has a great win over ND and still only has one loss. This season, a lot of top ranked teams have questionable or bad losses. Below Georgia because the loss is worse, the wins are comparable, but the SEC is stronger overall.
8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Like often happens in my polls, ND stays attached to the team that they lost to when the only reference for how good the teams are is their game against each other. ND falls to the spot below BYU. Given their weak schedule, they will probably be stuck behind BYU until BYU either loses again or Wisconsin ascends. Speaking of, their dominant win over a now-ranked Wisconsin is how we know that they aren't just bad.
9 Texas Tech Red Raiders Double-digit loss to Cincinnati (who I am kind of high on) is their first loss of the season. Not as big of a drop as you might expect, but a lot of other teams got their second loss this week. A TTU with a win over Houston should not be below any 2-loss team IMO.
10 Alabama Crimson Tide Top-ranked 2-loss team, as their losses are to #6 and #13 with a dominant win over #11.
11 Kentucky Wildcats One loss, but it was a beating to Alabama, so they find themselves beneath them. Otherwise, has looked solid. Double-digit wins against middling/bad SEC teams and a win over #15 keeps them high.
12 Texas Longhorns Weirdest team to rank. Two bad losses, but some great wins also, including the best win in the country. They beat #14 to rise again. Keeping them below one-loss Kentucky and Alabama for now because the losses are worse than 'Bama's, but that could change if SCAR keeps beating teams.
13 Tennessee Volunteers Makes sense to go one below Texas, as they (1) lost to Texas and (2) just lost to a team that Texas lost to. The win over 'Bama is nice, but not as good as beating Ohio St.
14 Ole Miss Rebels Another weird team to rank as they look wildly different week to week. Loss to Florida is still horrible, Blowout win against Missouri is good. Loss against Texas is bad. Still, two losses is two losses, and their wins are good enough to keep them just outside the top #12.
15 Arizona Wildcats Good win on Saturday. Big12 is up generally. Cincinnati is now ranked, boosting their resume. I think their wins, as a whole, are about equal to LSU's wins, but the sole loss to #7 is better than two losses to #11 and #14.
16 LSU Tigers Arguably, LSU's losses are more forgivable (#11 and #14) than Ole Miss's losses (#12 and #21), but they lack a great win: The teams they've beaten have all fallen out. A couple wins over probbaly-top-30-ish teams (Mississippi St and Auburn) is not as good as beating #16 or #19.
17 Houston Cougars No movement after a loss. Close game over a team that just vaulted to #3. TTU fell a bit, but not enough to make that loss bad. Needs a good win to move up any further though.
18 Northwestern Wildcats Fills the gap Iowa made in losing.
19 Cincinnati Bearcats Now ranked after beating #9. Two losses are to a decent WVU and #15. No blowouts, unlike Missouri.
20 Missouri Tigers Fills the Mississippi St gap.
21 Florida Gators Same
22 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Floats up after the teams that dropped out all lose.
23 SMU Mustangs Newly ranked. The chaos of highly ranked teams losing to unranked teams makes the Louisville loss more bearable. Still has not beaten anybody worth discussing, but at least they are beating up bad opponents like a ranked team should.
24 Wisconsin Badgers I did not have USC ranked las week, but they were just on the outside looking in, next to Wisconsin. Wisconsin with a convincing win over USC ranks them. Losses to #4 and #8 are completely absolvable at this point in the rankings. Needs to string together a few more wins, but the path is clear for them to keep rising if they can keep winning.
25 Oklahoma State Cowboys After dropping out following an expected loss, OKST is back in after beating up on a miserable Colorado. The 4 teams dropping out helped them back in, even though their claim to fame, the Oregon win, is now much less impressive. Still, there aren't many one and two loss teams left.

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