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HieloLuz Ballot for 2026 Week 9

Ballot Type: Hybrid

Submitted: Oct. 25, 2026, 1:23 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Use a computer poll to sort teams into buckets. From there compare the teams within each bucket almost exclusively quality wins + losses (and Head to Head if applicable). For the teams not ranked that you would except based on the AP poll, my previous polls, and drops (I rank the top 30-40 manually, after that its just computer rankings):

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Next 5: Oregon State, Missouri, New Mexico, James Madison, UTSA

-Oregon State (computer- 29): Oregon State lacks any quality wins, but their losses to Houston and Texas Tech are the best of any unranked team
-Missouri (computer- 32): Missouri has a quality win over Florida, but has 2 bad losses in Mississippi State and a blowout from Ole Miss.
-New Mexico (computer- 23): New Mexico picks up a quality win over North Dakota State, but it's their only top 100 win. Loss to Oklahoma is okay. Final team of Bucket F.
-James Madison (computer- 15): JMU picks up a bad loss to App State. They still have a quality win over Liberty, but Liberty I go back and forth on if Liberty should be considered quality for reasons listed below.
-UTSA (computer- 21): The blowout loss to Texas is their only one, and they've won otherwise, but in those wins they 5 games that came down to the wire.

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Drops: Oregon (12), James Madison (14), Auburn (17), North Dakota State (19), Iowa (20), USC (25)

-Oregon (computer- 37): I have defended Oregon's resume despite miserably failing the eye test all year, and they finally put me out of my misery. They still have 3 quality wins, over Boise State, USC, and Nebraska, but none are great wins, and the 3 losses are unrankable now. But if they beat Northwestern somehow we may be right back here. They are still the best 3 loss team by far.
-Auburn (computer- 46): Auburn has a quality win over Georgia, but 3 losses. Last week Baylor was considered a quality win but that's no more, which will hurt them down the stretch. But like Oregon, if they beat Ole Miss we may be having this conversation again.
-North Dakota State (computer- 26): They have looked good most of the year, and have a quality win over Air Force, but taking a 2nd loss is the end for them.
-Iowa (computer- 41): This team is disgusting. They have a quality win over Michigan, but the loss to Minnesota is really bad.
-USC (computer- 33): No quality wins, and the blowout loss to Wisconsin sends them tumbling. They also have 3 close wins against bad teams that look bad.

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Other teams of note:

-Oklahoma (computer- 34): They have 2 quality wins over New Mexico and Texas, but the 3 losses are rough, and the Michigan loss specifically will hold them down.
-Nebraska (computer- 30): No quality wins and the Oregon loss is looking rougher
-Liberty (computer- 24): Same story as last week. They only have the 1 loss to JMU, but their best win is Coastal Carolina, who is 2-5 and 112 in the computer.

Rank Team Reason
1 Miami Hurricanes Miami finds their way to #1, but mostly by default cause everyone else is losing. They have a quality win over Wake Forest, but nothing else.

Honestly alone in bucket A
Bucket B ↓
2 BYU Cougars BYU has two great wins over Notre Dame and Arizona. The loss to UCF hurts, but their wins are among the best anyone has, putting them at the top of the bucket.
3 Kentucky Wildcats Kentucky is going to be a fun team to rank down the stretch. They have 3 quality wins, LSU, South Carolina, and Oklahoma. The latter 2 which are going to drop in and out of quality win consideration, which will dramatically alter Kentucky's resume on a weekly basis. The blowout loss to Alabama will also be fun if they drop a game and fall into the 2 loss SEC shit show. 3 quality wins lands them 2nd in the bucket
4 Ohio State Buckeyes Quality wins over Iowa and Indiana are good, and the head to head over Indiana keeps them top 4.
5 Indiana Hoosiers Indiana has the most quality wins of any team, with wins over North Texas, Northwestern, Nebraska, and Michigan. Only 1 of those wins is a top 25 team though, and the loss to Ohio State keeps them at 5 for now.
6 UCLA Bruins Undefeated but hasn't looked great, but they have quality wins over Wisconsin and Oregon, which are better than what Utah has for now. Both UCLA and Utah are below some 1 loss teams because their schedules have both been very weak.
7 Utah Utes Utah finally collects a quality win over Houston, but its only 1 win so they'll remain below UCLA.

Bucket C ↓
8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Notre dame starts a very weird bucket of 1 loss teams. Their win over Wisconsin is a quality win again, but that's their only one. Loss to BYU is by far the best of the bucket.
9 Arizona Wildcats Arizona has a quality win over Cincinnati, and played decent against BYU.
10 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia has 2 quality wins over Oklahoma and Alabama, but their loss to Auburn is significantly worse than the teams above them.
11 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Wake Forest launches into the rankings thanks to Louisville being considered a quality win finally. But it's all they have, and their blowout loss to Miami is fine but not great.
12 Texas Tech Red Raiders Texas Tech has quality wins over Oregon State and Houston, but the not very close loss to Cincinnati is rough, and the worst of the bucket by far.

Bucket D ↓
13 Florida Gators Florida kicks off Bucket E with 3 quality wins, over Auburn, Ole Miss, and Texas. The losses to Missouri and South Carolina are rough but the head to head over Texas gets them the top of the bucket.
14 Texas Longhorns Texas has 4 quality wins, their over Ohio State, UTSA, and Tennessee, and Ole Miss. The wins are better than Florida's, but the head to head result keeps them lower.
15 Houston Cougars Houston rounds out bucket E with 3 quality wins of their own over Oregon State, UCF, and Oklahoma State. These are by far the worst of the bucket, but their losses to Texas Tech and Utah are the best.

Bucket E ↓
16 Tennessee Volunteers Tennessee is the best of Bucket E largely thanks to their win over Alabama, they have another quality win over Auburn. But the loss to South Carolina dragged them out of the top 10
17 Alabama Crimson Tide Alabama has the best wins of the bucket, over Kentucky and South Carolina, and their losses to Georgia and Tennessee are good losses.
18 Ole Miss Rebels Ole Miss has 2 quality wins, over Louisville and LSU. Their losses to Florida and Texas will hold them firmly outside the playoff picture though.
19 LSU Tigers LSU picks up a quality win over Auburn, and now Louisiana Tech counts as one as well. Their losses to Ole Miss and Kentucky are okay, but they'll need to pick up more quality wins.
20 Wisconsin Badgers Wisconsin is a very weird team. They have losses to Notre Dame and UCLA, which are good teams, but neither was close. They did pick up a quality win over USC this week.
21 Boise State Broncos Boise's only quality win is Memphis, who got themselves back to quality win consideration this week. But the loss to Oregon looks worse by the week.
22 Northwestern Wildcats Northwestern lacks any quality wins, but their only loss was a close one to Indiana.

Bucket F ↓
23 Cincinnati Bearcats Cincinnati gets ranked for the first time since week 4 with a huge win over Texas Tech. It is their only quality win, but the best of the bucket. The loss to Arizona is fine, but the West Virginia loss is bad.
24 SMU Mustangs SMU lacks any quality wins, and their loss to Louisville is significantly worse than Northwestern's. Very weird team to place, and this is the first time that I have ranked them all year due to the lack of quality wins.
25 Oklahoma State Cowboys Oklahoma State finds themselves ranked again. The loss to Tulsa is the worst of any tanked team. But they have two quality wins over Oregon and UCF. At this point every team has at least 1 bad loss, and their wins are better than the teams behind them.

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