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Justanother_0 Ballot for 2026 Week 9

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 25, 2026, 1:06 p.m.

Overall Rationale: I only consider the top half of each Power Four conference (plus the independents if they perform well enough), along with who I believe to be the best teams from the Group of Six in that given week. I then sort the teams by conference, ranking each team from best to worst within their own conference. The best of the G6 are all grouped into the same set for determining who the best among them are. The independents are also sorted into their own group as well. Finally, I use the six groups made (four P4 conference top 8's, 1 group for the best of the G6, 1 group for the independents) to create the top 25. Any teams absent that I think need explanation will be talked about in the [Notable Omissions] category below.

This is a resume first ballot. While the general vibes of a team are somewhat considered. What a team has accomplished matters more than their talent profile or their coaching staff (not to say that a team’s other stats or intangibles are irrelevant).

Notable Omissions:

[Mizzou] was on bye and lost badly to the last SEC team I had ranked.

[Minnesota] lost to Purdue, kinda kills their resume even with the Iowa win.

[Iowa]'s best win is arguably Iowa State. If you watched the Cyclones at all this year, you would know that this is the furthest thing from a quality win.

[Tennessee] really had me fooled last week into thinking they figured it out on offense.

[LSU] kinda got lost in the shuffle of upsets, resulting in them falling out of the ballot after a reassessment of their resume.

[Oregon State] Unfortunately does not have a quality win to hang their hat on, only quality losses to point to as evidence of a quality team (just ignore their defense)


Conference Representation:

ACC: 4

XII: 7

B1G: 5

SEC: 6

PAC 12: 1

MW: 1

Go listen to some Unprocessed.

Thank you for reading!

Rank Team Reason
1 Miami Hurricanes Kinda hard to dispute this right now, especially with BYU getting pantsed by the Knights. Their offense is gonna make a mess out of anybody they play, though I worry that their defense is gonna be something that we point to come February as either the reason they couldn't win it all, or the reason why they missed the ACC title game altogether after pulling a Cristobal Classic.
2 Utah Utes A huge win at home over Houston, along with their rivals getting embarrassed, jumps Utah up the ballot dramatically. Just don't let the curse of #2 get to you :)
3 Ohio State Buckeyes A reassessment of the Buckeye's resume has me dropping them a bit despite them being on a Bye week. If Texas were undefeated they'd still be my number one, but unfortunately Texas has been all over the place this year. I don't anticipate these guys staying here long, and in fact I have serious concerns about them reaching Indianapolis, but for now they have the win over Indiana to rest on.
4 Kentucky Wildcats If it weren't for Tennessee failing to uphold their end of the bargain, gameday would've been heading to Knoxville for a battle that would've defined the race to Atlanta. The fact that the wildcats could possibly be #1 in a few weeks with some help is insanity to me.
5 UCLA Bruins The weakest resume of the remaining undefeated teams, but at the same time I can't deny how good the Bruins have been this year.
6 Indiana Hoosiers They escape Michigan after one of the worst games of football ever put to national television. Still 7-1 while being a footstep away from being undefeated.
7 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Quality loss to Miami plus handling business through their weaker schedule, not much else to note.
8 BYU Cougars The ND win and the fact that the game had to be settled in 2OT saves the Cougars from falling as far as Georgia did when they lost to Auburn. Good thing they host one of the worst teams in the Big XII next week as a get-right game.
9 Georgia Bulldogs On Bye, second best win is Oklahoma (???), so no change
10 Arizona Wildcats One loss to BYU, but their best win is probably Cincinnati
11 Northwestern Wildcats Still have no clue what to make of this team. Only one loss to Indiana, but at the same time they lack a quality win for the resume.
12 Alabama Crimson Tide Two losses, but thorough dismantling to most of their opponents.
13 Notre Dame Fighting Irish On Bye, even with Wisconsin winning, there's not much to change
14 Texas Tech Red Raiders Yikes
15 Boise State Broncos Best in the G6, really should've beaten Oregon. Secondary is a mess but it's whatever.
16 Florida Gators Meet Potential Team!

Seriously though, I don't have a good reason to leave these guys out.
17 SMU Mustangs Only the one loss to Lousiville (not good), but otherwise undefeated.
18 Houston Cougars Two losses to quality opponents, best win is Oklahoma State. Still a very good team, they just need some more wins.
19 Texas Longhorns I give up trying to gauge this team.
20 Wisconsin Badgers While USC is definetly not a good team, it is the best win that Wisconsin has all year, and it's good enough to beat the resume's of the other 2 loss teams on this list.
21 Cincinnati Bearcats The Bearcats' stay in my ballot will likely be brief given their upcoming schedule.
22 Ole Miss Rebels When they win. they do so confidently

When they lose, they do so like an FCS opponent.
23 New Mexico Lobos Huge win over NDSU and JMU taking a loss gets the Lobos into my ballot.
24 Virginia Tech Hokies No good wins, a bad loss to Cal, but still 5-2
25 Oklahoma State Cowboys The Oregon win does just enough to keep the Cowboys above water.

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