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Jakesnake42 Ballot for 2026 Week 9

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 25, 2026, 5:05 p.m.

Overall Rationale: I believe we have enough datapoints to go for an entirely resume based ranking. Overall Record, SOS, Quality Wins, and who you lost to are going to be what factor in here. It is better imo to have a higher ceiling and a lower floor aka beat top teams and get upset vs being a low ceiling team aka beat all the bad teams but don't have any quality wins. It's why a team like SMU still isn't ranked as a 1 loss P4 team.

Rank Team Reason
1 Miami Hurricanes Miami moves to #1 by virtue of being undefeated with a Top 25 alongside *some* depth in their resume. Am I sold on this team...no? But are you sold on ANYONE this year. Last WeeK: #3
2 Ohio State Buckeyes Ohio St's stays #2 on a bye week. Indiana win does most of the work. Only loss on the road to a at least good Texas team. Last Week: #2
3 UCLA Bruins UCLA is a tough team to judge, they have *solid*-ish top wins over Wisconsin and Oregon but like....it feels odd to put this team this high but hey, the way this season is going, just making it without a loss is an achievement in of itself. Last Week: #6
4 Utah Utes Late night Houston win does a ton for Utah's resume. The lack of depth is why they are a step behind Miami for now and just behind UCLA. No other wins against teams .500+. Last Week: #8
5 BYU Cougars This is where people are gonna be mad. Yeah UCF isn't a good loss but the pair of wins over ND and Arizona are VERY good for 1 loss team at this stage. As I said from the jump I respect top wins more than I hate bad losses. Last Week: #1
6 Georgia Bulldogs Georgia's resume is basically the same as BYU's with the one shaky loss but 1 less great win. Last Week: #7
7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Wisconsin beating USC the way they did does ND's resume a lot of good cause after that win their next best win is uhhh idek. Last Week: #14
8 Indiana Hoosiers I'm not sure why I was so harsh on Indiana last week when I already had Northwestern ranked....don't have a good explanation of that, Nebraska is also a solid win. Last Week: #15
9 Florida Gators HEY! Maybe that South Carolins loss isn't so bad! Maybe Florida is actually a very good team! ~~watch this be proven wrong in a week tops~~. Anyways wins over both Texas and Ole Miss hold up well. Last Week: #11
10 Texas Longhorns Big win to get back some momentum beating Ole Miss. Crazy amount of ranked wins so far makes this a Top 10 team even with 2 losses. Last Week: #13
11 Arizona Wildcats The two other B12 1 loss teams can separate out pretty easily as they have similar resumes and Arizona has the common opponent win over Cincinnati. Last Week: #18
12 Texas Tech Red Raiders Read above. Last Week: #4
13 Ole Miss Rebels Now for a slew of SEC teams that can't decide who's better than who but we'll try. Ole Miss has a pair of good wins over LSU and Missouri. Last Week: #12
14 Tennessee Volunteers Now we have our H2H train here. Tennessee beat Bama who beat Kentucky. Pretty easy work here. Tennessee's lack of depth is why they end up below Ole Miss. Last Week: #5
15 Alabama Crimson Tide Read above. Last Week: #9
16 Kentucky Wildcats Even with 1 loss, I'm not entirely sold on the Wildcats as their best win is a 1 point OT win over LSU. Good team but I can't ignore the Alabama blowout. Last Week: #10
17 Houston Cougars Houston has two close losses against the top of the B12 and a good win over a solid OkSt team. Seems clearly positioned in this 15-20 range atm. Last Week: #16
18 Cincinnati Bearcats Cincinnati is more difficult to place with their loss to WVU and getting demolished by Arizona but I do love the win over Texas Tech. Willing to reward that at this stage. Last Week: NR
19 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Louisville is like....fine? Waiting for this team to be tested again. Could easily see 10-2 with a road loss to SMU....don't think that is close to a playoff team imo. Last Week: #22
20 LSU Tigers Lost close games to higher ranked SEC teams, couple of okay wins against Auburn and Miss St. Not the most inspiring set of wins here... Last Week: #20
21 Missouri Tigers The Florida wins is DRAGGING this resume into the top 25 cause the rest of it is uhhhh not good! Last Week: NR
22 Wisconsin Badgers Dominant showing against USC is enough to sneak into this weak top 25 since they haven't done anything outrageously bad . Pair of losses to Top 10 teams. Last Week: NR
23 UTSA Roadrunners Here is our weekly G6 rep! Only loss on the year to Texas and they have a solid AAC win over USF. Last Week: NR
24 Northwestern Wildcats Have they beat anyone? No, their best win is unironically a Penn St team who hasn't won a P4 game this year. I did have to rank either this team or SMU and SMU lost to the best team who they played as well....but that team was Louisville.... Last Week: #25
25 Oklahoma State Cowboys OkSt sneaks into the final spot here as they have some solid enough wins but the Tulsa loss is why they are all the way down here. Last Week: NR

Dropped: #17 Oregon, #19 Auburn, #21 Boise State, #23 JMU, #24 Iowa

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