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d1sportsball Ballot for 2026 Week 9

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 27, 2026, 12:59 a.m.

Overall Rationale: A mix of the eye test, actual resume ranking and in almost every situation of same record teams, head to head competition. This combination of factors properly accounts for what we've seen on the field, ignoring preseason rankings and only slightly using talent composite as a measure. Quality losses can and often are better than wins, and early on it doesn't make sense to view losses more harshly. As the season goes on and more teams lose, the value of a loss against your ranking increases, but for now a 2 loss team can be better than a 1 loss team, and a 1 loss team better than an undefeated team.

** Note: Texas, Ole Miss, Missouri and Florida are apart of a 4 way circle of H2H suckage. Texas beat Ole Miss, Ole Miss beat Missouri, Missouri beat Florida and Florida beat both Texas and Ole Miss. As such, it is quite literally impossible to honor each H2H, so I took a bit of liberty here. Florida is the only team with a win over two other teams in the H2H, so they get ranked at #1 for having the highest potential. Texas comes in at #2 with how good the rest of their resume is with wins over Tennessee and Ohio State. Ole Miss is ranked at #3 for having the highest floor and having a recent domination of Missouri. Finally, Missouri is ranked last (In this case, not ranked at all) because they are, in my opinion, the weakest of the 4 teams in terms of resume and play. Not to mention, their H2H win in the circle is the second earliest, only beaten by Florida over Ole Miss (Who is saved by having the 2nd most recent win in the circle by beating Texas). **

Rank Team Reason
1 Miami Hurricanes Best undefeated team, only 1 bad week to see on their schedule
2 Ohio State Buckeyes Best 1 loss team, wait and see with the QB injury
3 Utah Utes Very good without any losses, but lacks as good of play and wins compared to OSU
4 UCLA Bruins Weaker resume and quality of play than undefeated Utah
5 Georgia Bulldogs 2nd best 1 loss team, stronger play than BYU
6 BYU Cougars H2H win over Notre Dame
7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish H2H loss to BYU
8 Indiana Hoosiers Playing very poorly, beneficiary of a very good loss and quality win over Northwestern
9 Kentucky Wildcats Keep winning close ones, but they still look good despite the games being close
10 Wake Forest Demon Deacons Dominating a very weak schedule, beneficiary of a good loss to Miami
11 Texas Tech Red Raiders Lost to a very underrated Cincinnati team, still have wins over Houston and Oregon State
12 Florida Gators ** See above, highest potential of 4 way H2H circle **
13 Texas Longhorns ** See above, best wins outside 4 way H2H circle **
14 Ole Miss Rebels ** See above, highest floor of 4 way H2H circle **
15 Arizona Wildcats Loss to BYU looks worse, but dominating win over Cincinnati looks better
16 Tennessee Volunteers H2H win over Alabama
17 Alabama Crimson Tide H2H loss to Tennessee
18 Houston Cougars 2 close losses to very good to elite Utah and Texas Tech teams, good win over Oklahoma State
19 LSU Tigers Playing extremely well, have 2 extremely good losses, but lack any good wins
20 Northwestern Wildcats Playing well, but not Wake Forest well, and have some of the weakest wins of any team in the P4
21 Oklahoma State Cowboys Terrible loss to Tulsa and Houston loss looking worse, keep playing close first halves but dominant second halves
22 SMU Mustangs Have an okay loss to Louisville and great quality of play, but weak overall opponents
23 Boise State Broncos Best team in the G6, but their quality loss to Oregon keeps getting worse along with their win over Memphis
24 Cincinnati Bearcats Finally improved their resume by beating a top 15 opponent, but ugly losses and weaker play keep them lower
25 Wisconsin Badgers Playing ugly football, but only losses are to 2 top 10 teams and their defense looks very good

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