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ResearchFlaky5912 Ballot for 2026 Week 10

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Oct. 31, 2026, 11:43 p.m.

Overall Rationale: Dropped out: SMU ; Wisconsin ; OKST
Honorable Mentions: SMU ; Duke ; Louisville ; one-loss group teams

Much calmer week besides #2 going down. USC beating Ohio St makes the middle of the pack Big 10 teams look a little stronger and makes the top look a little weaker. Indiana slides a bit after needing overtime, also making the middle of the pack look better. This poll also sees 3-loss teams for the first time, at 22, 23, and 24. I expect that I'm a little high on these teams compared to consensus, but each of them has at least one impressive win, something the honorable mentions I listed above do not have.

Rank Team Reason
1 Miami Hurricanes Still the best and undefeated despite close games every week.
2 Utah Utes Another convincing win and a loss for #2 allows Utah to float up to #2 themselves.
3 UCLA Bruins Not an eye-test top 3 team, but an undefeated Big 10 team nonetheless.
4 Georgia Bulldogs Takes advantage of the Big 10 heavyweights sliding to get back into top 5.
5 BYU Cougars Same
6 Notre Dame Fighting Irish As before, limited by BYU above them. Close game keeps them at their hip.
7 Texas Tech Red Raiders Cincinnati stays in after an expected loss, preventing a slide due to bad loss.
8 Indiana Hoosiers I have felt that this team was weak all season, but never had any reason to keep them low. After needing overtime to beat Minnesota, their only loss, Ohio St, also went down, justifying a bit of a slide. Still above a 2-loss Alabama, but no longer staying ahead of the 1-loss Big 12 teams.
9 Alabama Crimson Tide
10 Kentucky Wildcats
11 Texas Longhorns
12 Ohio State Buckeyes I think that Ohio's slide should stop here. Indiana is this team's only truly good win, preventing them from being any higher. Makes sense they would find themselves right behind the team they barely lost to earlier in the season.
13 Ole Miss Rebels I flip Tennessee and Ole Miss after the latter's impressive game against Auburn. Tennessee did not have so easy a time. Plus, Louisville (unranked) and Missouri (#18) both move up, strengthening Ole Miss's resume.
14 Tennessee Volunteers I flip Tennessee and Ole Miss after the latter's impressive game against Auburn. Tennessee did not have so easy a time. Plus, Louisville (unranked) and Missouri (#18) both move up, strengthening Ole Miss's resume.
15 LSU Tigers
16 Houston Cougars
17 Wake Forest Demon Deacons After a blow-out win, the Deacons move up considerably. Virginia is a bad team (4-5), which is fitting: teams in the teens blow out bad teams occasionally. I'm still a bit low on Wake compared to the consensus because they haven't really been tested by a real opponent except for Miami, and in that game, they lost by more than UNC and FSU did combined.
18 Missouri Tigers
19 Arizona Wildcats Arizona was expected to lose to #7 in my poll, so not much of a slide here for that. The simple fact that they have two losses still causes a bit of a tumble.
20 USC Trojans I have been low on the Trojans all year, but beating Ohio St is still quite a feat. The losses to Oregon and Wisconsin are still painful, and very limiting, but a win over #12 is still one of the best wins in the country, bringing them back into the fold.
21 Iowa Hawkeyes Wisconsin is back outside the top 25, but a dominating performance against them is still impressive. The Minnesota loss doesn't look as bad now that they took #8 to overtime. The Big 10 is just a little weird this season. And to be fair, I think I was a little harsh on the Hawkeyes last week; in hindsight, they should have been maybe 24 or 25.
22 Cincinnati Bearcats I know that I am very high on Cincinnati and that my position will only get worse after this week, but I simply think they are betting than they are receiving credit for. In the first instance, I am not going to drop a team that lost to #2. Second, I think that WVU is actually a tough team. Third, a lot of other teams that would have otherwise jumped the Bearcats also lost this week (OKST, Wisconsin, SMU, Florida all had the opportunity). I expect this pick to be highly unusual.
23 South Carolina Gamecocks I bring in the gamecocks as (1) the permission structure has been expanded to allow 3-loss teams now, (2) two of their three losses are to top10 teams, (3) they did beat Florida H2H, (4) a lot of teams that could have occupied this zone lost [see above]. I think that the poll is less wonky overall with SCAR included. It justifies the placement of a lot of other teams.
24 Florida Gators Another team that barely moves after a loss. Georgia is #4, so this loss was expected, and while it was not pretty, it wasn't a blow-out (in my book) either. 3 losses is not such a ruinous place to be at this point in the season.
25 Northwestern Wildcats Northwestern losses to a struggling Oregon team. This loss in and of itself may not have been worth dropping seven spots, but Northwestern really does not have a decent win. Their best win is a terrible PSU team. I still prefer the Wildcats over teams that others have ranked (Boise St is 0-1 in power 4 matchups), but I think they belong below the 3-loss squad for lack of wins.

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