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DarthYoda2594 Ballot for 2026 Week 11

Ballot Type: Human

Submitted: Nov. 8, 2026, 8:51 a.m.

Overall Rationale: Back to select team justifications this week - Overall method has evolved over the course of the year to where I value record a little more than most resume metrics and don't punish you for losing a tough game. For example, Wake beat everyone in front of them (handily) and lost to full strength Miami. I can't punish you for not beating anyone but not winning the toughest test, because if it were so easy, there would be a ton of other 1 and 2 loss teams. Furthermore, I want to avoid creating a recursive kind of ranking - if I don't punish the number of losses and rank on wins alone, we end up in a spot where the wins I'm judging on become artificially inflated. Dropped out: LSU (16), Missouri (17), Northwestern (21), Florida (22), Virginia Tech (24). New this week: Oregon (17), South Carolina (20), SMU (22), Arizona (23), New Mexico (24). Next few out, in rough order: LSU, Missouri, Clemson, Baylor, Oklahoma State, Illinois, Liberty, Louisville, Wisconsin, Northwestern

Rank Team Reason
1 Utah Utes Showed enough poise in the comeback that I can't really justify having a 1 loss team jump them. Looked good on both sides of the ball
2 Georgia Bulldogs Genuinely, how did you lose to Auburn. I can't envision them losing another game, personally
3 UCLA Bruins The ceiling seems low but the defense continues to look exceptional, innocent until proven guilty
4 Notre Dame Fighting Irish Mostly here because of the head to head ladder of ND > Miami > Wake, also see main methodology. I could see an argument for making them the exception to "you can only beat who you play" since they're the only team who really controls their own strength of schedule, but it's my method and I'm sticking to it
5 Miami Hurricanes Impressive road comeback without their best offensive player, I can't fault them too much
6 Wake Forest Demon Deacons See methodology - beat who you play and beat the shit out of them, all you can do
7 Alabama Crimson Tide Had alabama just above texas last week, I think @ LSU is stronger than @ Missouri anyway, and they looked better doing it, so no reason to change that
8 Texas Longhorns See Bama
9 Texas Tech Red Raiders Probably one of the more confusing teams - every game is close but the Houston win keeps pulling weight
10 Tennessee Volunteers Could make a case for higher, just felt like more 1 loss teams deserved it. Need one more signature win, which they still have on the schedule in LSU. Would expect them to win out and coast into the playoff, so they can work their way up on attrition.
11 Indiana Hoosiers Lower than most - OSU loss is surprisingly bad, basically all their close wins looked awful this week and they play a lot of close games when compared to a Wake or Notre Dame who are beating up their lesser opponents. Just not sold.
12 BYU Cougars Should have won the road 10 AM rivalry game. Notre Dame win improved. Could have made the case to not even punish them this much, but still kind of have to fall behind Alabama and Texas
13 Kentucky Wildcats Feels wrong having them only 3 behind Tennessee but it's an excusable road loss and they're top of the next tier down
14 Houston Cougars
15 USC Trojans
16 Iowa Hawkeyes
17 Oregon Ducks H2H on Boise (albeit different QB) - Kind of a cool foil to UCLA in the Big 10 I think, if they're the high floor / low ceiling team, Oregon is the high ceiling and low floor. Recent trend is the latter so I'll move them top of the 3 loss group.
18 Boise State Broncos As Oregon moves up, so do they.
19 Ole Miss Rebels When they play a decent to good team, they look great. When they play a great team, they look like they've never played football before. I feel like my method of not punishing elite team losses rewards them a little more than they deserve for being completely uncompetitive, but I'm sure they'll score about 50 on Oklahoma now.
20 South Carolina Gamecocks Quietly on a win streak, Tennessee win improves, Bama loss means nothing at this point. Could sneak up with attrition next week, even into playoff talk if they somehow beat Georgia.
21 Duke Blue Devils Feel like they're being underrated - keep beating up everyone
22 SMU Mustangs
23 Arizona Wildcats
24 New Mexico Lobos
25 Ohio State Buckeyes I'll keep you ranked because there aren't really better 3 loss options (only considered LSU but they haven't beat a team currently ranked and at least OSU beat Indiana). But it's bleak - the Michigan game might be unwatchable.

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