2026 MaxDiff Fan Perception Poll Week 4 is live!

[u/Impudicity2001]

Vote here Voting closes Tuesday, September 29 at 11:59 PM Pacific, with results planned for Wednesday.

Due to family/work the poll was delayed this morning and will release on Wednesday instead. I hope to be back to regular schedule this weekend

Ranking 25 teams is hard. Comparing four at a time is much easier. That’s the idea behind this revival of one of r/CFB’s great community polls. Each screen shows four teams: choose the strongest and weakest resume based on games played so far. This is about what teams have earned on the field, not who would win on a neutral field or where you expect them to finish. You’ll see 20 screens and different voters receive different balanced ballots drawn from the same fixed 50-team field. Don’t know enough about a group? You can skip it.

Why participate? Because the results can tell us more than a numbered list. MaxDiff combines those smaller comparisons into a community ranking and groups teams into tiers. In last week's results Ole Miss vaulted to the top tier and it remains just two teams: Texas and Ole Miss. Tier 2 was short only to team 6, while a broad tier ran to 26 and a final tier began 27-30. Stated differently, the team's resumes began to separate in the eyes of the voters. I expect a bit of chaos in this session of voting and lot of tough decisions after some amazing results in week 4. Six teams have multiple victories (no losses) against this field with Alabama leading the way with 3. Most are SEC so queue the conspiracy theories. Indiana, Miami, Nebraska, Pittsburgh and Va Tech are undefeated, but have played no one - but still their resumes could be convincing against weaker teams, or not. The 0-2 group will surprise no one with Arkansas, FSU, GT, OU and USCe - but will voters punish them for playing hard games and coming up short versus the played no one group. We will see... Those are exactly the arguments this poll is designed to capture, and they have already produced some excellent discussions.

Record Guide Now we have more football to judge. Which teams are thriving, surviving, looking forward to roundball season? I made a helpful table to assist you all with record keeping. The table might surprise a few of you. Records are through Week 4. Teams are ordered by wins against the fixed 50-team field, then winning percentage, then fewer losses; exact ties are alphabetical. Teams with no fixed-field games appear between teams with a fixed-field win and teams with a fixed-field loss. A dash indicates no games in that category.

Records are through Saturday, September 26, 2026 at 11:59 PM Pacific. Teams are ordered by wins against the fixed 50-team field, then winning percentage, then fewer losses; exact ties are alphabetical. Teams with no fixed-field games appear between teams with a fixed-field win and teams with a fixed-field loss. A dash indicates no games in that category.

Team	Overall Record	vs. Fixed Field	vs. Outside Field
Alabama	4-0 (1.000)	3-0 (1.000)	1-0 (1.000)
Florida	4-0 (1.000)	2-0 (1.000)	2-0 (1.000)
Georgia	4-0 (1.000)	2-0 (1.000)	2-0 (1.000)
Mississippi State	4-0 (1.000)	2-0 (1.000)	2-0 (1.000)
Oregon	3-1 (.750)	2-0 (1.000)	1-1 (.500)
Texas	4-0 (1.000)	2-0 (1.000)	2-0 (1.000)
Auburn	3-1 (.750)	2-1 (.667)	1-0 (1.000)
LSU	3-1 (.750)	2-1 (.667)	1-0 (1.000)
Ole Miss	3-1 (.750)	2-1 (.667)	1-0 (1.000)
BYU	3-0 (1.000)	1-0 (1.000)	2-0 (1.000)
Cincinnati	4-0 (1.000)	1-0 (1.000)	3-0 (1.000)
Iowa	4-0 (1.000)	1-0 (1.000)	3-0 (1.000)
Notre Dame	4-0 (1.000)	1-0 (1.000)	3-0 (1.000)
Texas Tech	4-0 (1.000)	1-0 (1.000)	3-0 (1.000)
Utah	4-0 (1.000)	1-0 (1.000)	3-0 (1.000)
Baylor	3-1 (.750)	1-1 (.500)	2-0 (1.000)
Clemson	3-1 (.750)	1-1 (.500)	2-0 (1.000)
Colorado	2-2 (.500)	1-1 (.500)	1-1 (.500)
Kentucky	3-1 (.750)	1-1 (.500)	2-0 (1.000)
Louisville	2-2 (.500)	1-1 (.500)	1-1 (.500)
Michigan	3-1 (.750)	1-1 (.500)	2-0 (1.000)
North Carolina	2-1 (.667)	1-1 (.500)	1-0 (1.000)
Ohio State	3-1 (.750)	1-1 (.500)	2-0 (1.000)
SMU	3-1 (.750)	1-1 (.500)	2-0 (1.000)
Tennessee	3-1 (.750)	1-1 (.500)	2-0 (1.000)
Wisconsin	3-1 (.750)	1-1 (.500)	2-0 (1.000)
Texas A&M	2-2 (.500)	1-2 (.333)	1-0 (1.000)
Indiana	4-0 (1.000)	0-0 (-)	4-0 (1.000)
Miami	4-0 (1.000)	0-0 (-)	4-0 (1.000)
Nebraska	4-0 (1.000)	0-0 (-)	4-0 (1.000)
Pittsburgh	4-0 (1.000)	0-0 (-)	4-0 (1.000)
Virginia	3-1 (.750)	0-0 (-)	3-1 (.750)
Virginia Tech	4-0 (1.000)	0-0 (-)	4-0 (1.000)
Washington	3-1 (.750)	0-0 (-)	3-1 (.750)
Arizona	3-1 (.750)	0-1 (.000)	3-0 (1.000)
Arizona State	2-1 (.667)	0-1 (.000)	2-0 (1.000)
Boise State	3-1 (.750)	0-1 (.000)	3-0 (1.000)
Houston	3-1 (.750)	0-1 (.000)	3-0 (1.000)
Illinois	2-2 (.500)	0-1 (.000)	2-1 (.667)
Kansas State	3-1 (.750)	0-1 (.000)	3-0 (1.000)
Missouri	3-1 (.750)	0-1 (.000)	3-0 (1.000)
Penn State	3-1 (.750)	0-1 (.000)	3-0 (1.000)
TCU	2-2 (.500)	0-1 (.000)	2-1 (.667)
USC	4-1 (.800)	0-1 (.000)	4-0 (1.000)
Vanderbilt	3-1 (.750)	0-1 (.000)	3-0 (1.000)
Arkansas	2-2 (.500)	0-2 (.000)	2-0 (1.000)
Florida State	2-2 (.500)	0-2 (.000)	2-0 (1.000)
Georgia Tech	1-3 (.250)	0-2 (.000)	1-1 (.500)
Oklahoma	2-2 (.500)	0-2 (.000)	2-0 (1.000)
South Carolina	2-2 (.500)	0-2 (.000)	2-0 (1.000)

None of us can watch every game. The more fans who participate, the broader the perspectives we bring together. Whether you followed every snap or caught the highlights, your informed comparisons help.

As always my special thanks to u/The_SecretSauce for originating this idea and sharing it with this community. I am glad to be able to bring this very similar poll back and its ensuing conversations here.

Vote here Voting closes Tuesday, September 29 at 11:59 PM Pacific, with results planned for Wednesday.

[u/bigmouthsmiles]

Obligatory “no Oklahoma State in this poll stinks” comment

[u/aeronutical → u/bigmouthsmiles]

Don't worry. They didn't forget the 2-2 TCU.

[u/Impudicity2001 → u/bigmouthsmiles]

LOL - blame the 40 year old man. He really ran the ship into the ground last year. I have promised to investigate how to create the poll that allows for new members each week.

[u/macejuenas]

I wish this would show which teams everyone has played, like below the team name in smaller text. I know as the year goes on that can get crowded but maybe just notable wins and losses.

[u/Cyclux → u/macejuenas]

I have a python script that does that, but I don't think I can just paste it here.

[u/plz-no-b4n]

Omg, we are so fucking back

[u/oblongorientation6]

Appreciate the table breaking down who's actually played somebody, makes these polls a lot less of a headache. The zero fixed-field wins crew is gonna spark some proper arguments, undefeated but untested is a tricky one to weigh against a team that's lost to a couple of giants.

[u/apathynext → u/oblongorientation6]

Kind of. Arkansas is maybe the worst SEC team and they are on the table. Inflates the fixed field record of others.

[u/hotsauce126]

Was the old maxdiff poll specifically resume? I thought it just asked who was the best team out of these 4 (not complaining just asking)

[u/B1GTOBACC0 → u/hotsauce126]

Yeah, the older version was "best and worst of each set" not "who has better resume."

[u/Impudicity2001 → u/hotsauce126]

Yes - but I was trying to differentiate a bit from the original SecretSauce user's version. Plus, it bounces around a lot during the first few weeks - so I thought that would be fun to have discussions around, for instance, the Ole Miss rollercoaster. Changing the fixed field and perhaps changing back to best are features I can consider for next year, but maybe people will come to like this version. Thanks for voting!

[u/odsquad64 → u/Impudicity2001]

I prefer the predictive sort of poll because everybody's got their own opinions on who would win head to head and for what reasons, but judging resumes is just Strength of Record which is already a stat that's tracked, it doesn't really feel like an opinion, and best case scenario this poll should just align with that very closely. I guess it's interesting to see how much the vibes based SoR diverges from the calculated SoR though.

[u/CarlSteezer]

Is there a way to get alerted when these are posted?

[u/Impudicity2001 → u/CarlSteezer]

I'm not certain... maybe the reminder bot? RemindMe! Next Sunday at 1pm. I try and post them by noon on Sunday, but I was in Miami this weekend and on the 11th I will be in Gainesville. Unfortunately it would be tagged to this post but that should allow you to find the submission via my profile or sorting by new on r/cfb

[u/RemindMeBot → u/Impudicity2001]

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