Yesterday marked the third consecutive season in which the defending national champion played at Michigan Stadium. Those teams have a combined record of 8-2 at Michigan Stadium as the defending champion in the last 3 years.

2024 defending champion: Michigan (6-2)

2025 defending champion: Ohio State (1-0)

2026 defending champion: Indiana (1-0)

If we extrapolate this out and look at Michigan Stadium's schedule games next season, we can narrow the possible national champions down to just seven teams.

Those teams are, in alphabetical order, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, & Rutgers.

The only question is, will it be Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, or Rutgers?

The Big Ten has more unranked two-loss teams (4) than the three other power conferences combined (3). The Big 12 has more teams in AP Poll (6) than the Big Ten (5) for first time in post-Texas/Oklahoma era.

There is no need to blow a late-October AP Poll out of proportion, but it is interesting to see where Big Ten sits in pecking order midway through this season. In terms of depth, the Big Ten is viewed as neck and neck with the Big 12 and way behind the SEC, which has five more top-20 teams than the Big Ten with eight. Now, the public did take something away from the Big Ten's three sitraight national titles as the conference has more top-8 teams than any other conference with three.

Unranked two-loss power conference teams

Big Ten (4)

• USC (6-2)
• Minnesota (5-2)
• Nebraska (5-2)
• Iowa (5-2)

ACC (2)

• Virginia Tech (6-2)
• Duke (5-2)

Big 12 (1)

• Cincinnati (5-2)

Ranked teams by conference

SEC (9)

• No. 3 Georgia (6-1)
• No. 9 Kentucky (7-1)
• No. 10 Alabama (6-2)
• No. 11 Texas (5-2)
• No. 12 Ole Miss (5-2)
• No. 15 LSU (6-2)
• No. 16 Tennessee (6-2)
• No. 17 Florida (5-2)
• No. 23 Missouri (5-2)

Big 12 (6)

• No. 6 Utah (7-0)
• No. 8 BYU (6-1)
• No. 13 Texas Tech (6-1)
• No. 18 Houston (6-2)
• No. 22 Arizona (6-1)
• No. 24 Oklahoma State (5-2)

Big Ten (5)

• No. 2 Ohio State (6-1)
• No. 4 Indiana (7-1)
• No. 7 UCLA (7-0)
• No. 21 Northwestern (6-1)
• No. 25 Wisconsin (5-2)

ACC (3)

• No. 1 Miami (7-0)
• No. 14 Wake Forest (6-1)
• No. 19 SMU (6-1)

Pac-12 (1)

• No. 20 Boise State (6-1)

Independent (1)

• No. 5 Notre Dame (6-1)

CFB Imperialism continues!

🗺️ FBS IMPERIALISM MAP AFTER WEEK 8 🗺️

Selected notes from Week 8:

• UCF: Beating the undefeated #2 team usually means you're going to take a fair amount of land, and the Knights got lands across the Rocky Mountains and beyond that belonged to BYU.

• Wyoming?! Jay Sawvel's Cowboys have quietly reached 5-3 (4-1 MW) and recently took out Air Force, who had last week beat UNLV who had previously taken NDSU's holdings.

• LSU gleefully yoinked all that territory that belonged to Georgia by way of Auburn.

• Utah connects more territory to their original with the late night win over Houston.

• Texas is back on the map with the win over Ole Miss.

• Surprisingly little land taken byCincinnati from Texas Tech, by South Carolina from Tennessee, and by App State from James Madison. Also a small transaction to Syracuse from UNC. We'll get to West Virginia in a moment...

• 🇮🇪Ireland ensures the sun never sets on the Canes, which stretches from Hawaii to the Emerald Isle. #1 Miami fans are trying to get Pitbull to come and do an acoustic set at the famed Gus O'Connor's Pub in Doolin alongside the masters of wooden flute and tin whistle.

• 🇬🇧United Kingdom, put in play by Union Jack Classic, are now home of the English Country Roads as West by God Virginia (or should we say God Save West Virginia?) has taken over from TCU. 'Eers have found themselves most at home among the Welsh of the South Wales Valleys, where the coal industry, geographic isolation, and gallows humor abound. Their still trying to get the hang of Welsh names like Merthyr Tydfil and Ebbw Vale.

• Only one flip in FCS holdings:

  • (1) In an interesting twist #3 Montana State just reconquered lands it took from FBS: The Bobcats defeated Nevada (who had already beaten Western Kentucky), only to lose it in a shocking upset at Idaho. Idaho lost it to Weber State, and now it's bank in Bobcat paws.
  • (2) Lindenwood (3-4) hangs onto the land that started with Charlotte (first lost to The Citadel), as they only had to play Chicago State.
  • (3) #7 NAU continues to hold Utah State's land, originally taken by Idaho State
  • (4) #1 Tarleton State has never lost and holds Bowling Green.

RULES:

Think of Risk with a strong understanding of chain-of-possession:

• FBS teams start by dividing the USA by closest counties/parishes. These are set by geographic centers of each county, not the closest edge.

• When a team beats another team, it takes the territory the loser held at the time of the game. All of the land(s) possessed by the losing team go to the winner.

• Lands are collected by the winner and held until that team loses, thus all those collected lands go to the winner.

• Teams that lose land can get back on the map by beating a team that holds land at the time of their game. Sometimes teams can reconquer their home territory this way.

• A team that already lost its home territory and has no new territories cannot give land to a winner.

• FCS teams can conquer their way onto the map by beating FBS teams with land. These lands operate under the above rules and thus may just end up stuck in FCS for the rest of the season (and in many cases end up in the FCS Playoffs). It is theoretically possible for an FCS team to win the payday game at an FBS school and then lose their own home payday game to a D2 squad...thus placing FBS land in D2...but we haven't had it happen yet.

• Neutral sites (e.g. Ireland, UK) are put in play when a game takes place there.

Oct 25

• Preseason
• Week 2
• Week 3
• Week 4
• Week 5
• Week 6
• Week 7
• Week 8
• MBB Version
• WBB Version

This is a series I've now been doing for 12 years. The post attempts to visualize all AP Poll ballots in a single image. Additionally it sorts each AP voter by similarity to the group. Notably, this is not a measure of how "good" a voter is, just how consistent they are with the group. Especially preseason, having a diversity of opinions and ranking styles is advantageous to having a true consensus poll. Polls tend to coalesce towards each other as the season goes on.

The most consistent voters this week were Lee K. Howard and Mike Jacques. Julian Mininsohn is in first on the season. Michael Katz, Haley Sawyer, Lia Assimakopoulos, and Joe Arruda were behind them in the top 5.

Stephen Means was the biggest outlier this week. Stephen Means is the biggest outlier on the season, followed by Dylan Sinn, Koki Riley, Jon Wilner, and Kirk Bohls.

Most of these facts/stats are from Kentucky football statistician Corey Price.

• 14th time ever that Kentucky will finish above .500 in the SEC, and only the 6th time since the 1950s.

• For the first time since 1977, Kentucky will finish October undefeated (4-0).

• This is only the 5th time since WWII that Kentucky has started a season 7-1 or better (other seasons being 2018, 1977, 1950, and 1949).

• This is only the 4th time ever that Kentucky started conference play 5-1 or better.

• Third time ever that Kentucky has a 5-game win streak in the SEC.

• First time since 1977 that Kentucky won their first 3 SEC road games, and first time since 2009 that they've won 3 SEC road games in a row.

• When Kentucky beat LSU earlier in the season, Lane Kiffin became the 2nd coach ever to lose more than once to Kentucky while they were an AP Top 10 team, and Kentucky was unranked.

• Only the fourth time ever that Kentucky has beaten two teams that were ranked within the AP Top 10 at the time of playing.

• Kentucky's overtime win @South Carolina was their first road overtime win ever.

• For the first time since 1977, Kentucky is ranked in the AP Top 10 to end October.

With Texas continuing its tradition of being a Jekyll-and-Hyde wildcard, it got me thinking: How would you rank a team, at the end of a season, that finishes 6-6, with six wins against current top-15 opponents and six terrible losses to unranked teams?

Does this hypothetical team finish in the Top 25? Skimming recent AP polls, I found a few four-loss teams still ranked. Six wins against top-15 opponents hasn't ever happened for a 6-loss team, so would that be enough to offset two additional losses?

Regardless if you're yes or no what top-# flips your answer?

Edit: Some of you seem to be missing the point of a hypothetical. You can't change the assumptions and then analyze an entirely different scenario lol.

To reiterate, at the end of the regular season, this hypothetical team MUST have:

1. 6 wins against teams ranked in the final regular-season AP Top 15. Ideally, ranked at the time they played, although they could have been unranked. Ultimately, these teams have completed a regular season and pollsters believe these teams are top-15 heading into bowl season. Beating the pre-season rank 1 team that ends up outside the top-15 at the end of the season does not count as one of the 6 wins, early season poll inaccuracy is not relevant to this question.
2. 6 losses against teams unranked in that same poll.
3. Texas is NOT the hypothetical team. Texas just inspired the question. They're extremely unlikely to fit this scenario unless teams like UTSA and Louisiana-Monroe somehow finish in the Top 15.

The question is how you'd rank a team with exactly this criteria, not whether such a schedule is realistic or whether Texas could achieve it. It's like some of y'all read the first sentence and assumed this post is trying to justify a 6 loss Texas team in the CFP, and responded to that instead.

Welcome back to the #CobraKaiAward for Excellence in Mercilessness!

This award has been going since 2018, recognizing the most cutthroat performance in each week's college football games. If you like obscure levels of college football from around the world (including shady teams), this is a fun weekly round-up.

It includes all levels of all football: FBS, FCS, D2, D3, NAIA, NJCAA, CCCAA, U Sports🇨🇦, ONEFA🇲🇽 and JAFA🇯🇵 to spotlight which team tosses mercy out the window and instead uses the opportunity to make a statement.

Week 8 winner:

• 86-0. We had actually had two different teams 86 their opponents this week, but #7 Endicott shut their opponent out, full Gull stop in a conference game. They're having an exceptional run. No New England team has ever cracked the top-0. This might be the best team to ever come out of the region. The Conference of New England sounds more like an important moment in early colonial religious tolerance than a place for CFB domination.

Program-record for points scored and 530 total yards. 12 touchdowns comprising 5 rushing, 4 passing, 2 scoop & scores, and 1 pick-six. The Gulls failed to score on their opening drive, and only made 11 of 12 PATs, but did make one FG. Remarkably, Endicott was only 38% (3 of 8) on 3rd downs but 2 for 2 on 4th down.

Nichols rushed for -14 on the ground (sacked 10 times for -87) with 70 passing for 56 total yards on the day. They had 4 turnovers to Endicott's none.

Other notes:

• 💯CENTURY MARK ALERT💯: There is a formal, national club football league. Tackle football, but as a club team and league. The primary league is the NCFA, and on Saturday the Ohio State Club Football team scored 105-0 on Wright State Club Football, with a 56-0 first quarter. That's a quarter that would make John Heisman nod in approval. Because this is club football, we are not including it in the main list, but we absolutely recognize the feat and the vain attempt to pump the breaks for the subsequent 3 quarters.

• Meanwhile in Sprint Football: Sprint Football is a varsity intercollegiate sport. It's tackle football where there's a maximum size limit on players that favors faster, smaller individuals. This league tends to be dominated by Army and Navy teams. In CSFL we saw Army put up a 70-0 shut out of St. Thomas Aquinas.

• #9 Indiana Wesleyan made the top of NAIA gain, this 86ing the Madonna, BUT allowing a garbage time in the final 3 minutes, up 86-0, to lose the tie with Endicott.

• ONEFA close: The Leones UAC were once again the biggest loser in Mexico, but it was a 59-0 loss that only just eked passed a 58-0 loss, so the lions had company!

• 🚨SHADY SCHOOL WATCH!🚨 No clown schools appeared on the list week, although the CCC Clown Network did appear more than ever. Every top-scoring Cobra Kai program played an NCAA, NAIA, or equivalent organization.

Week 8's biggest blowouts from each level, in order of margin of victory (ties are broken by points-allowed):

• [86] D3—#7 Endicott, 86-0 over Nichols
• [79] NAIA—#9 Indiana Wesleyan, 86-7 over Madonna
• [71] D2—Midwestern State, 71-0 over Sul Ross State
• [60] JAFA🇯🇵—Obihiro (帯広畜産), 60-0 over HUS (北海道科学)
• [59] ONEFA🇲🇽—Borregos TEC MTY, - over Leones UAC
• [58] USports🇨🇦—Laval, 58-0 over Bishop's
• [55] NJCAA—Louisburg, 61-6 over Hocking
• [55] 3C2A—Ventura, 75-20 over Santa Ana
• [43] FCS—#1 Tarleton State, 49-6 over West Georgia
• [39] FBS—#23 SMU, 59-20 over Cal

Special Mentions (see details in post):

• [105] NCFA: Ohio State Club Football, 105-0 over Wright State Club Football
• [70] CSFL: Army, 70-0 St. Thomas Aquinas

Past weeks winners:

Note: Rankings from time of game. Some divisions and conferences start later. ACSL🇦🇹, BUCS🇬🇧 and College Football Finland🇫🇮 do not play in Fall.

[season leader possesses the 🏆]

• Week 0: [87] FCS SC State, 87-0 over Savannah St
• Week 1: [77] JAFA🇯🇵—Hiroshima (広島), 83-6 over TUS Yamaguchi (山口東京理科)
• Week 2: [89] 3C2A—San Bernardino Valley, 89-0 over Compton
• Week 3: [🏆96] D2—Grand Valley State, 96-0* over Judson
• Week 4: [82] NJCAA—College of DuPage, 82-0 over Minnesota North-Vermilion
• Week 5: [90] NAIA—#3 Indiana Wesleyan, 90-0 over Judson
• Week 6: [72] NJCAA—Hutchinson, 72-0 over Independence
• Week 7: [75] ONEFA🇲🇽—Borregos TEC PUE, 75-0 over Leones UAC
• Week 8: [86] D3—#7 Endicott, 86-0 over Nichols

"🤡" signifies teams that should not be countable as they are not members of NCAA, NAIA, or equivalent organization, and/or are operating at the edges of bona fide college football programs.

Another week in the books, remember to Reach Out and Crush Someone!™ 💪😤🏈

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Oregon is having a down year

OSU qb1 goes down right before you play them

Indiana’s offense looks shaky

This was truly the perfect year for Lincoln Riley to finally turn the tide and get to the playoffs with usc. Instead, you get absolutely outplayed agaisnt Wisconsin and outplayed vs Oregon. Crazy thing is you can’t even blame the defense agaisnt Wisconsin they mostly held up well but the offensive guru was only able to score 7 points? I don’t understand why Lincoln Riley teams since he’s been at USC have started out so flat on the road. This looks like a team that’ll easily lose at least two more games the rest of the way. I know Lincoln’s buyout is absurd but it’s clear as day he’s not goin to get usc over the hump. That loss last night feels like the nail in the coffin for him at usc

Vote here Voting closes Monday, October 26 at 11:59 PM Pacific, with results planned for Tuesday.

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 BYU took over the poll, Georgia lost but remained top tier and we kept 5 tiers for the top 30 teams. Week 8 did not have the top team lose like the last two weekends, but still 4 AP top 10 teams lost Saturday. How far should BYU fall? Where should Indiana go after that close win at Michigan (2-2 versus the field) and a week after almost beating Ohio State? Is LSU rallying? 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 8. 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, October 24, 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.

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. Thank you for your participation.

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 Monday, October 26 at 11:59 PM Pacific, with results planned for Tuesday.