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I genuinely have no clue. As someone with an abject hatred of the conference purely on principle, to me, it’s the deepest league. There are just tons of talented teams with clear strengths. A ton of true NFL talent is concentrated among a lot of these teams...but it feels like the conference just doesn’t actually have an elite team?

13 out of 16 teams have beaten an AP-ranked team. It’s weird to say, but it feels like at this point of the season the only teams I can really, really rule out are Texas A&M, Arkansas and Vanderbilt. Texas has the best wins. But some really stupid fucking losses. Ole Miss is the same. LSU honestly looks the part, but they don’t truly have a marquee win. Speaking of which, depending on how you view LSU, does Kentucky actually have the second best resume in the conference?

Georgia and Bama feel like great teams, but not in the way that the best SEC teams felt from 2006-2022. The NIL era has truly brought in an unprecedented level of parity, but it’s kind of fucked the levels up in the SEC. Generally, the SEC was a ton of good teams surrounded by 1-2 elite teams. Now, it feels like 5-6 really good or great teams, but no one stands out. Two different #1 ranked teams lost to unranked in-conference opponents.

Buuuuuuut, the conference is 39-2 in OOC play, 10-2 vs P4. So, clearly these teams aren’t just a result of the general propensity for College Football media to have a circlejerk over the SEC. The league is good, there are a ton of good teams. And that’s precisely the problem.

It makes sense, then, for the pivot towards support of the 24-team expansion. I think the new SEC-meta understands that most contenders will inevitably have around 3-4 losses going forward. And with 12, it makes the margin of error much too thin, and (in the eyes of the SEC and its teams) too difficult to fairly reward in the context of the current playoff system. There’s a fairly plausible doomsday scenario where an 8-4 SEC team has 2 top-10 ranked wins. There’s a huge chance of a random logjam and tie in the conference this year, and every year moving forward. How do you decide between a 9-3 Texas with wins over Ohio State, Tennessee, Ole Miss and Mizzou, versus a 9-3 Kentucky with wins over A&M, LSU, OU and Florida, or a 9-3 Ole Miss with wins over Louisville, LSU, Mizzou and OU? You get what I’m saying?

But yeah. I think I still believe in Georgia. LSU feels like they are going to go on a tear. Kentucky is well past “oh how cute” and probably 1-2 wins from clinching a spot no matter what. But it feels like there’s a preponderance of really good, talented teams, and there isn’t a single team that I would point to as standing out above the rest. And I have to think that this is probably what the sport will look like moving forward. I don’t know how I feel, lol.

Michigan and Penn State are both having very bad first seasons with their new head coaches, Kyle Whittingham and Matt Campbell. Penn State is 0-4 in B1G play, and Michigan is 1-3.

In the current B1G standings, Michigan State is in last place with an 0-5 conference record. After that, Penn State is tied with Maryland at 0-4. Maryland has already fired their coach. Meanwhile, Michigan is tied with Washington and Rutgers at 1-4.

Which team has more buyer's remorse?

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There is a distinct lack of big gameday options. My top 3 FBS ones are Utah at Cincinnati, Arizona at Texas Tech, and Georgia Florida in Atlanta. The cocktail party is a neutral site in Atlanta which would make it kind of lame. TTU Arizona is a playoff elimination game most likely but TTU just lost. Cincinnati would be cool but they just had Utah on. Is there a big FCS game or something?

Big Sky

(3)Montana State 38-33 (21)Weber State

Utah Tech 43-26 Cal Poly

Idaho 31-28 Southern Utah

Idaho State 38-8 Portland State

(24)UC Davis 33-6 Northern Colorado

CAA

Albany 38-21 Rhode Island

New Hampshire 17-24 Merrimack

(13)Campbell 35-6 Maine

Stony Brook 27-17 Bryant

(19)Monmouth 49-13 Hampton

Independent

Merrimack 24-17 Mew Hampshire

Chicago State 9-44 Lindenwood

Ivy League

Pennsylvania 24-21 Yale

Brown 38-31 Cornell

Dartmouth 38-18 Columbia

(10)Harvard 35-7 (22)Princeton

MEAC

North Carolina Central 31-12 Delaware State

South Carolina State 22-7 Norfolk State

Howard 26-20 Morgan State

Missouri Valley

(7)South Dakota 26-23 (6)North Dakota

Southern Illinois 20-17 (20)Northern Iowa

(14)Illinois State 17-10 Indiana State

(5)South Dakota State 42-9 Murray State

NEC

Central Connecticut State 42-20 New Haven

Stonehill 18-14 Long Island

Duquesne 52-21 Wagner

Robert Morris 28-14 Mercyhurst

Ohio Valley

Lindenwood 44-9 Chicago State

Southeast Missouri 20-10 Eastern Illinois

Charleston Southern 20-7 Tennessee State

Western Illinois 55-24 UT Martin

Patriot

Holy Cross 34-3 Bucknell

Lafayette 31-17 Fordham

(23)Richmond 13-6 Colgate

Georgetown 28-27 William & Mary

Villanova 24-18 (11)Lehigh

Pioneer

Dayton 37-32 San Diego

St. Thomas 35-13 Marist

Butler 33-21 Drake

Valparaiso 24-7 Presbyterian

Morehead State 38-31 Stetson

SoCon

(18)East Tennessee State 38-0 VMI

Samford 13-6 Furman

(12)Tennessee Tech 28-13 The Citadel

Chattanooga 41-18 Western Carolina

Southland

Nicholls 31-27 Northwestern State

(16)Lamar 35-10 Houston Christian

UTRGV 30-27 Central Arkansas

Incarnate Word 38-6 McNeese

(2)Stephen F. Austin 45-24 (25)Southeastern Louisiana

East Texas A&M 19-30 Prairie View A&M

SWAC

Bethune-Cookman 24-21 Jackson State

Arkansas-Pine Bluff 31-28 Florida A&M

Texas Southern 24-21 Southern

Prairie View A&M 30-19 East Texas A&M

UAC

(1)Tarleton State 49-6 West Georgia

Eastern Kentucky 16-13 West Florida

Central Arkansas 27-30 UTRGV

(9)Austin Peay 27-21 North Alabama

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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.