How Amie Just voted in Week 8 AP college football poll

The Top 5 matchup between Oregon and Ohio State was a one-point game. Mississippi at LSU was a four-hour battle that needed overtime. Penn State at USC needed overtime. Tennessee had to hold on to beat unranked Florida. Alabama had to hang on to beat unranked South Carolina. Illinois needed overtime to beat Purdue. Pittsburgh only beat Cal by two points. Kansas State needed a last-minute touchdown to walk out of Boulder with a win over Colorado.

Whew. What a week. How do we make sense of it all? Well, one week at a time.

There are more than 60 voters on the AP Top 25 panel. There’s at least one voter from each state that has an FBS team and a handful of national folks. For the state of Nebraska, there’s one voter.

Each week I’ll break down my ballot compared with the actual Top 25 and write on some pressing topics.

Without further ado, here’s my ballot ahead of Week 8:

1. Oregon
2. Texas
3. Penn State
4. Ohio State
5. Georgia
6. Miami
7. LSU
8. Clemson
9. Iowa State
10. Alabama
11. Notre Dame
12. Boise State
13. Texas A&M
14. Tennessee
15. BYU
16. Indiana
17. Mississippi
18. Kansas State
19. Missouri
20. Army
21. Illinois
22. Pittsburgh
23. Nebraska
24. SMU
25. Oklahoma

And here’s the actual AP Top 25 for Week 7.

1. Texas
2. Oregon
3. Penn State
4. Ohio State
5. Georgia
6. Miami
7. Alabama
8. LSU
9. Iowa State
10. Clemson
11. Tennessee
12. Notre Dame
13. BYU
14. Texas A&M
15. Boise State
16. Indiana
17. Kansas State
18. Mississippi
19. Missouri
20. Pittsburgh
21. SMU
22. Illinois
23. Army
24. Michigan
25. Navy

Once again, a close game between two top teams shuffles the rankings at the top. But I didn’t drop Ohio State far. Why? Because I don’t like penalizing teams for having only one loss if it’s a one-point loss to another national championship contender.

I did move Oregon up to No. 1 — which six people on the panel did. That could easily change after this next week. The task of those with ballots is to react to what the season of college football looks like at that moment, not try to predict the future.

My ballot looks a little odd compared to some. I try to leave teams with idle weeks precisely where they are. Emphasis on try. That didn’t necessarily work out last week when Texas bumped back up to No. 1 after Alabama lost to Vanderbilt. But that’s an extreme example. I kept Miami at No. 6, Texas A&M at No. 13, Nebraska at No. 23 and SMU at No. 24. Indiana didn’t stay at No. 17, moving up to No. 16, but I blame Mississippi for that.

LSU: Big rise for the Tigers after beating Mississippi in dramatic fashion on Saturday. LSU jumped five spots, the biggest jump of any team this week.

SMU: The Mustangs rose four spots to No. 21 despite not playing.

In: Army and Navy! Both of the service academies are ranked for the first time this season. Army is ranked for the first time since 2020 and Navy is ranked for the first time since 2019. Both schools are undefeated thus far. 

Mississippi: The Rebels dropped nine spots to No. 18 after losing to LSU. 

Utah: Two Ls in the last two weeks dropped the Utes out entirely.

Oklahoma: The Sooners only mustered 36 votes this week and fell out of the Top 25 after Texas cruised to an easy win in the Red River Rivalry.

There were a few quirks on my ballot this week.

Oregon at No. 1: I wasn’t the only one who did this, but it definitely wasn’t the majority opinion. Texas hasn’t had the most difficult schedule… yet. To be fair, Oregon hasn’t either, but beating Ohio State deserved some appreciation.

Ranking Nebraska: Nebraska was idle, so I wasn’t going to drop them for not playing. Michigan remained in after its bye, but I dropped them last week.

Keeping Oklahoma ranked: I went back and forth on this, but ultimately settled on keeping the Sooners at No. 25 because their losses came against Texas and Tennessee — two of the nation’s best teams.

Get ready for what should be yet another great week of college football. Here are the games I have circled.

RV Nebraska at No. 16 Indiana: Indiana’s first home sellout since 2021. Had Nebraska been ranked, it would have been Indiana’s first ranked vs. ranked game in Bloomington in front of fans since 1993. It gets the Big Noon Kickoff treatment at 11 a.m. on FOX.

No. 7 Alabama at No. 11 Tennessee: It’s time for one of these teams to change the narrative. Who’s it going to be? Both teams were beaten by unranked teams two weeks ago and played flat last week. Kickoff’s at 2:30 p.m. on ABC.

No. 24 Michigan at No. 22 Illinois: Will Michigan look better after its bye week? Will Illinois look better after escaping West Lafayette with an overtime win against Purdue? This may not have title implications, but it will have bowl implications. And ranking implications. The loser likely falls out.

No. 5 Georgia at No. 1 Texas: For all the folks saying that Texas hasn’t played any worthy adversary yet this season (it’s me, I’m folks), this is it. All eyes should be tuned to ABC at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.