Reported Analysis · 2026 Week 6
Georgia Nearly Sweeps No. 1 as Texas Falls on Every AP Ballot
Voters agreed closely on the new leader. Texas’s destination was more divided, with placements from third to 15th and a one-point gap behind Alabama.
Georgia First-Place VotesNo. 2 → No. 1
Texas First-Place VotesNo. 1 → No. 7
Georgia replaced Texas at No. 1 with 66 of 70 first-place votes in the October 11 AP poll. Every voter lowered Texas, but the agreement on its fall was much stronger than the agreement on its destination: the Longhorns landed anywhere from third to 15th.
The teams arrived at the poll through separate three-point games on October 10. Georgia won 20–17 at Alabama, while Texas lost 27–24 to Oklahoma. The resulting ballots show an almost complete agreement on the new leader and a much wider range of judgments about the former one.
Georgia Finished Five Points From a Perfect Poll
Georgia increased from six first-place votes to 66, and from 1,647 points to 1,745. With 70 voters and 25 points available for first place, the maximum was 1,750. Three second-place votes each left one point below that maximum; one third-place vote left two. Together, they account for the five-point shortfall.
| Voter | No. 1 | Georgia |
|---|---|---|
| Alex Taylor | Miami | No. 2 |
| Bob Ballou | Indiana | No. 3 |
| Brian Howell | Notre Dame | No. 2 |
| Creg Stephenson | Miami | No. 2 |
The move included almost everyone who had put Texas first. Of those 61 voters, 60 now chose Georgia and one chose Notre Dame. Across the entire panel, 63 raised Georgia and seven left it at the same position; nobody lowered it.
Every Voter Lowered Texas, but 27 Kept It in the Top 5
Texas’s 1,737 points in the previous poll reflected 61 first-place votes, six seconds, two thirds and one fourth. All 70 voters had it in their Top 4. The new poll removed every first-place vote and reduced its total by 366 points, to 1,371.
| Ballot Position | Voters |
|---|---|
| No. 3–5 | 27 |
| No. 6–10 | 39 |
| No. 11–15 | 4 |
Most voters moved Texas out of their Top 5, but only four moved it outside their Top 10. Its aggregate No. 7 sits within that range; just 10 voters placed it exactly seventh.
Alabama’s One-Point Edge Was Not a Majority Preference
The closest comparison was with Alabama, which remained sixth at 1,372 points. Texas finished just one point behind, even though 36 voters ranked Texas above Alabama and 34 ranked Alabama above Texas.
AP points count the size of those placement differences as well as their direction. Because all 70 voters ranked both teams, the number of places separating them on each ballot translates directly into a point difference. The 34 ballots favoring Alabama supplied a combined advantage of 91 places; the 36 favoring Texas supplied 90. Alabama’s larger combined margin outweighed Texas’s two-voter preference edge.
That narrow result gives Texas’s six-place fall a more precise meaning. Georgia had a nearly unanimous claim on first place, while Texas remained a Top 5 team for 27 voters and a Top 10 team for 66. The former leader lost support everywhere, but its No. 7 finish came from widely differing placements and a one-point boundary with Alabama.
Sources & Methodology
Poll Behavior’s licensed October 4 and October 11 AP football records contain the same 70 complete voter ballots. Comparisons match voter IDs across both editions. AP points equal 26 minus the submitted rank; an omitted team earns zero points and has no numbered rank. Figures describe these editions, not later ballots.
Georgia’s official postgame notes and Texas’s official Oklahoma box score establish the October 10 game results. First-place choices and the four named ballots are checked against the submitted lists. The former-Texas-first comparison uses only the 61 voters who ranked Texas first on October 4.
The Alabama/Texas comparison uses all 70 ballots, each including both teams. Placement margins are summed separately for ballots favoring each team; 91 minus 90 equals the one-point aggregate edge. This is an explanation of observed AP scoring, not a reconstructed ballot or a head-to-head game result.