How the fan poll works

Every ballot ranks 25 teams. A first-place vote is worth 25 points, second is worth 24, and so on down to 25th, which is worth 1. Add up every ballot and the totals are the poll.

Ties break first on the number of first-place votes, then on average rank across the ballots that included the team.

Each device gets one ballot per week. You can edit it as often as you like right up until voting locks — only the final version counts, and it counts exactly once.

No account, no email, no sign-up. You can add a display name to your ballot if you want to be credited when you share it; leave it blank and it stays anonymous.

Once a week's poll locks, every game those 25 teams play becomes that week's slate. Pick a winner in each one. Games lock individually at their own kickoff, so there's no single deadline — a Saturday night game stays open all day.

The pick'em needs a free account, unlike voting. A season record and a group table have to know you on whatever phone you pick up, and a cookie can't do that. Signing in is with Google and takes a tap.

Upsets are worth more. A correct pick pays:

• 1 point — a ranked team beats an unranked one
• 2 points — the higher-ranked of two Top 25 teams wins
• 3 points — the lower-ranked of two Top 25 teams wins
• 4 points — an unranked team beats a team ranked 11th to 25th
• 5 points — an unranked team beats a Top 10 team

Rankings come from that week's People's Poll — the one you helped vote on. A tie is thrown out and scores nothing for anyone, and a week you don't pick simply doesn't count rather than scoring zero. Games against non-FBS opponents are left off the slate.

The standings update as ballots come in, so the poll is never a black box — you can watch it move all week. When voting locks, the result is published as that week's poll and becomes the baseline the next week's trend is measured against.

Because the count is live, your ballot starts prefilled from the current fan poll rather than from an empty list. Reorder it, drop teams, add your own — it's a starting point, not a suggestion.

Every regular week opens Monday at 10:00 AM ET and closes Thursday at 11:59 PM ET. That gives you about two and a half days to rank, argue and change your mind.

Voting is then closed from Friday through Sunday, while the games that decide next week's poll are actually played. The result of the week you just voted on is published in that gap.

The preseason is the exception: it's a single long window open through the summer, closing the Thursday before the season's first games.

Every time above is US Eastern, and the deadline is shown on the home page as a live countdown with the exact closing date beneath it. A ballot submitted after the lock doesn't count toward that week — the next window opens the following Monday.