Miami is back on top of the AP Top 25, and the reshuffle behind the Hurricanes was every bit as frantic as the week that produced it.
The No. 1 spot belongs to Miami for the first time since 2002, while No. 2 BYU has reached its highest ranking since its 1984 national championship season. Notre Dame and Georgia stayed inside the top five Sunday even after both took close losses, as five of the top seven teams fell in the same wild weekend - a first in the AP poll’s 90-year history.
Miami grabbed 40 of the 70 first-place votes from the media panel and sits only 22 points ahead of BYU. The Hurricanes’ rise came after they outlasted rival Florida State in double overtime to stay unbeaten. BYU, meanwhile, stunned Notre Dame at home in a 28-24 win as a 10.5-point underdog and moved to 6-0 for a third straight year.
Ohio State rounds out the top three, collecting nine first-place votes and landing well ahead of No. 4 Notre Dame and No.
5 Georgia. Texas Tech received the remaining first-place vote.
Georgia’s week at No. 1 lasted just one poll after the Bulldogs lost at home to Auburn. That made them the second No. 1 team in two weeks to fall to an unranked opponent, following Texas. Miami is now the first ACC team to sit at No. 1 since Clemson in 2020, and the first ACC program other than Clemson or Florida State to reach that spot since Florida State in 2014.
BYU’s climb carries extra weight. Since that championship season 42 years ago, the Cougars had never been higher than No. 4 and hadn’t cracked the top five since 1996.
The poll itself got turned over in a major way. Every spot in the Top 25 changed hands this week, though only two teams dropped out.
The shakeup wasn’t even more severe because Notre Dame, Georgia and No. 6 Indiana had already built strong résumés with 6-0 starts, and the losses for the Fighting Irish and Hoosiers came against top-10 opponents.
Indiana, which fell at home to Ohio State, is followed by Mississippi, Texas Tech, UCLA and Utah. Texas Tech’s rise includes the lone other first-place vote.
Some of the biggest drops came further down the rankings. Alabama’s loss at Tennessee sent the Crimson Tide tumbling seven spots to No.
- Texas took an even harder hit, sliding 12 places to No. 19 after losing at home to Florida.
Florida is back in at No. 20 after dropping out last week following consecutive lopsided losses, then going to Texas and handing the Longhorns a second straight defeat. Arizona also returned to the poll at No. 25 after an open date; the Wildcats have four straight double-digit wins since losing to BYU.
Out of the rankings went Oklahoma State, whose loss at Houston ended a three-week stay in the poll.
A few other notes stand out from the week. The last time the SEC’s highest-ranked team was behind teams from every other power conference was Dec. 3, 2023, when Alabama sat at No. 5 behind Michigan, Washington, Texas and Florida State.
The last time Nos. 1 and 2 both lost in the same regular-season week was 2017, when Alabama and Miami both went down on Thanksgiving weekend. And the last time unranked teams beat No. 1 in back-to-back weeks was 1990.
Miami gets no pause in the spotlight, either. The Hurricanes host unranked Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Elsewhere in the rankings, No. 9 UCLA has matched its highest spot since 2022, and No. 14 Houston is at its best ranking since it was No. 11 at midseason in 2016.
The SEC still leads all conferences with nine ranked teams, followed by the Big Ten with six, the Big 12 with five, the ACC with three, the Pac-12 with one and one independent. At the top of the ranked-on-ranked schedule this week: No.
7 Mississippi at No. 19 Texas.
The Rebels have steadied themselves after their 24-point loss to Florida, outscoring Vanderbilt and Missouri by a combined 83-20, while Texas is reeling and may turn to a new quarterback this week.
In Other News...
Rece Davis Turns BYU Win Into Bigger Officiating Fight
The fallout from BYUs win over Notre Dame kept moving well after the final whistle, with ESPNs Rece Davis taking aim at the officiating mistake that ended the game with the Irish out of time for one last snap. The Big 12 later acknowledged the error, saying one second should have remained on the clock and promising a review of the replay officiating process, which only added to the sense that the finish was about more than just one result.
Davis also tied the episode into a broader conversation that has been simmering around the College Football Playoff expansion debate, using the clock mishap as another example of why the sport keeps getting pulled into bigger questions about fairness and control. For BYU, the win stands, but the way it ended has ensured the discussion will linger well beyond one Saturday night. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Just Got The Statement Win Fans Dreamed About
Bear Bachmeier gave BYU the kind of all-around performance that can change the way a season feels, helping the Cougars outlast Notre Dame in a 28-24 win that should resonate well beyond one Saturday. The sophomore quarterback was effective as a passer and a runner, and the offense found another steady presence in tight end Walker Lyons, who kept showing up as a reliable target when the game tightened up.
The result pushed BYU all the way to No. 2 in the Associated Press Top 25, a sign of how much national respect the Cougars earned with the victory. For a team trying to prove it belongs in the top tier, the bigger question now is how this performance carries over, because statement wins only matter if they become part of a pattern. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Just Turned The Big 12 Race Into Something Much Bigger
A wild Saturday across college football sent the AP poll into a spin, and BYU found itself at the center of it. Five of the top seven teams lost on the same day for the first time in the history of the poll, a shakeup driven by results all over the country as Miami moved to No. 1 after a double-overtime win against Florida State and the Cougars climbed to No. 2 after upsetting Notre Dame.
The bigger picture for BYU is how much larger its season has suddenly become. What had been a strong run inside the Big 12 now comes with national relevance, especially after a slate that also saw Ohio State beat Indiana, Tennessee knock off Alabama, Florida upset Texas and Auburn topple Georgia. The rankings changed fast, and with them the spotlight on a BYU team that has turned a conference race into something far more consequential. [Read more 🡒]