Miami did exactly what a contender is supposed to do in the AP Top 25: win big, stay put, and keep the spotlight. After a road demolition of Clemson, the Hurricanes remained No. 4 in Sunday’s poll and picked up two first-place votes, a sign that the committee of voters is buying what Miami is selling.
Florida’s weekend went the other way in a hurry. The Gators tumbled eight spots to No. 16 after getting handled 45-17 at Missouri, one of the sharpest falls in the new rankings. That loss also wiped out the momentum from Florida’s 13-spot climb a week earlier.
Missouri was the day’s big riser. The Tigers jumped 11 places to No. 14, their highest ranking since October 2025, and posted the second-largest move of the season. That win over Florida gave Missouri the kind of jolt that changes a poll fast.
At the top, Texas kept its grip on No. 1 for a fourth straight week and heads into Saturday’s Red River Rivalry against Oklahoma still comfortably in front. The Longhorns received 61 of 70 first-place votes. Georgia stayed right behind at No. 2 after a 24-point win over Vanderbilt and collected six first-place votes, while Miami and Indiana split the remaining three.
There was some shuffling just below that. Alabama and Indiana traded places at Nos. 6 and 7.
BYU moved up to No. 8, Mississippi held at No. 9 and LSU climbed back into the top 10.
The rest of the poll had its own churn. Iowa slipped six spots to No. 20 after losing at home to Ohio State.
SMU fell to No. 24 after a shaky win over Boston College. Pittsburgh cracked the rankings at No. 25, improving to 5-0 even as quarterback Mason Heintschel was lost for the season with an ACL injury.
Kentucky dropped out after its dramatic overtime win at South Carolina.
Conference depth still favors the SEC, which has nine ranked teams. The Big Ten follows with six, the Big 12 has five, and the ACC has three, including Miami’s spot near the top.
The schedule offers no time to settle in. Georgia travels to Alabama for a heavyweight SEC matchup, and UCLA heads to Oregon in a test of early momentum. Miami, meanwhile, comes out of Week 6 exactly where it wants to be: steady, high, and still very much in the national picture.
In Other News...
Jon Sumrall Just Made Floridas Secondary Concern Even Bigger
Floridas defense left the Missouri game with more questions than answers, and the secondary is right at the center of it. The Gators gave up five touchdowns on drives that began with a punt or kickoff, a jarring jump for a unit that was supposed to have enough talent in the back end to hold up better than that. Instead, explosive plays kept putting the defense in bad spots, and the overall result made the problems look bigger than a single busted coverage or one rough quarter.
Jon Sumrall did not try to dress it up afterward, saying there are multiple issues in the secondary and no simple fix waiting to clean them up. His message was blunt enough to make the concern feel even more real: Florida needs players to win their one-on-one battles. For a defense built with highly rated talent, that is a tough place to be, and it leaves the Gators staring at a problem that goes beyond scheme and into execution. [Read more 🡒]
Floridas Ranking Hit Looks Bad But One Result May Save Them
Floridas latest result did enough damage to raise questions about where the Gators land in the next AP Top 25, especially with several ranked teams around the country also stumbling. The poll is expected to shift only modestly after a weekend in which just three teams in the rankings lost, but Floridas own situation stands out because a rough outing can look worse when the rest of the field largely holds serve.
There is still a chance the Gators avoid a deeper slide, though, because the committee of voters has a few other results to weigh, including Pittsburgh staying unbeaten and teams such as UCLA, Kentucky and Boise State adding their own wrinkles to the picture. Mississippi State and Alabama are part of the same crowded conversation too, which is what makes Floridas place in the next poll so uncertain until the new rankings are revealed. [Read more 🡒]
Jon Sumrall Just Challenged Florida's Maturity After Its First Loss
Floridas first loss of the 2026 season landed hard, and Jon Sumrall did not soften the blow afterward. The No. 8 Gators were thumped by No. 25 Missouri, 45-17, in a game that exposed problems on both sides of the ball, with the head coach pointing directly to defensive breakdowns and an offense that never got its ground game going.
Sumralls criticism went beyond scheme and execution, getting at the bigger-picture issue of maturity after a defeat that had been building for the wrong reasons. With South Carolina, Texas and Georgia next on the schedule, Florida does not have much time to let the sting linger, and the response in the coming weeks will say plenty about how this team handles its first real setback. [Read more 🡒]