UCLA kept climbing in the national polls after handling Minnesota 34-20, and the Bruins are now sitting at No. 4 in both the AP Poll and the USA Today Coaches Poll.
Miami’s loss to Notre Dame opened the door in the AP rankings, and UCLA took full advantage. In the Coaches Poll, the Bruins passed idle Indiana to reach the same spot. That makes UCLA the highest-ranked Big Ten team in both polls.
The rise comes with some notable history attached. UCLA’s nine wins have matched the school record for the biggest improvement from the previous season. The 1972 team under Pepper Rodgers also improved by six wins, going from two victories in 1971 to eight wins the next year.
The Bruins’ current nine-game winning streak also has a place in the record book. It is tied with the 1973 team for the fourth-best single-season winning streak in school history.
The 1997 Bruins won their first 10 games after dropping the first two, while the 1998 team won 10 straight before losses to Miami and Wisconsin. The 1946 team also ripped off 10 wins in a row before falling to Illinois in the Rose Bowl.
No UCLA team has ever won more than 10 games in a season.
At the top of the polls, Georgia is the new No. 1 in both rankings, with Utah at No. 2 and Notre Dame moving up to No. 3.
Miami dropped to fifth in the AP Poll and sixth in the Coaches Poll. Indiana stayed sixth in the AP Poll and slipped to fifth in the Coaches Poll.
Elsewhere near the top, Alabama and Texas each moved up one spot in both polls to seventh and eighth. Tennessee made the biggest jump in the top 10, climbing seven spots to No. 9 after beating Kentucky. Texas Tech moved up three spots in both polls to complete the top 10.
Other Big Ten teams also saw movement. Southern Cal climbed three spots in both polls and is now 15th in the AP Poll and 14th in the Coaches Poll.
Iowa jumped five spots to 16th in the AP Poll and 15th in the Coaches Poll. Oregon’s win over Ohio State pushed the Ducks back into the AP Poll at 18th and the Coaches Poll at 19th, while the Buckeyes fell to 21st in the AP Poll and 20th in the Coaches Poll.
Northwestern, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota all received votes in the Coaches Poll, but none of them got any in the AP Poll.
UCLA’s next game is Friday, November 13 against Illinois at the Rose Bowl. Kickoff is set for 6:00 pm PT, and the game will be shown on Fox.
In Other News...
UCLAs 9-0 Start Comes With One Concern Fans Cant Ignore
UCLAs perfect start survived a tricky road test at Minnesota, where the Bruins had to answer a late tie before pulling away to move to 9-0 for the first time since 1998. Aidan Mizell and Scooter Jackson delivered the key plays when the game tightened, giving UCLA another win that looked anything but routine and keeping the early-season momentum rolling.
Still, the Bruins left behind a few reminders that the margin gets thinner from here. Ty Dieffenbach topped 300 passing yards, but the offense also had some slow stretches and too many penalties, the kind of issues that can turn a promising run into a problem if they keep showing up in bigger games. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon Just Raised The Stakes In The Big Ten Race
UCLA has quietly turned into one of the more dangerous offensive teams in the Big Ten conversation, and the timing could not be better for a Bruins group still trying to keep its unbeaten run intact. Even without starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava, the offense has kept hitting explosive plays, stretching defenses vertically and finding enough balance on the ground to stay on schedule and stay in control.
That matters now because Michigan is staring at a different kind of test after a weekend that tightened the league race and raised the pressure around every remaining matchup. Ohio States loss to Oregon only sharpened the stakes, and if UCLA keeps rolling, the Bruins could make life very uncomfortable for Michigan in a game that suddenly feels a lot bigger than it did a few weeks ago. [Read more 🡒]
Oregon Suddenly Has A Real Opening After Wild AP Poll Chaos
The first College Football Playoff rankings brought a familiar kind of confusion, with USC landing at No. 20 even though the Trojans were rated higher in the AP Top 25. After a weekend that knocked off several top-10 teams, including Ohio State and Kentucky, the AP poll is set up for another round of movement, and USC is among the teams that should benefit from the shakeup.
For UCLA, the bigger backdrop is what all of this means in a crowded national picture. The Bruins have spent the season in the thick of the conversation as the rankings keep shifting around them, and this latest chaos only adds more intrigue to where they land when the new AP poll comes out. With conference races tightening and the top of the rankings looking increasingly unstable, every update carries real weight for a team trying to stay positioned near the front of the national chase. [Read more 🡒]