Miami shot up to the No. 1 spot in The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since 2002, riding a wave of absolute pandemonium across college football last week. BYU, sitting pretty at No. 2, earned its highest ranking since their 1984 national championship run, proving the chaos wasn’t limited to just the top spot. Even after taking Ls in close games, Notre Dame and Georgia somehow managed to hang tough in the top five. Seriously, what a wild week, right?
The Carnage Was Real: Top Teams Fell Like Dominos
College football just witnessed something we haven’t seen in the AP poll’s 90-year history: five of the top seven teams, or even five of the top eight depending on who you ask, went down in a single week! It was a bloodbath, plain and simple. Georgia, who lasted a grand total of one week at No. 1, lost at home to Auburn. That makes them the second No. 1 team in two weeks, after Texas, to get upset by an unranked opponent. Think about that for a second. Unranked teams just wrecking national title contenders!
Alabama took a seven-spot plunge down to No. 13 after losing at Tennessee, and Texas? Oh man, Texas plummeted 12 rungs all the way to No. 19 after Florida marched into their house and handed them a second straight loss. This wasn’t just some minor reshuffle, this was an earthquake, leaving behind a completely new-look Top 25 where literally every single spot has a different team.
Miami and BYU: Beneficiaries of the Bedlam
So who cashed in on all that chaos? Miami and BYU, obviously! The Hurricanes, jumping two spots, survived some insane end-of-game drama to beat rival Florida State in double overtime and stay undefeated. They snagged 40 of the 70 first-place votes, barely edging out BYU by 22 points. This is a huge deal for the ACC, too, because Miami is the first No. 1 team from their conference since Clemson in 2020. Before that, you’d have to go all the way back to Florida State in 2014 for another ACC team at the top.
Then you’ve got BYU. Talk about a thrilling win at home over Notre Dame. They went into that game as a 10.5-point underdog and came out with a 28-24 victory, pushing their record to 6-0 for the third straight year. The Cougars snatched 20 first-place votes and are 26 points ahead of Ohio State, who got nine votes themselves. Before this week, BYU hadn’t been higher than No. 4 in any poll, or even in the top five since way back in 1996. This is huge for them!
Shaking Up the Rest of the Poll
While five of the top teams lost, the wholesale shakeup in the top 10 wasn’t as extreme as you might think. Teams like Notre Dame, Georgia, and No. 6 Indiana had built up enough “capital” with their 6-0 starts that their losses, mostly to other top-10 opponents, didn’t completely torpedo them. Indiana lost at home to Ohio State, for example. Mississippi, Texas Tech, UCLA, and Utah are all hovering just outside the top tier, with Texas Tech even nabbing one first-place vote.
A couple of teams are back in the mix: No. 20 Florida, after getting bounced last week, is back thanks to that win at Texas. And No. 25 Arizona, fresh off an open date, makes its season debut in the poll after ripping off four straight double-digit wins since their only loss to BYU. On the flip side, Oklahoma State’s three-week run is over after losing at Houston, and Mississippi State got absolutely annihilated 31-0 at LSU, following a 23-point home loss to Alabama, sending them packing too.
What a week for college football, right? Miami at No. 1 for the first time in forever, BYU surging, and basically everyone else trying to figure out what just happened. This season is shaping up to be one for the history books, and we’re just getting started.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
Leave a Reply