It was a virtual certainty that the Week 8 college football slate wouldn’t be as nuts as last Saturday’s was, if only because several teams were off, but enough happened on the field to give AP voters and the coaches to rethink some assumptions in the new rankings.
Amid a 2026 college football season that has seen plenty of change at the No. 1 position, that should be one of the few areas in the new poll that won’t see any movement this time. How will things look at the top of the rankings this time out?
The AP No. 1 ranking is secure this week
In another college football weekend full of teams not living up to expectations, the Hurricanes easily retained their position among the undefeated by beating up Pitt.
Playing its first game as the AP No. 1 ranked team since 2002, it once again saw historic output from quarterback Darian Mensah and wide receiver Malachi Toney.
Toney had a school-record 16 receptions while covering 194 yards receiving and Mensah accounted for four touchdowns with 387 passing yards.
“A buzz saw,” was how Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi described Miami on the day, coming out on the wrong end of the 52-23 decision.
The convincing victory should keep Miami on top of the AP rankings this week and end what was a chaotic three-week stretch of change at the No. 1 position: Texas fell after a loss to unranked Oklahoma, and Georgia tumbled after losing to unranked Auburn. Miami passed its test against Pitt.
However, there will be a change at No. 2
Oh, BYU. Just when they were in position to make another important statement, the Big 12 championship hopefuls tripped over their shoelaces in a cross-country road test.
The Cougars jumped into the No. 2 position in the rankings after an emotional, and nationally consequential, win over then second-ranked Notre Dame a week ago. All they had to do was beat unranked UCF on the road as an encore.
UCF had other ideas, coming away with a massive upset of BYU in double overtime at the Bounce House, again rewriting the order atop the competitive Big 12 standings, and giving playoff selectors more information to deal with when they meet soon.
More chaos in the AP top-six is coming
Three of the top-five AP ranked teams in college football were off this weekend, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see some notable change in that part of the poll.
Ohio State, idle on Saturday after beating Indiana a week ago, is projected to take over the No. 2 position that will be vacated by BYU after its loss. That much appears certain.
But what about the rest of the top-six? BYU is due for a drop, but pollsters are faced with where to place it compared with Notre Dame’s current No. 4 ranking. That’s where they dropped the Irish after losing a four-point game to the Cougars last week.
What will the voters do? They could drop BYU down below idle Notre Dame, but that would raise controversy about the head-to-head result last week. There’s a chance that the Cougars only lose one place and land at No. 3 in this week’s poll to preserve that order.
They could also rearrange the ballot to promote Indiana into the top-four after it beat Michigan on the road, put Georgia ahead of BYU owing to its higher-quality win over Alabama, and drop the Irish to keep the Cougars ahead of them. Something like this:
- Miami (Last week: 1)
- Ohio State (3)
- Georgia (5)
- Indiana (6)
- BYU (2)
- Notre Dame (4)
That’s for the AP pollsters to sort out. What we do know? Miami stays at No. 1.
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