Miami Is No. 1 Again: Hurricanes Top the AP Top 25 for the First Time Since 2002 After Survival Saturday

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2026

Twenty-four years. That is how long Miami waited to see its name at the top of this poll again. The Week 8 AP Top 25, released Sunday, puts the Hurricanes at No. 1 for the first time since Dec. 8, 2002, according to theScore — and they did not so much seize the top spot as survive their way into it. Miami (6-0) needed double overtime to escape Florida State 43-35 on Saturday night, then watched the rest of the top of the poll burn down around them. When the voters finished counting, Miami had 40 of 69 first-place votes and 1,697 points, theScore reported, with Texas Tech receiving the remaining first-place vote, as reported by theScore. The U is back on top. Nobody who watched Saturday would call the path there clean — and nobody in Coral Gables is going to care.

This is what we meant when we called it chaos. Our poll preview warned a new No. 1 was coming, and our Week 7 recap showed the ground already shifting. Week 8 finished the job. Nos. 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7 all lost on the same Saturday, and the result, per theScore, is a poll in which every single spot in the Top 25 is occupied by a different team than the week before — even though only two teams actually dropped out of the rankings. Read that again. Twenty-five spots, twenty-five new occupants, and almost everybody from last week is still ranked. This was not a purge. It was a full reshuffle of the deck, with the same cards landing in wildly different places.

BYU earns No. 2 — with an asterisk the Big 12 admitted itself

The biggest climber at the top is BYU. The Cougars (6-0) jumped from No. 8 to No. 2 after beating Notre Dame 28-24, a rise theScore reported as BYU's highest ranking since a No. 4 mark and the program's first appearance in the top five since 1996. That is a three-decade wait ending in one afternoon, and it was earned the hard way, against the team that started the week at No. 2. Notre Dame falls only to No. 4 — the voters clearly respected the fight — but the night belonged to Provo. The points show how fine the margin is at the top: BYU sits at 1,675 points, just 22 behind Miami's 1,697 — and 26 clear of No. 3 Ohio State at 1,649.

It also came with a controversy that is not going away quietly. According to Bleacher Report, the Big 12 acknowledged that one more second should have been added at the end of the game and that a pass interference call was missed. That is the conference itself saying the finish was not officiated correctly — in a four-point game, against a top-two opponent, with a top-five ranking on the line. BYU can only beat what is in front of it, and it did. But Notre Dame fans have a legitimate grievance, the league has essentially confirmed it, and this result is going to be argued about every time these two teams appear in the same playoff conversation between now and December.

The sharpest part of the admission is how the game ended: the Big 12 has admitted its replay crew ended the game early — before Notre Dame could run the final play it believed it had earned. Previously's Rewind has the full story of the stolen snap, and it is essential context for this poll: the Irish's only loss is a four-point road defeat, at night, to the team now ranked directly ahead of them, with an officiating admission attached.

The fallers: Georgia, Alabama and a Texas collapse

Start with the old No. 1. Georgia (6-1) lost 27-24 to Auburn, a game that turned on Gunner Stockton's late fumble and was finished by Alex McPherson's 34-yard game-winning field goal. The Bulldogs slide from No. 1 to No. 5 — punished, but not buried, which tells you how much credit the voters still give that roster. Ohio State, meanwhile, did the quiet work of a contender: the Buckeyes (6-1) beat Indiana 19-15, with a late Nick Marsh touchdown catch ruled out of bounds to seal it, and they climb to No. 3 while Indiana (6-1) slips to No. 6. Not spectacular. Just alive. On this Saturday, alive was everything.

Alabama was not so lucky. The Crimson Tide (5-2) lost at Tennessee 26-10 and fell seven spots to No. 13, according to On3's poll coverage — the kind of drop that turns a playoff path into a week-to-week survival exercise. And then there is Texas. The Longhorns (4-2) lost at home to Florida 27-24, on a day when Tramell Jones Jr. made his first start for Florida and Arch Manning's late fumble helped seal Texas's fate. The voters' verdict was the harshest of the week: Texas tumbles 12 spots, from No. 7 to No. 19, the single biggest fall in the poll. Florida (5-2), unranked a week ago, rides that win straight in at No. 20. One Saturday in Austin rewrote two seasons at once.

Tennessee rises, and the SEC still owns the poll

Tennessee deserves its own paragraph, because beating Alabama 26-10 on the third Saturday in October is never just another win. The Volunteers (6-1) climbed three spots to No. 11, per WVLT's poll coverage, and their reward is a trip to South Carolina next Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET, also per WVLT. There is no breather in this league, which is precisely the point: even after a Saturday that humbled Georgia, Alabama and Texas, the SEC still places nine teams in the Top 25 — Georgia, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, LSU, Texas, Florida and Missouri. The conference's giants fell. The conference itself did not. Ole Miss (5-1) rises to No. 7, Kentucky (6-1) to No. 12, and unbeaten Texas Tech (6-0), UCLA (6-0) and Utah (6-0) all sit inside the top 10, waiting for the next Saturday like this one.

The full Week 8 AP Top 25

Here is the complete poll, with last week's ranking in the final column. Florida and Arizona are the two new arrivals; every other team was ranked last week, just somewhere else. The two who made room are Mississippi State, out from No. 16 after a 31-0 loss at LSU, and Oklahoma State, out from No. 18 — the Cowboys' 128 votes make them the first team below the line.

So where does this leave us? With six unbeaten teams in the top 10, a No. 1 that has not held the spot since 2002, a No. 2 that has not been this high in three decades, and a defending top tier in Georgia, Alabama and Texas all suddenly playing catch-up. Polls in October do not award trophies. But this one tells a true story: the old order had a very bad Saturday, and Miami — double overtime, warts and all — was the last brand name standing. The Hurricanes are No. 1 again. For more college football coverage, scores and standings, see Previously's sports desk.