Miami Holds No. 1, Ohio State Falls to No. 11, and the Playoff Committee Takes Over Tuesday

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2026 — COLLEGE FOOTBALL, WEEK 9 WRAP AND THE ROAD TO WEEK 10

For the fourth straight week, a team ranked in the AP Top 2 lost to an unranked opponent — and this time it rewired the whole top of the poll. USC’s 30–18 win over No. 2 Ohio State in Los Angeles on Saturday night sent the Buckeyes tumbling nine spots to No. 11 in the new AP Top 25, kept Miami at No. 1 for a third straight week, and turned Tuesday night’s first College Football Playoff rankings reveal into appointment television. The poll is the voters’ opinion. Tuesday, the committee gives its own — and after a weekend like this one, nobody outside Miami should feel safe about where they land.

The Hurricanes stayed on top the hard way. Miami (8–0) survived North Carolina 38–35 on Saturday, a game the Tar Heels kept answering every time Miami scored. Quarterback Darian Mensah finished 22 of 29 for 274 yards and three touchdowns, according to Reuters, and running back Mark Fletcher Jr. scored twice on the ground while wide receiver Malachi Toney added a touchdown as Miami closed it out in the fourth quarter. It was not a statement win. It was something arguably more useful in November: a road win on a day when the sport was eating ranked teams alive.

The Coliseum did what the Coliseum does to Ohio State

The weekend’s earthquake came in Los Angeles. USC (7–2, 4–2 Big Ten) beat Ohio State 30–18 for, as NBC Sports put it, the biggest win of head coach Lincoln Riley’s tenure — his first win over a top-five team at USC, and over a top-12 team generally, in five seasons in charge. Freshman Trent Mosley announced the night on the second play from scrimmage, taking a Jayden Maiava pass 69 yards for a touchdown, and finished with five catches for 101 yards. Maiava threw for 222 yards and a score, King Miller and Waymond Jordan ran for touchdowns, and the USC defense did not allow an Ohio State touchdown for the first 57 minutes.

Ohio State’s excuse is real, and it still may not matter. Starting quarterback Julian Sayin is out indefinitely after injuring his throwing arm at Indiana on October 17, so true freshman Luke Fahey made his first career start in the Coliseum and went 21 of 38 for 260 yards and one touchdown — a 1-yard score to Jeremiah Smith with 2:12 left, Smith’s 40th career receiving touchdown, a Big Ten record. Fahey was not the problem so much as the symptom: without Sayin, the Buckeyes’ offense settled for field goals, and a defense that had been the program’s backbone gave up the most points it has allowed since 2024, according to NBC Sports. TheScore noted the wider pattern — this was the fourth straight week a top-two AP team lost — and Ohio State (6–2, 4–1 Big Ten) now likely has to win out, starting Saturday at home against Oregon, to feel good about a playoff spot. The Buckeyes have not won at the Coliseum since 1946. Some places just keep the receipt.

Georgia takes No. 2, Utah and UCLA keep climbing

Georgia (7–1) inherited the No. 2 spot with the weekend’s most businesslike performance, beating Florida 27–8 in the rivalry game. The Bulldogs are the highest-ranked SEC team in the poll, per DawgNation, and the win knocked Florida down eight spots to No. 25 — still ranked, barely, on the strength of earlier wins over ranked Ole Miss and Texas.

The West, meanwhile, is having a moment. Utah (8–0) jumped three spots to No. 3 after routing Cincinnati 49–25, the win that most impressed the voters, and UCLA (8–0) rose two spots to No. 5 — its highest ranking since 2001, according to Reuters — after a 27–0 shutout of Nevada in coach Bob Chesney’s first season. Notre Dame (7–1) moved up one spot to No. 4 with a 35–13 win over Navy. Two of the top seven teams in the country now call Utah home, with BYU sitting at No. 7 — which is convenient, because BYU plays at Utah on Saturday in a Holy War with the Big 12 race and a playoff résumé on the line.

Indiana won, and the voters shrugged

The strangest line in the poll belongs to Indiana. The defending national champions (8–1, 5–1 Big Ten) beat Minnesota 23–16 in overtime — and dropped two spots to No. 6 for their trouble. Style points are real, and Indiana offered few: the Hoosiers needed a 60-yard field goal from Paddy McAteer as time expired just to force overtime, after Minnesota’s Luke Drzewiecki had hit a career-long 60-yarder of his own to give the Gophers (5–3, 3–2) a 16–13 lead with 19 seconds left. The Daily Gopher noted it was the first college football game in history in which both teams made a 60-yard field goal. Backup quarterback Grant Wilson, on for the injured Josh Hoover, threw a 25-yard touchdown to Charlie Becker on the first play of overtime — Becker finished with eight catches for 149 yards — and Indiana’s defense sacked Minnesota quarterback Drake Lindsey on fourth down to end it, according to the Associated Press. Minnesota, a 20.5-point underdog, led most of the day and finished with just 215 total yards. It is the second straight week Indiana has needed overtime. The committee has surely noticed both the wins and the wobble.

The rest of the Top 25

Kentucky (No. 8), Alabama (No. 9) and Texas (No. 10) round out the top ten; Texas helped itself with a 31–3 win over Mississippi State, while Kentucky and Alabama moved up on a weekend off. Ole Miss stayed at No. 12 despite a 45–15 win over Auburn, per USA Today’s Auburn Wire, and now hosts No. 2 Georgia on Saturday. The full AP Top 25: 1. Miami (8–0), 2. Georgia (7–1), 3. Utah (8–0), 4. Notre Dame (7–1), 5. UCLA (8–0), 6. Indiana (8–1), 7. BYU (7–1), 8. Kentucky (7–1), 9. Alabama (6–2), 10. Texas (6–2), 11. Ohio State (6–2), 12. Ole Miss (6–2), 13. Texas Tech, 14. Wake Forest, 15. LSU, 16. Tennessee, 17. Houston, 18. USC, 19. Missouri, 20. Boise State, 21. Iowa, 22. New Mexico, 23. South Carolina, 24. Arizona, 25. Florida.

Two entries deserve a beat of their own. USC’s return at No. 18 — up 13 spots, the week’s biggest climb, according to Sports Illustrated — came a week after the Trojans scored seven points in a loss to Wisconsin. And No. 22 New Mexico (7–1) is ranked for the first time in program history after a 21–16 win at San Jose State, leading the Mountain West with, per SI, the No. 1 scoring defense in the country. Boise State, which rallied past Texas State 46–45, remains the front-runner for the Group of 6 playoff spot heading into Tuesday. Northwestern, SMU, Oklahoma State and Wisconsin dropped out.

Tuesday is the real poll — and Saturday is loaded

The first College Football Playoff rankings arrive Tuesday, November 3, at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN, the first of the committee’s weekly reveals. USA Today’s projections have Miami at No. 1 and Georgia at No. 2, with Kentucky as the possible surprise riser on the strength of its schedule metrics — a reminder that the committee and the AP voters do not always read the same résumé. Ohio State, projected far higher by the committee in some forecasts than its No. 11 AP slot, is the team with the most to learn about itself on Tuesday night.

Then comes a Saturday built to break hearts. Week 10 on November 7 pairs six ranked teams against each other: No. 1 Miami at No. 4 Notre Dame (7:30 p.m. ET, NBC, with College GameDay in South Bend), No. 7 BYU at No. 3 Utah, No. 2 Georgia at No. 12 Ole Miss (7:30 p.m. ET, ABC), Alabama at LSU, Kentucky at Tennessee, and Texas at Missouri — plus Ohio State hosting Oregon with no margin left. Four weeks remain in the regular season. The bracket starts taking shape Tuesday. By Saturday night, it may look nothing like it.

Previously Staff’s read: The AP poll just told you what the season looks like; Tuesday tells you what it’s worth. Miami has the résumé and the target, Ohio State has the talent and the trainer’s room, and Utah — Utah! — has two teams in the top seven and a rivalry game that might be the best ticket in America this week. November does not do quiet. This one won’t either.