Week 7 of the college football season brought plenty of excitement with five of the previous top-10 teams losing on an epic Saturday across the country. TeamFB7 breaks down what it all means for the latest AP Top 25 Poll?
The college football season had already had its fair share of chaos before Week 7, but the absolute bedlam that transpired across the map on Saturday threw the AP Top 25 Poll into a level of disarray that’s hard to quantify.
In an unprecedented doomsday scenario, five of the top seven teams in last week’s AP Poll suffered losses. No. 1 Georgia was stunned by unranked Auburn, No. 2 Notre Dame lost a controversial primetime thriller to BYU in Provo, No. 5 Indiana lost a top-five matchup against No. 4 Ohio State, No. 6 Alabama got ran out of Rocky Top by No. 14 Tennessee, and No. 7 Texas dropped a second straight game to unranked Florida. Not to mention the fact that it took No. 3 Miami two overtime periods to defeat unranked Florida State.
As a result, we have a poll that looks like something out of a past era. Miami is officially the nation’s No. 1 team for the first time since December 2002, receiving 40 of 70 first-place votes. BYU emerged as No. 2 in the rankings with 20 first-place votes, marking the Cougars’ highest ranking since winning the 1984 national championship. No. 3 Ohio State received nine first-place votes, and No. 8 Texas Tech also got a first-place vote for some reason.
BYU, the new No. 2, and Houston are the biggest movers in this week’s AP Top 25 Poll while Alabama, Texas and Missouri all tumbled.
There was plenty of change coming off Week 7 and another new No. 1 (Miami), but did the voters get it right? 👀 https://t.co/VCd4Lp3kTB
— teamfb (@teamfbseven) October 19, 2026
Top Takeaways Following The Week 6 Release Of The AP Top 25 Poll
Anyway, there’s a lot to unpack from this week’s poll. Here are the five most important things.
Hand Up, I Was Wrong About Georgia
For weeks, I’ve been clamoring in these columns about how great Georgia is. About how it is head and shoulders the best team in the country, about how it should have been No. 1 over Texas and Ohio State all along, how it probably wouldn’t give up the No. 1 ranking all season now that it got it.
Georgia is 37-1 as the AP No. 1 team, not counting SEC title games and bowls.
The one loss: Auburn 27, Georgia 13 in 1942.
via https://t.co/DcYRg4KNJv pic.twitter.com/YqlsCa2LQk
— Iron – College Football Stats App (@ironfbstats) October 14, 2026
How did the Bulldogs repay my confidence?
By losing their first regular season game as the No. 1 ranked team in the country since 1942. That’s right. The last time the Georgia Bulldogs lost a regular season game as the top ranked team was during World War II. Well, at least until I started singing their praises. I take solace in knowing Texas was a fraudulent No. 1 as well, but Georgia has to prove to me that losing to Auburn was a fluke and that the flaws that appeared were not fatal ones.
BYU Got To Notre Dame and Survived
Let me start this by plugging an excerpt from my Week 2 takeaways, where I predicted the stakes of Saturday’s BYU/Notre Dame thriller.
“I expect BYU to be ranked in the neighborhood of No. 7 or No. 8 by the time that one rolls around, and Notre Dame isn’t leaving the top three. It will probably be a good idea to find a TV for that matchup.”
BYU trick play puts the Cougars back on top over Notre Dame! pic.twitter.com/VIxA5CNn80
— Underdog CFB (@UnderdogCFB) October 18, 2026
Not only did BYU make it to this game unbeaten and ranked No. 8 in the nation, it genuinely surprised me by defeating one of the best Notre Dame teams we’ve seen in years on a massive stage.
I wasn’t too high on the Cougars in that Week 2 column despite the fact that I correctly predicted their ranking going into the game, and honestly before this weekend I still felt I was right in my assessment that they were overranked poll darlings. Add that to the list of things I was wrong about this week. BYU is legit, and while I don’t think they are going to win the national title, they can’t be entirely discounted as a legitimate contender.
Oregon State Still Being Unranked Is A Travesty
Oregon State has quickly become one of the darlings of college football this season, largely owing to its explosive quarterback/receiver combination consisting of Mercer transfer Braden Atkinson and true freshman phenom wide receiver Jesse Legree.
Oregon State QB Braden Atkinson leads the FBS with 2,604 passing yards.
That's 559 passing yards more than any other QB. pic.twitter.com/8IoeBBidS9
— Underdog CFB (@UnderdogCFB) October 19, 2026
The two losses on the Beavers’ ledger have come against two teams currently ranked in the top 15 in No. 8 Texas Tech and No. 14 Houston, and they’ve won their five games by an average margin of victory of 32.2 points per game.
Against Pac-12 opponents, Oregon State has averaged 33.3 points per game. I can’t wait until the Beavers and Boise State meet on Nov. 14 to decide the best G6 team once and for all, and I think that game is going to expose a lot of voters who exclusively use the Broncos as their entire frame of reference for G6 football while requiring other programs to go above and beyond to earn similar respect.
Are We Sure We Trust Indiana This Much?
Listen, I love Curt Cignetti and I’ll be the last person to question the incredible turnaround he’s pulled off in Bloomington. However, I honestly think they Hoosiers are getting a little too much credit for losing a game against Ohio State on Saturday that they should have won whether Nick Marsh’s gaffe happened or it didn’t.
Fewest Points in a game for Indiana under Curt Cignetti
13 vs Ohio St (B1G Champ), 2025
15 vs Ohio State, 2026
15 at Ohio State, 2024
17 at Notre Dame (CFP), 2024 pic.twitter.com/719j695KZS— Tom Fornelli (@TomFornelli) October 17, 2026
The 15 points Indiana scored in Saturday’s loss are tied for the second most a Cignetti-led Hoosiers team has scored in four meetings against Ohio State, and it hasn’t reached the 20-point mark in any of them.
Momentum was decidedly in their corner as soon as Julian Sayin left with an injury, and they still didn’t have enough magic left to escape with a win. I wouldn’t be so sure Indiana beats Michigan this week, especially after the Tommy Carr-led resurgence of the Wolverines’ offense last week.
The Holiest War?
We know BYU has already emerged as a legitimate wagon at No. 2 in the country, but could we be in for the greatest Holy War of all time on Nov. 7 now that Utah has scraped its way up to No. 10 overall? BYU’s two games between now and then are against UCF and Arizona State, which would both be drastic upsets if the outcome went opposite of the Cougs.
Trying to understand the concept of #1 BYU (8-0) @ #2 Utah (8-0) on November 7 and it might actually break the Beehive State.
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 18, 2026
Utah has a major test against No. 14 Houston on Saturday, but if the Utes can get by that obstacle and unranked Cincinnati the following week, they could plausibly find themselves ranked in the top five for this matchup against a BYU team that will most likely be ranked no worse than No. 2.
