The first College Football Playoff rankings arrive November 3, which is usually when the AP Top 25 starts to fade into the background. Still, the poll is hard to ignore entirely. Its voters have a lot of games to keep up with, and every week brings another chance for them to make a questionable call.
Week 8 had only two games between ranked teams, so expectations for major drama were low. Then USC upset Ohio State in Los Angeles, and the voters reacted in a big way. Meanwhile, Wake Forest improved to 7-1 after another blowout, but that barely registered in the rankings.
The poll has the right five teams near the top, at least. The order is another matter.
Miami struggled at times against North Carolina, but the Hurricanes still reached 8-0. Of the three unbeaten teams left, they may be the most talented and explosive, so putting them at No. 1 is easy enough to defend.
Georgia handled Florida after its bye week, responding well after the baffling home loss to Auburn. Utah sits at No. 3, though that’s where the ranking gets harder to justify. The Utes are 8-0, but their best win is probably a home victory over then-No. 14 Houston. UCLA is also unbeaten and has a road win over then-No. 13 Oregon. Swapping the Bruins and Utes would make more sense.
Notre Dame at No. 4 looks a little generous. The Irish have a loss, unlike UCLA and Utah, and their strongest win may be a neutral-site victory over Wisconsin back in Week 1. That Wisconsin team is now 5-3. Notre Dame getting the benefit of the doubt isn’t exactly a surprise, but it’s hard to say the ranking is earned.
Wake Forest, meanwhile, crushed Virginia 51-7 to move to 7-1. Its only loss was a 13-point defeat to No. 1 Miami. The Demon Deacons have won by 44 points, and over the past four weeks their offense has outscored opponents 187-31. Yet they stayed in the same spot in the poll.
Kentucky and Alabama were both idle, but each moved up one place. Wake Forest seems to be paying for its schedule and for playing in a weak ACC. If things keep breaking its way, the Deacons could finish 11-1 with a road win over Purdue as their most impressive victory.
Of course, good teams are expected to beat Stanford, NC State, Cal and Virginia. But Wake Forest has done more than simply beat them, and the way it has overwhelmed those teams deserves more credit than its current ranking suggests.
Then there’s USC, which jumped 13 places to No. 18 after beating Ohio State. The Buckeyes were without their starting quarterback, and the win came just a week after USC lost at Wisconsin. That same Wisconsin team was shut out 30-0 by Iowa on Saturday. USC was also beaten by two touchdowns at home by Oregon in Week 5.
It’s a classic reaction to the latest result: an unranked team beats the No. 2 team, and suddenly the voters are impressed. But Ohio State’s missing quarterback is a pretty significant caveat.
There has to be a team at No. 18. It’s just a curious choice to put USC there, especially after many Trojans fans were calling for coach Lincoln Riley’s job a week ago. The upset came on what may have been the season’s weakest schedule of games, too.
The voters also passed up a chance to do something amusing with New Mexico. The Lobos moved to 7-1 with a road win over San Jose State on Halloween, and they’ve scored exactly 21 points in each of their past three games: a 21-10 win over Hawaii, followed by 21-16 victories against North Dakota State and San Jose State. On that pattern alone, No. 21 might have been more fitting than their actual spot at No. 22.
Joking aside, Jason Eck’s team deserves real credit. New Mexico is 16-5 since he took over in 2025. Before Eck arrived in Albuquerque, the program hadn’t reached a bowl game since 2016.
