For the second straight week, the AP Top 25 poll will have a new No. 1 at the top of the rankings. It's not unusual for the No. 1 ranking to change hands when the heart of conference play hits, but what made Week 7 a true chaos week for the record books was the way the upsets and shake-ups seemed to escalate throughout the day. First, No. 5 and No. 7 fell in the early window, followed by No. 1 and No. 6 in the afternoon.
Then, No. 2 Notre Dame lost to No. 8 BYU in a game that directly impacted crowning the new top team in the sport. In one sense, there was always going to be some level of shake-up to the rankings when you have six games between ranked teams and four of those coming between teams ranked inside the top 16. But what could not have been foreseen was to have those ballot-shifting results compounded by the newly minted No. 1 Georgia losing at home to unranked Auburn, former No. 1 Texas blowing a lead to unranked Florida, and of course, the No. 2 Notre Dame (who could have been No. 1) losing as a double-digit favorite on the final play against BYU in Provo on Saturday night.
In that context, other results like Tennessee's lockdown of Alabama or a heavy-handed smackdown for Missouri by Ole Miss seem slightly less shocking. It also made Ohio State's absolute thriller of a win against Indiana in Bloomington a second-page story, even if the game carried arguably more long-term significance with Julian Sayin's injury. Saturday was the kind of day that college football needed after a couple of days of hand-wringing around the future of the College Football Playoff.
No matter what the postseason format may be, college football will always be at its best on days like Saturday when everything that was previously assumed or known about the order of power is thrown into a wood-chipper of upsets and near-upsets. This was true in the days of the BCS and four-team CFP, and will be true moving forward as long as we continue to show up and provide the stage and stakes for college football players to perform at a high level. No other sport delivers that unpredictability with more passion, and there's never been a better time for us fans to have that reminder.
Here's how we think the new AP Top 25 poll will look on Sunday after the scores and results of a chaotic Week 7 in college football: 1. BYU (8): This is a bold prediction given the gap between BYU and No. 1, but it's one that we feel comfortable making with the Cougars' unbeaten record and high-profile upset win against Notre Dame. There's also some credit earned with the AP voters in terms of BYU's recent success, 2.
Miami (3): Mario Cristobal's crew had a clear opportunity to claim the No. 1 spot when Georgia went down, but a double-overtime upset scare at the hands of unranked Florida State could end up leaving the Hurricanes at No. 2. Miami will get its fair share of first-place votes, no doubt, but the difference in result against expectations could leave them on the short end of voting points compared to BYU. 3. Ohio State (4): While Julian Sayin is scheduled to miss time with an injury and Indiana dominates the conversation with a crucial missed step, there is a concrete boost to the Buckeyes' ranking position coming out of a top-five road win.
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