Miami did what a No. 1 team is supposed to do. It won, it stayed quiet, and it held the top spot. The Hurricanes are 7-0 and sit atop Sunday’s AP Top 25 with 1,735 points and 59 first-place votes. Ohio State is close behind at 1,681 with 10 first-place votes, so the Canes hold the top spot, but the lead is thin.
The real movement this week happened out West.
The Utes arrive
Utah is 7-0 and up four spots to No. 6. The Utes are now the highest-ranked team in the Big 12. They earned it in front of their own people at Rice-Eccles Stadium, beating a Houston team that came to Salt Lake ranked No. 14 and left with a 21-13 loss. Utah collected 1,413 points and one first-place vote. That lone vote says some voters already see this team as more than a Big 12 contender.
Utah did not dominate. It won by eight points over a Willie Fritz team that kept it close until the end. But unbeaten teams in October get credit for the result, and the result was a win over a ranked opponent on its home field.
Houston’s price
The Cougars drop four spots to No. 18 and are 6-2. They finished the night with 491 points, which means voters still respect them.
A road loss to a top-10 opponent by one score is not a disaster. It still counts as a loss, and the poll adjusted accordingly. Fritz put the blame on missed tackles after the game. The film will probably say the same thing, and tackling is the kind of problem a team can fix in a week.
Houston has that week. The Cougars are on a bye, then host Cincinnati on Nov. 7 at TDECU. The same Bearcats team beat then-No. 8 Texas Tech 37-24 on Saturday. Cincinnati is unranked but received 11 votes in this poll. It also hosts Utah on Oct. 31 at 3:45 p.m. ET, so Houston will get a good look at the Bearcats before its own game.
BYU’s tumble
BYU fell six spots to No. 8 after UCF beat the Cougars 39-31 in double overtime. A 6-1 team that falls six spots after one loss shows how closely this poll is bunched. BYU has 1,325 points and hosts Arizona State on Oct. 31. Remember that the Cougars were No. 2 before Saturday, and you can see how fast the room at the top of the Big 12 can empty.
How the rest of the Big 12 fared
No. 6 Utah (7-0): up four, at Cincinnati on Oct. 31.
No. 8 BYU (6-1): down six after the loss to UCF, home against Arizona State on Oct. 31.
No. 13 Texas Tech (6-1): down five from No. 8 after the loss to Cincinnati, home against Arizona on Oct. 31.
No. 18 Houston (6-2): down four, idle this week.
No. 22 Arizona (6-1): at Texas Tech on Oct. 31, in a ranked matchup.
No. 24 Oklahoma State (5-2): at Iowa State on Oct. 31.
Cincinnati (11 votes) also received votes in the poll.
The bottom line
The Big 12 has six ranked teams, and four of them are in the top 18. Utah is the clear leader. Texas Tech and Arizona meet Oct. 31 in a game that will shape the middle of the conference. Utah goes on the road to Cincinnati, a team that just beat a top-10 opponent.
Houston’s bye is useful. The Cougars have a week to fix what went wrong in Salt Lake before the poll gets crowded again. Teams that lose a close game on the road and respond well often finish higher than teams that never lost at all.
