Miami Won a Tight No. 1 Vote After a Historic Saturday

Five of the AP's top seven teams lost on October 17, the first time that had happened in a single regular-season day since the poll began in 1936, according to ESPN Research. The opening at No. 1 produced a much closer vote than Miami's 40 first-place selections might suggest.

Miami finished with 1,697 points, just 22 ahead of BYU. Ohio State was another 26 back. All three appeared on every ballot, and together they occupied 200 of the 210 available top-three positions.

The losses reached No. 1 Georgia, No. 2 Notre Dame, No. 5 Indiana, No. 6 Alabama and No. 7 Texas. They included two defeats to unranked opponents, Auburn over Georgia and Florida over Texas, along with BYU over Notre Dame and Tennessee over Alabama. Indiana lost to fourth-ranked Ohio State. AP's account identifies the five top-seven losses as a regular-season first.

Forty First-Place Votes, a 22-Point Margin

The AP awards 25 points for first place, 24 for second and one fewer for each succeeding position through No. 25. The complete order on all 70 ballots determines the ranking.

Texas Tech received the remaining first-place vote. Miami had twice BYU's No. 1 votes, but BYU appeared in the top three on two more ballots. Nobody put the Cougars below fourth. Miami's lowest placement was sixth.

With both teams included everywhere, their 22-point difference also equals the difference between the sums of their 70 submitted ranks. Miami's average placement was 1.76, compared with BYU's 2.07. Those lower placements kept BYU close even though Miami had a clear lead in first-place votes.

BYU Moved on Every Ballot

The Cougars' move from eighth to second was shared by the entire panel. All 70 returning voters raised BYU between the October 11 and October 18 polls.

A week earlier, BYU had no top-five votes. This week, every voter placed it in the top four and 68 placed it in the top three. Its 438-point gain came entirely from higher placements on ballots that already included it.

Miami's movement was less uniform: 56 voters raised it, 10 kept it in the same position and four lowered it. Ohio State rose on 63 ballots, stayed put on four and fell on three. Those differences help explain why the aggregate ranking alone understates the scale of BYU's change.

Miami Also Led the Direct Comparisons

Comparing the teams on each individual ballot produces the same order as the AP points:

These counts ask only which of the two teams a voter placed higher. They use all 70 ballots and do not substitute a different scoring system for the published poll.

Miami's lead was supported by more than its first-place majority: most voters also preferred it to either challenger when the teams were compared directly. BYU's unusually narrow range of placements kept that lead small. The record weekend left a coherent top-three order, but the full ballots show a tighter race at No. 1 than the 40–20 first-place count alone conveys.