Few college football Saturdays in the sport’s history can match the chaos and carnage that Week 7 of the 2026 campaign produced on Saturday, and now the nation is left to deal with the wreckage.
Following a myriad of upsets and ranked teams falling, the College Football Playoff picture has been complete flipped on its head, but analysts are still attempting to make sense of it all now that the dust has settled.
ESPN’s panel of experts released its updated CFP predictions on Sunday, and with Georgia being the third AP No. 1 team to fall already this season, it’s understandable as to why there was already some debate at the top:
- Andrea Adelson: 1. Miami 2. BYU 3. UCLA 4. Ohio State 5. Notre Dame 6. Georgia 7. Texas Tech 8. Utah 9. Indiana 10. Ole Miss 11. Wake Forest 12. James Madison
- Kyle Bonagura: 1. Miami, 2. BYU 3. Ohio State 4. Georgia 5. Utah 6. UCLA 7. Texas Tech 8. Indiana 9. Tennessee 10. Ole Miss 11. Wake Forest 12. Boise State
- Bill Connelly: 1. BYU 2. Miami 3. UCLA 4. Texas Tech 5. Ohio State 6. Notre Dame 7. Georgia 8. Utah 9. Indiana 10. Ole Miss 11. Houston 12. James Madison
- David Hale: 1. BYU 2. Miami 3. Ohio State 4. Georgia 5. Ole Miss 6. UCLA 7. Notre Dame 8. Indiana 9. Texas Tech 10. Kentucky 11. Tennessee 12. James Madison
- Max Olson: 1. Ohio State 2. BYU 3. Miami 4. Georgia 5. Indiana 6. Notre Dame 7. Ole Miss 8. Kentucky 9. Texas Tech 10. Tennessee 11. UCLA 12. Boise State
- Adam Rittenberg: 1. BYU 2. Miami 3. Ohio State 4. Georgia 5. Notre Dame 6. Ole Miss 7. Indiana 8. UCLA 9. Texas Tech 10. Kentucky 11. Utah 12. Boise State
- Alex Scarborough: 1. Miami 2. Ohio State 3. BYU 4. Georgia 5. Indiana 6. Notre Dame 7. Ole Miss 8. Kentucky 9. Texas Tech 10. Tennessee 11. UCLA 12. Boise State
- Mark Schlabach: 1. BYU 2. Miami 3. Ohio State 4. Georgia 5. Notre Dame 6. Ole Miss 7. Texas Tech 8. Indiana 9. Kentucky 10. UCLA 11. Tennessee 12. Boise State
- Jake Trotter: 1. BYU 2. Ohio State 3. Miami 4. Georgia 5. Notre Dame 6. Indiana 7. Texas Tech 8. Kentucky 9. UCLA 10. Utah 11. Ole Miss 12. Oregon State
- Paolo Uggetti: 1. BYU 2. Miami 3. Ohio State 4. Georgia 5. Indiana 6. Notre Dame 7. Ole Miss 8. UCLA 9. Kentucky 10. Utah 11. Texas Tech 12. Boise State
- Dave Wilson: 1. Miami 2. Ohio State 3. BYU 4. Georgia 5. Indiana 6. Notre Dame 7. Ole Miss 8. Kentucky 9. Texas Tech 10. Utah 11. UCLA 12. Boise State
BYU and Miami were the general consensus as being No. 1 and No. 2 in either order, although Ohio State was slotted in second on multiple occasions and even appeared at the top spot in Max Olson’s list.
Georgia appeared anywhere from No. 4 to No. 7 following its loss to Auburn, with the Bulldogs remaining the top-ranked SEC team in everybody’s field.
Also worth noting is that the likes of Wake Forest, UCLA and Houston are beginning to appear in expert’s projections.
James Madison and Boise State were the primary Group of Six representatives in the mix, while Oregon State was mentioned once.
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Parker is currently the sports editor for Gulf Coast Media in Foley, Alabama. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
