As expected, the Miami Hurricanes are the brand-new No. 1 team in the land, but that's of no concern to Mario Cristobal.
Cristobal is not going to let a poll, one which means very little if we're being honest, change his overall approach to what he wants to see from his team week-to-week. The Hurricanes are far from a finished product, but they did have the ability to rally from adversity in a closer-than-win overtime win over FSU. And on a day when upsets were as contagious as the common cold, having a survival spirit is worth its weight.
Not a single team stayed put in this week’s AP Top 25.
— AP Top 25 (@AP_Top25) October 18, 2026
Miami is No. 1 for the first time since 2002 and BYU climbs to No. 2 after a historic weekend of upsets. See where your team landed: https://t.co/7dTTUiSC1j pic.twitter.com/kIqcyb3Ewk
"I think we have a good enough sample size in 2026 to know that that's absolutely insignificant and irrelevant with the changing of the guard from week to week," Cristobal said in his postgame comments. "I honestly don't really — it has no value to our processes and what not, but all the focus is on the real one that's important. The 1-0 (each week)."
Mario Cristobal sees the bigger picture for Miami
It's great that the Hurricanes are No. 1. It's the first time in nearly 24 years that Miami has been at the top of the polls during the regular season. But the AP Poll and even the CFP rankings are simply the means to an end. Does Cristobal care about the poll numbers? Probably not. But he does want Miami to make the playoffs, and the polls probably still have an effect on the committee. However, the most important thing is winning.
For all the detractors of the playoffs, the good side is that winning becomes far more paramount than "style points" or "sending a message to the voters." Not every win is going to be as pretty as fans would like to see, but they all count. Cristobal is broken a full season down into12 individual seasons, and Miami has won six seasons so far. If the Hurricanes can manage to win six more, they will get additional seasons to play. It might not be the flashiest way to look at things, but it works for the Hurricanes.
Week 7 AP Top 25 Poll
1. Miami
2. BYU
3. Ohio State
4. Notre Dame
5. Georgia
6. Indiana
7. Ole Miss
8. Texas Tech
9. UCLA
10. Utah
11. Tennessee
12. Kentucky
13 Alabama
14. Houston
13. Iowa
16. USC
17. Wake Forest
18. LSU
19. Texas
20. Florida
21. Boise State
22. Missouri
23. SMU
24. Northwestern
25. Arizona
If the first loss don't get you, the second one will
I will forever say that voters have decided Alabama's losses don't count, but that second loss hits everyone hard, and it hit the Crimson Tide with a seven-spot drop. It was much worse for Missouri (a nine-spot drop) and Texas, which fell 12 spots to No. 19.
As for the ACC, the respect for Wake Forest is growing, while the skepticism around SMU is equally present. That's all there is to say about the conference. There's no other team that received a single vote outside the three in the poll.
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