UNDATED (AP) — Miami is now No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 for the first time since 2002. No. 2 BYU has reached its highest ranking since its 1984 national championship season. Notre Dame and Georgia remain in the top five despite close losses. This week, five of the top seven teams lost, marking a first in the AP poll's 90-year history. Miami and BYU benefited most from the chaos, joined by Ohio State in a tightly packed top three.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Notre Dame might have deserved one more play at the end of its game at BYU. Florida State was furious over how referees saw its two Hail Mary completions for would-have-been touchdowns in double overtime against Miami. And once again, end-of-game officiating was under fire. Dramatic — and sometimes controversial — endings were the story of a wild college football Saturday, with late-game calls deciding some outcomes and potentially even having an effect on how the College Football Playoff shapes up a couple months from now.
UNDATED (AP) — Miami and BYU would hold down the top two seeds on the 12-team College Football Playoff bracket based on The Associated Press Top 25 and UCLA would make its first-ever appearance in the field. The projected bracket was shuffled with Georgia’s loss to Auburn bumping the Bulldogs out of a top-four seed and the first-round bye that goes with it. First-round matchups would be No. 9 seed UCLA at No. 8 seed Texas Tech, No. 12 seed Boise State at No. 5 seed Georgia, No. 10 seed Utah at No. 7 Mississippi and No. 11 seed Tennessee at No. 6 Indiana.
COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) — Maryland has fired defensive coordinator Ted Monachino, a day after the Terrapins lost at home to Rutgers. It was their fifth straight defeat. The move suggests coach Michael Locksley, whose job security appears tenuous in his eighth season, is safe for now. The Terrapins lost 37-30 on Homecoming on Saturday. They now have an open date before hosting Illinois on Oct. 31. Monachino will be replaced as defensive coordinator by cornerbacks coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim. Inside linebackers coach Zac Spavital will take on the role of co-defensive coordinator.
UNDATED (AP) — College football has never experienced a Saturday like this. Five of the top seven teams in the AP Top 25 lost on the same day in the regular season for the first time in history. The last time anything even remotely close happened was on Jan. 2, 1989, according to Sportradar. Shakeup Saturday was driven by the Southeastern Conference, with No. 1 Georgia, No. 6 Alabama and No. 7 Texas going down as touchdown or more favorites. No. 2 Notre Dame (at No. 8 BYU) and fifth-ranked Indiana (against No. 4 Ohio State) also lost. The chaos cleared a path for No. 3 Miami to take over the top poll spot.
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) — No. 5 Indiana made the perfect fourth-down call Saturday in hopes of extending its two winning streaks. An errant footstep ruined it all. As Hoosiers quarterback Josh Hoover lobbed the ball to the sprinting, wide-open Nick Marsh down the sideline for what appeared to be the go-ahead score with just more than a minute left to play, the sellout crowd roared and the fireworks went off. Even the Buckeyes thought Marsh and Hoover had done it again. Instead, Marsh’s left foot came down out of bounds before he caught the ball, making it an incompletion and allowing No. 4 Ohio State to close out a 19-15 victory.
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) — Ty Dieffenbach has gone from third-string to starting quarterback for undefeated UCLA, leading the 12th-ranked Bruins to a 17-7 victory over Wisconsin. The 21-year-old completed 23 of 33 passes for 264 yards in his first start of the season. Bruins coach Bob Chesney praised Dieffenbach's confidence and performance. He stepped up after Nico Iamaleava's injury last week, surpassing Maddon Iamaleava for the starting role. The Bruins are 6-0 and are expected to move into the top 10 of the AP rankings. Dieffenbach's journey to UCLA included stints at Pitt and Cal Poly, where he developed his skills before transferring.
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — With quarterback Dante Moore still sidelined because of a concussion, the Oregon Ducks started Brock Thomas rather than Dylan Raiola against the Huskers. Raiola was Moore’s backup earlier this season, with Turner as the No. 3 option. But Raiola struggled last weekend in a 17-15 loss to UCLA, completing just 6-of-19 passes for 43 yards, with two interceptions. Thomas took over for Raiola against the Bruins and finished 11 of 15 for 146 yards and a touchdown.
