Not a single rank held still. The AP, on Sunday, after the 17 October games: Miami at 1, for the first time since 2002. BYU at 2, its highest since the 1984 title season. Ohio State at 3. Georgia, last week’s No. 1, falls to 5. Notre Dame, from 2, to 4. CBS put the headline. The NCAA published the table. Five of the top seven lost on Saturday. The AP says it is a first in poll history. That is the movement. It is not a championship.

Miami (Florida), 6-0, 40 first-place votes, 1,697 points, up from 3. BYU, also 6-0, 20 first-place votes, 1,675, up from 8. Ohio State, 6-1, nine first-place votes, 1,649, from 4. A stray first-place vote went to Texas Tech, 6-0, now 8. The rest is voter arithmetic. It is not a field.

Georgia, 6-1, leaves the top. Notre Dame, also 6-1, leaves No. 2. The AP writes that both lost close games. Texas falls from 7 to 19, 4-2. Alabama, from 6 to 13, 5-2. Missouri, from 13 to 22. Florida and Arizona enter, at 20 and 25. Outside the 25: Oklahoma State 128 points, Oregon 79. No one is champion. All are in mid-autumn.

CBS also sets next weekend: Miami, at home to Pittsburgh, 24 October. BYU, at UCF. Ole Miss at Texas. Indiana at Michigan. Utah with Houston. That is the grid. It is not a forecast.

College football is not the Premier League. It is a journalists’ poll, 25 teams, named votes. Miami had not been No. 1 in 24 years. BYU had not been this high since it took the title, in 1984. A week of upsets made the table unrecognisable. Next Saturday can wipe it.

Until a playoff, a ranking remains. After a playoff, the ballot boxes remain. Anyone who mixes them turns Miami into an October champion.

Image: Elbert Hampton, Hard Rock Stadium, Miami, 13 November 2022, CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The photograph is from an NFL Dolphins game, not from the Hurricanes’ AP ranking.

Sources consulted: AP Top 25: Miami new No. 1, BYU to No. 2 — CBS Sports; College football rankings: Associated Press Top 25 — NCAA.com.