No dominant team has emerged yet in college football through Week 9

Heading into Week 10 of the 2026 college football season, Miami is No. 1 in the AP poll for the second straight week, but the Hurricanes are leading a group with no clear heavyweight. 

Miami received 59 of 70 first-place votes and was the only team in the top 25 to hold its ranking. Currently, only three undefeated teams remain: Miami, Utah and UCLA, the fewest at this point in a season since 1977.

Seven of the top 10 teams have at least one loss, and some of these losses are difficult to justify. Georgia lost 27-24 at home to unranked Auburn on Oct. 17. The Bulldogs led 14-0, but then Auburn scored 24 unanswered points. BYU followed a 28-24 win over Notre Dame last week with a 39-31 double-overtime loss at UCF. Texas Tech lost 37-24 to Cincinnati, dropping to No. 13 in the poll.

Even the losses to strong opponents showed cracks. Ohio State lost 24-23 at Texas back in week 2 after leading 20-0 at halftime. To make matters worse, the Buckeyes are looking to be left without starting quarterback Julian Sayin the rest of the season. This means right now there's uncertainty about whether they can be the same team playing with their backup, Luke Fahey.

So far, this season is going down as one of the most chaotic in the history of college football. Five of the top seven teams had lost on Oct. 17, a first in AP poll history. Eleven top-10 teams have lost over the past three weeks. Right now it doesn't matter what the record is of either team playing, because all this season has shown is that anyone could win any game.

Most of the wins haven't looked the cleanest either. Indiana needed overtime to beat Michigan 13-6 this week. Ohio State beat Indiana last week 19-15, but what that score doesn't show is that the Hoosiers had Nick Marsh wide open in the end zone to win the game, but he caught the ball with his right foot out of bounds. So Ohio State didn't win that game very convincingly.

Even No. 1 Miami isn't a dominant team

Despite being undefeated, Miami has had its own close calls. The Hurricanes last week had a close call against Florida State, beating them 43-35 in double overtime. Duce Robinson's 75-yard touchdown tied the game with 2:49 left in regulation. Darian Mensah threw for 326 yards and three touchdowns for Miami, while Ashton Daniels threw for 298 yards and four touchdowns for FSU.

Miami answered with a 52-23 win over Pittsburgh this week. Mensah completed 31 of his 37 passes and threw for 387 yards with four touchdowns. They still are waiting for their biggest game of the season on Nov. 7 against Notre Dame. 

Unless Miami were to beat Notre Dame confidently, we may be left with no true dominant team this season. Without a dominant team, this year's playoff could be unpredictable. If the top contenders continue to struggle, lower-ranked teams that make it to the playoffs could have a real chance to pull off some major upsets.