Now that Notre Dame suffered its 2nd loss of the season they are no longer featured in this top 20 poll. It’s pretty sad times around here. Will the Irish be able to get back into this ranking in 2023? The biggest news of this past weekend happened in Dallas where Oklahoma put itself back on the national map while the Texas is Back™ revival takes a hit and will need some help to get back in the playoff conversation.

Here’s the latest 18S Top 20 Poll.

18 Stripes Top 20 Poll

RANK TEAM RECORD NEXT
1 Georgia 6-0 at Vanderbilt
2 Washington (+1) 5-0 vs. Oregon
3 Oklahoma (+9) 6-0 vs. UCF
4 Ohio State 5-0 at Purdue
5 Florida State 5-0 vs. Syracuse
6 Michigan 6-0 vs. Indiana
7 Penn State (+1) 5-0 vs. UMass
8 Oregon (+1) 5-0 at Washington
9 Texas (-7) 5-1 BYE
10 USC (-3) 6-0 at Notre Dame
11 North Carolina 5-0 vs. Miami
12 Alabama (+2) 5-1 vs. Arkansas
13 Utah (+3) 4-1 vs. California
14 Ole Miss (+3) 5-1 BYE
15 Louisville (NR) 6-0 at Pittsburgh
16 Oregon State (+2) 5-1 vs. UCLA
17 UCLA (NR) 4-1 at Oregon State
18 Tennessee (+1) 4-1 vs. Texas A&M
19 Duke (NR) 4-1 vs. NC State
20 Air Force (NR) 5-0 vs. Wyoming

Out:

#10 Notre Dame
#13 Washington State
#15 Miami
#20 Kentucky

National Storylines

Kansas State was pre-season No. 16 in the AP Poll and are now 3-2 following a 29-21 loss at Oklahoma State.

Alabama pulled away in the second half to beat Texas A&M 26-20.

Nebraska picked up their first Big Ten win of the season after beating Illinois 20-7 in Champaign. After a solid 8-5 season in 2022, Bert is now 0-3 in the Big Ten this season and has lost 6 out of his last 7 conference games.

Miami could’ve kneeled out the game but instead ran the ball, fumbled, and lost in humiliating fashion 23-20 to Georgia Tech. This is an all-time kick in the nuts loss.

UCLA handed Washington State their first loss after a 4th down stop sealed a 25-17 victory at the Rose Bowl for the Bruins.

Georgia looked more than dominant in a 51-13 blowout over visiting Kentucky.

Michigan blew out Minnesota 52-10 in Minneapolis. Weak schedule and all, the Wolverines have allowed only 40 points in 6 games.

Quarterback DJU threw 5 touchdowns in Oregon State’s 52-40 win at California.

Yet another thrilling Red River Rivalry was given to us as Oklahoma led a gutsy late touchdown drive to defeat previously unbeaten Texas 34-30.

Drake Maye threw for 442 yards as North Carolina trounced visiting Syracuse 40-7. This is the Tar Heels’ best start since 1997.

A wild back and forth game saw LSU score 22 points in the 4th quarter to beat Missouri 49-39.

A late field goal gave Colorado their first Pac-12 win of the season as they beat Arizona State 27-24.

Ole Miss held off Arkansas 27-20.

Gus Malzahn got a contract extension this past week just days after a brutal blown lead against Baylor and followed that up with a 51-22 blowout loss at Kansas. The Knights have started Big 12 play 0-3.

Opponent Watch

Navy (2-3): Win number 2 came for Navy this weekend as they beat North Texas 27-24.

Tennessee State (3-2): A big win for the Tigers after they took down Kennesaw State on the road 27-20.

NC State (4-2): A close game saw the Wolfpack get past visiting Marshall 48-41.

Central Michigan (3-3): The wild Amherst, New York crowd proved too much as the Chips lost to Buffalo 37-13.

Ohio State (5-0): It was a slow start and then an easy win for the Buckeyes beating Maryland 37-17.

Duke (4-1): The Blue Devils were off this past week and host NC State on Saturday.

Louisville (6-0): Duke, Miami, and Kentucky are the Cardinals’ hardest remaining games.

USC (6-0): The Trojans needed triple overtime to get past Arizona 43-41 in the Coliseum. This USC defense is giving up 5.7 yards per play and hasn’t played a ranked team yet.

Pitt (1-4): The Panthers were on a bye and travel to Louisville this weekend.

Clemson (4-2): A barn burner in Clemson saw the Tigers beat Wake Forest 17-12.

Wake Forest (3-2): The Deacons travel to Virginia Tech this weekend.

Stanford (1-4): It was a bye week for Stanford and they travel to face Coach Prime and Colorado on Saturday.

Week 7 Games to Watch

All time are eastern. 

Oregon [+3] at Washington 
Saturday, Oct. 14th, 3:30 PM, ABC

The teams who have won 5 out of the last 9 championships in the Pac-12 meet in Seattle for this huge conference matchup. The winner should move into the favorite out west to make the playoffs and will have a leg up on winning the league. I lean towards Washington holding off the Ducks at home but a crazy stats is that the Huskies have only won once in Oregon’s last 8 trips to Seattle.

Texas A&M [+3] at Tennessee 
Saturday, Oct. 14th, 3:30 PM, CBS

A fun cross-divisional game in the SEC kicks off another mid-afternoon time slot. This is only the 3rd meeting between these teams since Texas A&M moved to the SEC, by the way. With Georgia’s current run and recent history, Tennessee can’t win the division with a loss here and A&M certainly would be entirely out of the SEC West contention with a 3rd league loss. The season is going to get a lot darker for one of these teams.

Iowa [+9.5] at Wisconsin
Saturday, Oct. 14th, 4:00 PM, Fox

Someone has to win the Big Ten West, we are able to report. Wisconsin is the last team in the division who haven’t lost in the league yet and I’m not sure we know if the Badgers are even remotely good. This spread feels pretty large in favor of the home team but I guess that can happen when we’re talking about the Iowa offense.

Wyoming [+10.5] at Air Force
Saturday, Oct. 14th, 7:00 PM, CBS Sports Network

Technically, Boise State haven’t lost in Mountain West play but they didn’t make PJ’s top mid-major teams this week. However, this game pits PJ’s number 2 mid-major (Air Force) versus his number 3 (Wyoming) team. This might be one of the most fun games of the weekend.

Miami [+3.5] at North Carolina
Saturday, Oct. 14th, 7:30 PM, ABC

I am sure ABC is fuming at Miami’s faceplant loss this past weekend. Otherwise, this would’ve been a big matchup between undefeated ACC teams and pretty much the unquestioned primetime game for all of week 7. As it stands, it’s a pretty weak night time slate so this is still the best matchup to watch. It’s hard to trust either of these teams given their recent history but I prefer having Drake Maye at home.

UCLA [+5] at Oregon State
Saturday, Oct. 14th, 8:00 PM, Fox

Or, is this Pac-12 matchup the top night game of the weekend!? Both teams have been playing well with UCLA being much more than a pleasant surprise so far. This is the first meeting in this series since 2019 when Oregon State went into Pasadena and won 48-31. That was the 2nd year for both Chip Kelly and Jonathan Smith at these respective programs. They were spinning their wheels back then, and now, not so much.