And then there were five.
After a historically wild Week 7, the undefeated Power Four teams' ranks have been reduced to No. 1 Miami, No. 2 BYU, No. 8 Texas Tech, No. 9 UCLA and No. 10 Utah. That number is guaranteed to drop to four on Nov. 7th when BYU travels to Utah.
With only five teams left, it felt time to assess who's real and who may still be a pretender even without a loss midway through the season.
We got CBS Sports' resident College Football Playoff experts Brad Crawford and John Talty together to answer a few questions about this undefeated group.
Which team should be the championship favorite?
Crawford: Miami
Miami's banged up in the secondary, and Darian Mensah showed he was human in the win over Florida State, but I'll stick with my preseason No. 1 and national championship pick as the title favorite from this group. Coming into the campaign, I thought the Hurricanes' personnel losses from last season's team were a bit overblown and fully expected the return of Malachi Toney, Ahmad Moten and others to carry the load. Through the first half, Miami's defense is actually better statistically than last season's group, allowing fewer yards, points and explosive plays per game. Miami is the only team, I think, that will finish unblemished. Does that mean the Hurricanes win it all? They'll have to figure that out in January. Going through the regular season relatively untested, aside from a trip to Notre Dame, may not help.
Talty: Miami
I agree with Brad here. Miami lost a lot from last year's title runner-up team, but has shown midway through the 2026 season it has more than enough firepower to hoist the CFP trophy in January. Darian Mensah looks like the best quarterback in the country and has posted huge stats (18 touchdowns to 1 interception) through six games. It helps, of course, to have one of the best receivers in the country in Malachi Toney. The lack of challenging games scares me slightly -- Florida State, though, gave the Hurricanes all it could handle -- but I'll be even more bullish on this team if it can find a way to beat Notre Dame on Nov. 7. As Brad noted, Miami is on pace right now for the No. 1 overall seed and a first-round bye.
Which team do you trust the least?
Crawford: Utah
With the rest of the Week 7 schedule pretty much cleared out, I watched the entirety of Utah's 27-24 win over Colorado last weekend and was not impressed with one of the Big 12's three remaining unbeatens. The one-two punch of Devon Dampier and Wayshawn Parker is an admirable offensive tandem, but this team hasn't faced any adversity against a quality opponent yet. That comes on Saturday against No. 14 Houston and later next month against BYU and Arizona. Maybe this is a pessimistic view, but Utah is closer to a three-loss team than an unbeaten and a favorable early-season stretch has inflated the Utes' overall value up to this point.
Talty: UCLA
Let me start here: I love what Bob Chesney is doing in his first year at UCLA. He has as good an argument as any for Coach of the Year right now. UCLA is the story of the college football season. But (you knew one was coming) I still view the Bruins as a notch or two below college football's best teams this season. Outside of a top-25 win over Oregon, UCLA has largely beaten up on mediocre to outright bad opponents. The comparisons to the 2024 Indiana team are obvious, but UCLA also reminds me a lot of the 2024 Minnesota Vikings, who went 14-3 in the NFL regular season but never quite looked as elite as their record indicated, and got knocked out in the first round of the playoffs. UCLA's path to making the playoff is realistic, even without quarterback Nico Iamaleava, with a star running back (Wayne Knight) and stout defense leading the way. But UCLA's ceiling for a deep playoff run feels lower than that of the other four unbeaten teams.
Which team are you moving up the most after Saturday?
Crawford: UCLA
UCLA is well-coached and does not beat itself. Those are signs of a great team. Only Notre Dame and Kentucky have a better turnover margin (plus-10) right now, and the Bruins have pounded the opposition into submission with the Big Ten's top-ranked rushing attack (231 YPG). That's part of the reason why losing quarterback Nico Iamaleava might not be fatal for this team. The physical-first mindset doesn't change for Bob Chesney's group, and Saturday's 17-7 win over Wisconsin revealed more grit. Since Purdue scored 38 points against the Bruins on Sept. 19, UCLA has given up just 25 total points over its last three Big Ten outings. This group has figured it out defensively and only faces one ranked opponent -- USC -- over its final six contests. This looks like a playoff team given the schedule.
Talty: BYU
Even with the beneficial controversial ending factored in, I was impressed with what I saw from BYU in its win over Notre Dame. In my weekly CFP projections, I had Texas Tech and Utah ranked higher headed into last weekend. That changed in a big way with BYU going from unranked to No. 4 and the pick to win the Big 12 in my latest projections. Quarterback Bear Bachmeier is good enough to win close games against tough opponents, as he did in memorable fashion against ND, which bodes well for the Cougars' hopes down the stretch. Add that to a defense that ranks top 15 nationally in rushing, scoring and total defense, and you have the makings of a bona fide playoff contender. BYU just missed the playoff cut a season ago after losing to Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game, but it feels like that result will be different this time around, especially if the Cougars can get past Utah in the Holy War.
