Only 3 Unbeaten Teams Remain In College Football, The Fewest By This Point In 49 Years

Week 8 of the 2026 college football season started with five unbeaten teams remaining. But after the chaos of today, we’re left with only three (one of which hasn’t played yet as of writing).

The Big 12 Conference boasted three of those five teams coming into today: No. 2 BYU, No. 8 Texas Tech and No. 10 Utah. But BYU and Texas Tech both lost on the road to unranked teams on Saturday, ending their promising unbeaten runs and potentially knocking both out of the College Football Playoff if they fail to win the Big 12 title. As of writing, Utah has yet to finish their game against No. 14 Houston.

Accounting for Utah right now, only three unbeaten teams remain in college football: Utah, No. 1 Miami and No. 9 UCLA.

According to CBS Sports Research via Brandon Marcello, the FBS hasn’t had that few unbeaten teams remaining by October 24 in a season since all the way back in 1977.

The last time the FBS had three or fewer undefeated teams by Oct. 24 was 1977, per CBS Sports Research.

— Brandon Marcello (@bmarcello) October 25, 2026

The Hurricanes beat Pittsburgh today comfortably, winning 52-23 and putting last week’s near miss to Florida State (more on that later) fully in the rearview mirror. Miami QB Darian Mensah resumed his Heisman Trophy campaign with authority, completing 31 of 37 passes for 387 yards and four touchdowns while star wideout Malachi Toney set a school record with 16 receptions in the game.

UCLA then continued doing their best 2025 Indiana impression by taking down Michigan State, 28-10. Quarterback Ty Dieffenbach continued his solid replacement of Nico Iamaleava by completing 18 of 31 passes for 198 yards and a touchdown. They’ll most likely rise all the way to the top-seven for the first time since 2015 and could even reach the top-six for the first time since 2001.

Parity is Alive

But none of the three remaining unbeaten teams has looked invincible through the first two months of the season.

UCLA’s recent wins against Oregon and Wisconsin were by a combined 12 points and the offense really hasn’t been humming this month. They’re rather fortunate that they don’t play another ranked team until their season finale against arch-rival USC.

As for Miami, they nearly got stunned at home last week at the hands of Florida State. Were it not for some late heroics and a little officiating controversy, they might not even be in the top-10 right now, let alone ranked No. 1 in the country.

Utah is also a tough team to figure out as all of the teams they’ve faced this season either have losing records or are out of conference (or both in the case of Arkansas).

All of that is to say that parity seems to be alive and well in college football. After years and years of there being multiple teams heading into the postseason with unbeaten records (sometimes too many to even put into the College Football Playoff), it’s a bit refreshing to see that every single team is beatable.

This story was originally published by The Spun on Oct 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.