Nfl Week 10 ended with only two unbeaten teams left in college football: UCLA and Utah. Former No. 1 Miami was the latest top-ranked victim, and the loss was enough to send the top of the picture into another round of sorting before Sunday afternoon.
That is why Josh Furlong’s ballot matters now. He has to turn the chaos of Week 10 into a ranked list for the consensus, and his choices help shape how readers see the top of the sport when the full rankings arrive. Furlong put Georgia No. 1, even though Utah just extended the longest-active winning streak in college football to 15 straight games.
His case for Georgia was built on results, not romance. The Bulldogs own two top-25 wins, and their only loss came against Auburn. They also turned in a dominant win over Ole Miss, which gave Furlong enough reason to say Georgia earned the nod at the top of his ballot. “This isn't as easy of a No. 1 pick as it may seem, but I'm giving the nod to Georgia this week,” he said.
Utah, though, is the hard counter to that argument. The Utes beat BYU in a rivalry game and kept their streak rolling at 15 straight games, the longest active run in college football. Furlong said Utah and BYU were the top two Big 12 teams in terms of complete level of play, and he still left Georgia ahead of the Utes. That is the part of the ballot that will draw the most attention when the consensus rankings land Sunday afternoon.
UCLA’s place in the conversation is simpler. The Bruins beat Minnesota by 14 points and stayed undefeated after Week 10, joining Utah as the only other unbeaten team left. Bob Chesney’s side also has its own case on the margins after winning by 14 points over Minnesota with a backup quarterback, a detail that underscores how tight the race at the top has become even as the field around it keeps changing.
The rest of the board is shifting under the weight of those results. Notre Dame controlled its game against Miami for much of the night, Alabama delivered a knockout punch in a heated rivalry game against Ole Miss, and Wake Forest added a 77-point blowout win over Merrimack. Indiana was on a bye, while Texas kept its resume in the mix with several quality wins. But after Week 10, the headline is still the same: there are only two unbeaten teams left, and the consensus will have to decide whether Georgia’s résumé outweighs Utah’s streak when the rankings are released.
