Spots that could change hands this year:
As mentioned above, current #1 Texas has 48 total appearances at #1 which is 10th all-time and just six spots behind #9 Georgia. The Dawgs get a shot at Texas in 10 days. Here is Texas' upcoming schedule:
- vs OU in Dallas on 10/12. If they hold #1 after this, that will be 49.
- vs UGA in Austin on 10/19. That would be 50.
- @ Vandy on 10/26. That would be 51 but don't sleep on the Commodores, @utee94 pointed out that they have a winning record against the Longhorns and they just took out #1 Bama so . . .
- Off on November 2. That would be 52.
- vs Florida on November 9. That would be 53.
- @ Arkansas on November 16. That would be 54 and a tie with Georgia.
- vs Kentucky on November 23, that would be 55 and moving up to #9 all-time.
- @ aTm on November 30, that would be 56.
- SECCG on December 7, that would be 57.
FWIW: There are no plausible threats to catch Texas this year. #11 is Florida and they are seven spots back and currently unranked. #12 is LSU and they are 10 spots back and already have a loss.
Looking at the whole list, obviously #1 Bama is safe for the foreseeable future. They have 36 more appearances at #1 than Ohio State so it would take more than two years for anybody to catch Bama.
#2 Ohio State could mathematically be caught by #3 OU (4 spots back) or #4 ND (7 spots back) but this is exceedingly unlikely because both the Sooners and the Irish have already taken a loss so they can't realistically climb to #1 early enough to catch the Buckeyes this year. Consequently, the top-5 will not change this year.
The interesting team is Miami. They are 8th in all-time #1 appearances but only two spots behind #7 Nebraska and four spots behind #6 Florida State. The Hurricanes are also undefeated and currently ranked #6 so those spots are in play.
Georgia can't catch Miami this year because they have 14 less #1 appearances than the Hurricanes and there aren't 14 more polls this year.
Interesting B1G-related side note. Minnesota has 18 appearances at #1 which is tied with Tennessee for 19th all-time. This is also 7th best in even the expanded B1G trailing only tOSU, USC, UNL, M, MSU, and PSU. The sad thing is that their last such appearance was in the final poll of the 1960 season. At that time they were fourth all-time trailing only:
- 46 Notre Dame
- 27 Army
- 26 Oklahoma
The Gophers at that time had more #1 appearances than:
- Bama, 0
- Ohio State, 11
- USC, 1
- FSU, 0
- Nebraska, 0
- Miami, 0
- Georgia, 3
The problem for the Gophers, of course, is that in 993 polls since 1960 they have only been ranked 66 times and never higher than 3rd.