CBS Sports 138: UCLA soars into top five, Miami sits as unanimous No. 1 in college football rankings

The UCLA Bruins continue to build a case as one of the best stories in all of college football, navigating an offseason roster rebuild and midseason injuries to a starting quarterback to a 7-0 record through the first eight weeks of the 2026 season. Bob Chesney's group stepped into the spotlight as a top-10 team on Saturday against Michigan State and overcame a slow start to win handily, prompting yet another move up in the college football rankings.

In the CBS Sports 138, our comprehensive ranking of every FBS team according to experts from CBS Sports and 247Sports, that means a slide up to No. 5. The 7-0 start is UCLA's best since 2005, and since the lifespan of the CBS Sports 138 extends back to 2016-17, we can comfortably say this is the highest the Bruins have been slotted in our rankings this late in the season.

What's even more striking about UCLA's position in the rankings as we hit the final week of October is the Bruins' company. They carry an average ballot ranking position of 5.6, which has them slightly behind reigning champion Indiana (5.1) and ahead of Notre Dame (5.7). When it comes to our preseason…

Original source: https://www.cbssports.com/