Rece Davis put Georgia at No. 1 on his latest AP Top 25 ballot, but the ESPN College GameDay host kept every other SEC team out of his top five after a Week 10 that reshuffled the College Football Playoff race.

Davis slotted Notre Dame second, Utah third, Miami fourth and undefeated UCLA fifth, then explained his reasoning on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday. Indiana landed sixth, followed by Texas, Tennessee and Alabama.

Why did Miami stay so high?

Davis didn’t want the Hurricanes to drop far after their first loss of the season.

“I didn’t think Miami deserved to be overly punished, and I wanted to reward Utah for that great win against BYU,” Davis said.

Miami fell 31-24 at Notre Dame after trailing 24-3 early in the second half. Coach Mario Cristobal said he was “beyond upset” that tight end Elija Lofton’s fourth-down grab in the end zone with 3:36 left wasn’t ruled a touchdown. Davis kept Miami fourth, three spots higher than the selection committee, which dropped the Hurricanes from No. 1 to No. 7 on Tuesday.

Notre Dame got the bigger bump at No. 2. Quarterback CJ Carr threw for 319 yards and three touchdowns as the Fighting Irish (8-1) beat a No. 1 team for the first time since Clemson in 2020, a performance that vaulted him up the Heisman Trophy race.

Utah still landed third despite the praise. “That was a wild roller coaster game that both teams seemed intent on bludgeoning the other and then would turn around and be ready to give the thing away,” Davis said. Quarterback Devon Dampier accounted for four touchdowns and the Utes intercepted Bear Bachmeier four times in a 28-20 win that snapped a three-game losing streak to BYU. Utah (9-0) sits second in both the AP poll and the CFP rankings.

UCLA and Indiana face skepticism

Davis wants to see more from the Bruins before moving them higher.

“I’m not sure, as well-coached and as good as UCLA is, I still wonder. I want to see them against an elite team, but I think you’ve got to respect the fact that nobody’s beaten them yet,” Davis said.

First-year coach Bob Chesney has UCLA at 9-0 for the first time since 1998, one season after a 3-9 finish. The Bruins’ only win over a ranked opponent came at Oregon in October. Ty Dieffenbach threw two 75-yard touchdown passes to Aidan Mizell in the fourth quarter as UCLA pulled away from Minnesota 34-20 on Saturday.

Indiana checked in sixth, three spots above its CFP ranking. “And while I agree with the notion that Indiana really hasn’t beaten anybody at this point, I’ve got such respect for the fact that they know how to win games,” Davis said.

The defending national champions lost 19-15 to Ohio State on Oct. 17, and the Buckeyes have since fallen to 6-3. Indiana followed with overtime wins over Michigan and Minnesota. Against the Gophers, Paddy McAteer’s 60-yard field goal forced overtime before backup quarterback Grant Wilson hit Charlie Becker for the winning score. “This team just finds a way,” Indiana coach Curt Cignetti said afterward.

How Davis stacked the SEC teams

Davis ranked the SEC’s 7-2 contenders strictly by their results against each other.

“As we’ve talked about, I stacked up the SEC teams according to head-to-head because I think they’re all pretty similar,” Davis said.

That put Texas seventh, Tennessee eighth and Alabama ninth. Texas beat Tennessee in Knoxville, and Tennessee beat Alabama. The committee ordered the trio differently on Tuesday, with Alabama third, Texas sixth and Tennessee eighth.

All three won in Week 10. Alabama beat LSU 31-13 in Baton Rouge behind three Keelon Russell touchdowns, and Tennessee routed Kentucky 34-6. Arch Manning threw for 297 yards and three touchdowns as Texas rallied past Missouri 34-20 in Columbia.

Georgia (8-1) claimed the top spot with a 42-7 rout at Ole Miss. “Hats off to Kirby and Georgia, that was a butt-whipping,” Ole Miss coach Pete Golding said. Davis still ranked nine SEC teams overall, including six in his top 15, with the Rebels at No. 13.

Georgia hosts Missouri at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, Tennessee plays at Texas A&M at 3 p.m. ET and Texas visits LSU.