This is the week the race kicks off in earnest for the College Football Playoff now that the selection committee has released its initial set of rankings.
Let the games begin. And there are some good ones on tap Saturday.
The marquee showdown is No. 1 Miami (8-0) at No. 4 Notre Dame (7-1). Miami tops both The Associated Press Top 25 and the CFP rankings. The Irish are playing for their playoff lives after starting out No. 11 in the CFP rankings.
With a win, the Hurricanes very well could keep that No. 1 ranking through the regular season with unranked Duke, Virginia Tech and Boston College their remaining opponents, all at home, ahead of the ACC championship game. The only teams that have started No. 1 in the CFP rankings and won the national championship were Alabama (2020) and Georgia (2021).
Control of the Big 12 race is at stake when No. 7 BYU (7-1) visits No. 3 Utah (8-0) in the Holy War rivalry. Utah has turned over the ball twice in each of its last four games and the Utes coughed it up a total of five times in their last two meetings with BYU, losses decided by a total of four points.
No. 10 Texas (6-2) plays at No. 19 Missouri (6-2) in what could be a playoff knockout game. The Tigers are 4-0 at home, Missouri's Austin Simmons has put up better numbers than Arch Manning and SEC rushing leader Jamal Roberts went over 1,000 yards for the season last week.
No. 5 UCLA, going for its first 9-0 start since 1998, faces a big challenge in its road game against Minnesota (5-3) . The Golden Gophers don't have much offense, but they've knocked off Michigan and a ranked Iowa team at home. UCLA's Ty Dieffenbach will make his first road start since replacing injured quarterback Nico Iamaleava.
No. 9 Alabama (6-2) visits No. 15 LSU (6-2), and it amounts to a prove-it game for a Crimson Tide team ranked No. 5 by the CFP. Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell is going to need the running game to get going to counter an LSU pass rush that's second in the nation with 34 sacks.
No. 8 Kentucky (7-1) plays at No. 16 Tennessee (6-2). The Volunteers could use this one to burnish its CFP hopes and have never lost to Kentucky in five meetings under Josh Heupel, who has played coy on whether George MacIntyre or Faizon Brandon will start at quarterback.
No. 11 Ohio State (6-2) hosts Oregon (5-3) in a game that loomed large when the teams entered the season ranked No. 1 and 2. It’s still a huge game because of the playoff (elimination) implications for both of these Big Ten powers.
Darian Mensah, Malachi Toney and the Hurricanes put their high-scoring offense up against the nation's top-ranked defense in Notre Dame. Irish QB CJ Carr will be going against a Miami secondary that’s given up over 300 yards passing in three straight games.
No. 2 Georgia (7-1) visits No. 12 Mississippi (6-2) in a big one for the Rebels, ranked No. 10 by the CFP. Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss has been sharp in two previous meetings with the Bulldogs, passing for 635 yards and having a hand in five touchdowns.
No. 21 Iowa, coming off a 30-0 win over Wisconsin, goes on the road to face a Northwestern team coming off a loss at Oregon. Both teams are 6-2 and still have Big Ten title game hopes.
Miami’s Mensah and Notre Dame's Carr will go head-to-head in a meeting of the current Heisman Trophy favorite and the preseason favorite.
Mensah threw for 274 yards and three touchdowns in a 38-35 win at North Carolina and has completed 80.1% of his passes with 25 touchdowns. Carr is passing for better than 230 yards per game and has thrown 18 touchdowns. Each has one interception.
Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith will play his second game with freshman Luke Fahey at quarterback in place of the injured Julian Sayin. Smith had 10 catches for 83 yards in a loss at Southern California but remains the nation's second-leading receiver behind Oregon State's Jesse Legree.
Chambliss is the only other player in the favorites mix behind Smith, Mensah and Carr.
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UCLA defenders tackle Nevada wide receiver Perrion Williams, center bottom, during the second half of an NCAA college football game Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
Georgia linebacker Chris Cole (9) scores a touchdown during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Florida, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Colin Hubbard)
BYU quarterback Bear Bachmeier, center top, is stood up at the goal line by Arizona State linebacker Owen Long (22) during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Oct. 31, 2026, in Provo, Utah. (AP Photo/Tyler Tate)
PAYSANDÚ, Uruguay (AP) — Pope Leo XIV urged an estimated 40,000 people in Uruguay on Saturday to build bridges of fraternity and faith, as he used his first Mass in South America to deliver an ode to the region's beloved mate tea and raise the profile of the Catholic Church in its most secular country.
The crowd erupted in the stadium chant of “Olé, olé, olé, olé, Pope, Pope!” when Leo's plane landed in Paysandú, in western Uruguay on the border with Argentina. They cheered again, blew horns and waved yellow handkerchiefs when he arrived in his open-sided popemobile at the Mass site in the Parque París Londres, a sprawling green space on the southern edge of Paysandú.
More than 30,000 people — many from Uruguay but also from neighboring Argentina and Brazil — had registered in advance to attend the service, around 375 kilometers (230 miles) from the capital, Montevideo. The Vatican said Saturday another 10,000 had shown up beyond that, despite the morning rain and blustery, gray skies.
Because of its accessible location on the Uruguay River, the city was chosen to host Leo’s first Mass at the start of his three-nation South American tour that was in doubt after he underwent lung cancer surgery on Oct. 13.
Crowds of faithful in rain ponchos, many in the Vatican’s yellow, began streaming into the site when the gates opened at 5:30 a.m. as a band played popular Spanish hymns. Some in the crowd said they were deeply moved that Leo pressed on with his ambitious 12-day tour despite his recent cancer diagnosis.
“He’s the representative of Christ but he’s human. And we weren’t sure if he could make it, but he pushed through for us,” said Soledad Sánchez, 73, who had driven to Paysandú from northern Uruguay, her eyes filling with tears. “He made it here to give us a message of peace because he knows our world needs it right now.”
Leo, who arrived in Uruguay on Friday, is seeking to urge the people in South America’s most secular country, with a population of 3.5 million, to turn to the Catholic faith for strength in confronting today’s problems and challenges.
In his homily, Leo urged the faithful to build bridges of faith, fraternity and encounter, recalling the nearby bridge over the Uruguay River that unites Uruguay and Argentina and over which many pilgrims traveled to attend the Mass.
He also pointed to the ritual of drinking mate, the ubiquitous bitter herbal tea that Uruguayans and their neighbors carry everywhere, as a poignant symbol of unity and encounter that he suggested should be applied to spreading the faith today.
Mate, a cherished national symbol in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay, is above all a sharing ritual. The leaves are steeped in a hollowed gourd and sipped through a metal straw called a bombilla, and the gourd passes from hand to hand among friends, family and sometimes strangers, refilled for hours.
Everyone drinks from the same straw, and Uruguayans drink more mate per person than anyone else in the world, roughly 9 kilograms (about 20 pounds) of the dried leaf a year, according to industry estimates.
In his comments, Leo delivered an ode to mate. “It teaches us to share and to be together, strengthening the bonds that unite us as brothers and sisters,” he said, drawing a round of applause and a smile from the pope.
Symbols like mate give identity and a sense of belonging that point to the future, he said.
“Faith, too, has been part of the life of the Uruguayan people since their earliest days, and it must be passed on to future generations with creative courage,” he said.
Leo was to press the message of the church's commitment to helping Uruguayans later Saturday by touring a Montevideo neighborhood beset by drug trafficking and gang violence, where the church is working with municipal authorities to build housing and provide rehab programs for addicts.
His final event, too, was likely to drive home the call to reject religious indifference and embrace the faith: a prayer vigil in Montevideo's Centenary Stadium.
Located in western Uruguay and just across a bridge from the eastern Argentine city of Colón, Paysandú was easier to reach for many Argentines than any of the stops on Leo’s part of the tour in Argentina, his next stop after Uruguay.
In Argentina, Leo will visit Buenos Aires, Luján and Córdoba before heading to Peru, his second homeland and the final destination of his tour.
“Argentina is a much more religious country than Uruguay, and there’s this desire to be here to witness something historic,” said Luciana Lobato, 20, an Argentine tour agent who organized buses of 180 pilgrims from across the border.
Some young Catholics involved in local church groups hoped the sight of a pope drawing crowds would challenge Uruguay’s image as a country indifferent to religion.
“The reality I see in my town is that there are tons of young people who are really interested in religion, who are trying to find meaning and community in difficult moments,” said Teresa Sabellini, 18, from Paysandú.
“And now look around here. This place is full of people,” she added.
Still, Paysandú itself greeted the pope quietly, as though it were an ordinary weekend, with scant decorations and only a few homes seen flying Vatican flags.
Saturday’s Mass was dedicated to Blessed Jacinto Vera, a 19th-century priest who became Uruguay’s first bishop. Leo praised him on Friday as a pastor who traveled the country’s roads to help the poor, saying that people who met him “found something of Christ’s goodness” even before he preached.
Some younger attendees on Saturday said Leo’s humane tone and emphasis on care for the vulnerable resonated beyond the faithful in their secular country as people grapple with a turbulent world.
“I wouldn’t call myself religious, but I like this pope. He has a really good message for humanity,” said Santiago Biglieri, 18, a Colombian who lives in Uruguay. “Even for the nonbelievers, there’s something to take from his ideas.”
Winfield reported from Montevideo, Uruguay.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful as he arrives to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass at Parque París Londres in Paysandú, Uruguay, on the second day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV blesses a child as he arrives to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful as he arrives to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful as he arrives to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello
Pope Leo XIV waves after celebrating vespers at the Cathedral in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Mazzarovich)
Pope Leo XIV is transported to the Cathedral in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
Pope Leo XIV celebrates vespers with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, and seminarians at the Metropolitan Cathedral, in Montevideo, Uruguay, on the first day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to celebrate vespers with bishops, priests, deacons, consecrated men and women, and seminarians at the Metropolitan Cathedral, in Montevideo, Uruguay, on the first day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV waves after celebrating vespers at the Cathedral in Montevideo, Uruguay, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Mazzarovich)
Catholic faithful hold an Argentine flag bearing images of the late Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV as they wait for Pope Leo XIV to arrive to celebrate Mass at Parque Paris Londres in Paysandu, Uruguay, Saturday, Nov. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)
