I thought a ranking of #14 was generous for playing a Sun Belt schedule. Don’t understand the complaining from Provo. They are still on track for a trip to Idaho in the Potato Bowl against a 4th place team from the MAC. Sounds like a fitting reward for beating North Alabama and Troy. Oh, and don’t forget squeaking out a 7 point win against UTSA!
It’s hard to rank them with their schedule and the fact that there are probably 30 teams that would be 9-0 with that same schedule. However, BYU looks good and they would probably have the same record as several of the teams ranked ahead of them if they had played that teams schedule, specifically Indiana, Iowa St. and Oklahoma.
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Whoa, you believe in them more than I do. Those teams all have pretty impressive wins and have played pretty tough schedules.
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The #14 ranking seems WAAAAY too high. I’ll give them credit for creating a schedule on the fly, but who they created it with leaves much to be desired. It’s possible that they could be worthy of the ranking, but I don’t think that they’ve really been tested by anyone. IMO if they get an NY6 bowl, it’ll be a Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl embarrassment for them.
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Apparently BYU’s mistake was BEATING the sunbelt teams they played instead of losing to them, like Iowa State did. 
BYU has a pretty good team this year. They’ve got an experienced OL. They’ve got a QB and WR’s who make plays. They don’t rely on gimmicks to score and can pound it. I don’t know how you can watch the game and not think they’re good.
How good? I don’t know. Hopefully before the end of the season we’ll get to see. Even if we’re just talking about a bowl game against a non-sucky P5.
But I like their chances in a potential NY6 matchup. Let’s be honest - outside of the top 4-5 this year, no one looks all that overpowering. This is one of the more crazy CFB seasons.
For those of you who missed it, on college game day last weekend, Bear said he talked to the line-setters in Vegas and BYU would get the same line as Cincy against any of the top teams. I know that’s all just for entertainment purposes and isn’t to pick winners - but I think it does say something about how BYU is viewed outside of echo chambers like this one (and CB - I must admit).
BYU moves up a spot. I still think they’ll end up in a NY6, mostly by default because the Pac-12 isn’t really eligible and everyone else stinks.
Northwestern at 5-1 with 5 wins over Big 10 teams belongs ahead of 9-0 with no quality wins, in my opinion.
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It’s just a weird year for college football all around. Especially with so few inter-conference games to gauge the strength of one conference against another.
I agree that Northwestern is impressive at 5-1.
But consider - only 2 of those 5 wins are against teams with a winning record. And they just lost to a team that was 1-3 before playing them. So how good are they really? No idea. Better than the 5 teams they beat - at least on those 5 days. But that isn’t really saying a lot.
I think the chaos and instability of players being in and out of practice, games getting switched up, etc., has definitely had an impact on how teams play. I’m sure some coaches are better at adjusting on the fly while others have a hard time outside of their traditional prep routine.
I don’t think this means what it usually does when teams have played only conference games. We know every one of those Big 10 teams typically goes 3-0 or 2-1 in their nonconference games.
You are right that this season is all messed up. There’s no numerical way to accurately compare teams when so few games are being played and there is no inter-conference connectivity.
So it comes down to common sense, the eye test, charity, brand, star power, etc. BYU is cleaning up in all of those categories except common sense. No other team has benefitted from covid like BYU. Only the biggest BYU homers believe BYU would have been in the conversation had this been a normal year.
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Complaining? I thought it was whining of a non-Power 5 team because they aren’t invited to the big boy games.
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So BYU gets the same lines as Cincy. I believe it. What are those lines? Because Cincy played Ohio State last year and lost by 45+.
BYU isn’t that good. They are the same as they were last year. Good news is, we will find out. And there’s a great chance Utah will get to wreck BYU’s season.
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Why should BYU be ahead of UW or USC?
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Finally, IF we go out and show well vs OSU, I wouldn’t be surprised if Utah is ranked by the CFP at 25 or 24. Especially if UW and USC stay unbeaten.
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Uh, no. Utah has 0 percent chance of entering the rankings this season.
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#PhonyChampionship - If we are handing out a trophy, give it to COVID. It kicked everyone’s ass.
#PhonyPoll - TDS is in it, ‘nuff said.
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Huh. You think so? Utah’s two losses are to ranked teams. If Utah beats OSU soundly, they will have beaten the team that beat Oregon. Colorado happens to play Arizona this weekend. They will win and they will be ranked.
If Utah beats Colorado, that means they will be 2-2, with their two losses vs the two teams in the pseudo P-12 title game and wins over the team that beat Oregon and a ranked Colorado team.
0 percent chance of being ranked, huh?
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Our best case scenario is to finish 4-2 with a win in a bowl game. That doesn’t land us in the top 25 unless the four wins are highly visible for some reason. 2-2 doesn’t get us there regardless of score or opponent.
I hate the “give credit to them because they tried to schedule harder”. Such a dumb argument.
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It’s dumb on multiple levels, too. It’s dumb because (1) we are always judged on who we play, not on who we try to play, (2) if the original schedule had stayed in tact, BYU would not be ranked right now, and (3) it’s usually said as some kind of accusation, when in reality the situation that caused conferences to back out was an unprecedented global pandemic that was completely out of everyone’s control (a pandemic that has clearly benefitted BYU in a major way).
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I could see if we started 2-0 over Ore St. and CU then lost to USC and UW that we would be 24/25 if CFP (because we started higher). But to start 0-2 (even ‘good’ losses) and then get to 2-2, we probably are just outside. With 3-2, maybe start to sneak in. 4-2 gets us to maybe the high teens (do they do a final one after bowl games?).
With bowls being cancelled left and right (down 3 or 4 for PAC-12 spots), who knows if we (or many) will even have a bowl. Maybe just schedule another game.
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I think the P12 should seriously consider scrapping the bowls and just trying to play 7-8 games into December instead.
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