2025-26 College football season

fishonjazz said:

Agreed. BYU has a possible coaching change happening during the prep week for probably the 2nd biggest game in program history because signing day happens to be the same week.

Wait till the season is over for transfer portals, recruit signings and coaching changes. Duh.

I don't see how the team won't be a little bit distracted and a little less prepared for the big game Saturday.

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This and the Lane Kiffin stuff. Plus all the kids who will sit out their bowl games so they can position themselves better in the transfer portal.

NCAA is a pro league where everyone is on a one year deal and free agency starts right before the post season. I like that the players have more choice and get paid. This is system is stupid and NCAA sports are now soulless.

Sitake stays with BYU. Rumor is he will get 9-9.5 million per year and that BYU will provide 10-15 million per year in NIL money on top of the revenue sharing.

I'm going to assume he got raises for his assistants as well.

Good stuff. I was pretty bummed when I thought he was leaving.
Apparently he accepted the job from Penn State verbally. Then lavell Edwards wife called Kalani and tried to convince him to stay. Meanwhile, the owner of crumbl cookies sent out a bat signal to all wealthy BYU alums and boosters to contact the school and say that they want Sitake to stay and they are winning to pony up money to help.

A deal got done at the last minute. I heard that Sitake had even called a team meeting to inform the team that he was headed to Penn State. That's how close it was.

Phew

So ****ed that BYU would be better off not even playing a conference championship game.

NUMBERICA said:

So ****ed that BYU would be better off not even playing a conference championship game.

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Ya the system is way better now than 10 years ago but it's still ****ed

In the history of the College Football Playoff Rankings, 61 power-conference teams have finished the regular season 11-1 or better. Every one of them entered championship weekend ranked in the top 10. All but two were seventh or higher.

And then, inexplicably, there's BYU.

The Cougars put together a sensational season, reaching 11-1 and earning a spot in the Big 12 title game. They beat No. 15 Utah and went on the road to shock No. 18 Arizona. Yet they sit at No. 11, looking up at several two-loss teams.

In an era of bloated megaconferences, it would at least make sense if BYU's record came with an unusually soft draw. Instead, they rank No. 35 in strength of schedule, ahead of Ole Miss, Notre Dame and Miami. For comparison, Virginia is No. 82. BYU played six of the nine other teams that finished league play with a winning record, and their strength of record sits at No. 6.

Even last season, Boise State reached the Mountain West Championship Game and was ranked No. 10. Somehow, the Cougars are receiving less credit than a Group of Five program.

The early-season nitpicks have also been overstated. A tight road win against Arizona looked shaky at the time, but the Wildcats proved to be a top-25 team. A slow start against Colorado ended with BYU outgaining the Buffaloes by nearly 100 yards. Since then, the Cougars' last four wins have come by an average of 19.3 points, including road routs of previously ranked Iowa State and Cincinnati.

Last year, BYU's profile leaned more on steadiness than star power. This year, there are All-America candidates at every level: running back LJ Martin, safety Faletau Satuala and linebacker Jack Kelly could play anywhere. This roster has real NFL-caliber talent.

Then there's the rise of quarterback Bear Bachmeier, who has transformed the offense. The true freshman has topped 3,000 total yards with 25 touchdowns and has improved steadily throughout the year. If Notre Dame is forgiven for two losses while breaking in first-year quarterback CJ Carr, it's baffling that BYU doesn't get similar credit for developing alongside Bachmeier.

Now the Cougars rank top 20 nationally in both FEI offense and defense, one of only 10 programs to hit that mark. They're also one of only nine to do so in SP+.

At every turn, CFP Committee chair Hunter Yurachek points to BYU's 29-7 loss to Texas Tech as the disqualifier. It's difficult to recall another instance where one performance is so heavily cited. And that's because it's the only real knock.

Meanwhile, a two-touchdown loss by No. 10 Alabama to Florida State is essentially ignored. The Tide trailed 24-7 late in the third quarter against a 5-7 team. Losing big to bad teams apparently doesn't count.

Texas Tech is legitimately elite; SP+ would make them nearly a touchdown favorite on a neutral field against any SEC team. The committee assigns far too much blame to BYU and not nearly enough credit to Texas Tech.

Notre Dame can pound Boston College and Syracuse all it wants. Why should that matter more than handling a tougher schedule?

Last year BYU finished 10-2 and beat SMU on the road. The Cougars still ended up No. 17 in the final rankings, seven spots behind 11-2 SMU. According to an analysis by Stassen, BYU is on pace to become the most underranked team in the AP Top 25 since 1989 when comparing preseason to postseason position.

The case is clear. BYU is 11-1 with quality wins, real star power and a strong schedule. If a team like that can't play for a national championship, what exactly is the point of expanding the playoff?

fishonjazz said:

I guess what im saying is go to you local betting location and take the over. I think vegas has byu winning 6.5 games. I feel pretty confident they will start out 5-0. Should be easy money to get to 7 wins.

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Lol. 6.5 wins.

I've only watched BYU twice this year, so don't take this comment too seriously, but they didn't look like a top 10 team to me. Their best win was against Utah, and I think the Utes were really mediocre this year.

The good news is that they played well enough that they can win today and get in. If they get blown out by Texas Tech again, I'm not sure how you can say they are good enough to win a championship. I would say that if it's a close game they should get in though.

My uneducated thoughts at the moment.

SoberasHotRod said:

I've only watched BYU twice this year, so don't take this comment too seriously, but they didn't look like a top 10 team to me. Their best win was against Utah, and I think the Utes were really mediocre this year.

The good news is that they played well enough that they can win today and get in. If they get blown out by Texas Tech again, I'm not sure how you can say they are good enough to win a championship. I would say that if it's a close game they should get in though.

My uneducated thoughts at the moment.

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I will say this. They have more road wins than basically everyone else, more wins against bowl eligible teams, more wins against teams with 8 wins, they beat a 10 win team, and also a 9 win team (on the road).
The tech game was ugly..... but it was also the closest anyone has came to beating tech in their stadium this season. BYU lost by 22 points and that was the best any team has done against tech in their stadium lol. They might be the best team in the country.

But here is the issue. You make a good point of saying that they didn't look like a top 10 team in the two games you watched and thats fine but most every team in the top 10 has games where they didn't look like a top 10 team. Thats football. Its hard to win and look good every week.
Alabama struggled (won by 7 or less) against missouri (8-4), south carolina (4-8), and auburn (5-7). More losses than byu
Oregon struggled (won by 7 or less) against penn state (6-6),and Iowa (8-4 they won by 2 points on a last second field goal) Same number of losses as BYU.
Oklahoma struggled (won by 7 or less) against LSU (8-5), Auburn (5-7), Tennessee (8-4) and didn't look good against Missouri. More losses than byu
Ole Miss struggled (won by 7 or less) against Kentucky (5-7), Arkansas (2-10 lol), LSU (8-5), and beat washington state (6-6) by 3. Same number of losses as BYU
Notre dame has more losses than BYU and admittedly looked really good in some of their wins but they played a really weak schedule for their nice looking wins against teams like purdue, arkansas, boise state, nc state, navy (didn't look very good) boston college (didn't look very good), syracuse etc.
Basically if you watch any team on certain weeks they wont look very good.

BYU had multiple score wins in 8 of their 11 games. Only close games were against a 10-2 15th ranked team, a 7 point win on the road vs a 9-3 18th ranked team, and a road game against a bad colorado team.

So basically the only game that BYU struggled in that was against a bad team was a road game against colorado when they got down by 14 in the first part of the first quarter and came back to win.

Its just lame that every team except BYU can have a bad game and its ok but BYU has to be perfect. If they lose by 1 point to texas tech today they wont get in.

Its also really annoying that BYU went 11-2 last season and destroyed colorado (heisman winner on the team) in the bowl game and finished the season ranked #13 and then started the 2025 season unranked.
That wouldn't happen to any of the other teams in the top 15. Only BYU. Had they started the season ranked in the top 15 this year then they would be ranked way higher than #11 right now. So dumb.

Then you have this: https://sports.yahoo.com/article/ap-poll-history-shows-byu-210446421.html

A new study of the Associated Press college football poll by On3 reporter Brett McMurphy is providing some interesting results. On3 is listing some of the most underrated and overrated college football teams in the last decade after studying AP polls. USC football is listed as the most overrated squad.

The team listed as the most underrated football program since 2014 is Big 12 conference member BYU, per the study.



BYU is constantly beating the spread every week. It is what it is at this point but they are always disrespected.

I do think BYU has a good chance against Tech today. In the prior game BYU had 2 muffed punts (tech didn't force these, they were self inflicted), 2 shanked punts (again, self inflicted), missed field goals they normally make, and lost the turnover battle 3-0. BYU gave tech short fields many many times and held them to 2 td's and 5 field goals.

BYU is probably the healthiest they have been all season and now get a semi neutral field (im hearing tech will have about 50,000 fans and BYU will have about 30,000) this time. Im hoping that the Sitake stuff all week is a benefit rather than a negative. Hoping that the distractions caused are outweighed by the momentum of keeping sitake.

I think its gonna be a very close game. Vegas has BYU as 13 point underdogs of course. They get disrespected pretty much every week.

Would be nice if Notre Dame had to play the #4 ranked game today and pick up their 3rd loss while BYU could sit back and chill with only 1 loss and cruise into the playoffs with an undeserved bye.

Texas Tech wins this season point spreads: 60 points, 48 points, 31 points, 24 points, 24 points, 25 points, 42 points, 23 points, 22 points, 39 points, 49 points.
I wonder if that is the highest point spread average in the country in their wins. They won their games by an average of over 35 points per game.

Ohio state won their games by an average of 29.5 per game.