Oklahoma State has turned the Big 12 power rankings into a week-to-week roller coaster.
After opening conference play with a road win at West Virginia, the Cowboys are suddenly one of the league’s hottest teams. They were sitting at No. 7 a week ago in the composite rankings, then jumped three spots to No. 4 after beating the Mountaineers 41-24. That kind of rise fits a Big 12 season that has already delivered its share of swings.
At the top, though, nothing changes. BYU stays No. 1 in the composite for Week 5, with Utah right behind at No.
- Texas Tech holds steady at No. 3, giving the league a familiar top tier as the season moves into week five.
BYU is 3-0 overall and 1-0 in Big 12 play, and it comes off a bye before heading to TCU on Saturday at 5 p.m. MDT on ESPN and KSL NewsRadio.
Utah, also 1-0 in the league, is 4-0 overall after a 31-17 road win at Iowa State and gets the week off. Texas Tech stays third after a 49-14 win over Sam Houston and now travels to Colorado on Saturday at 5:30 p.m.
MDT on FOX.
The other major mover near the top is Cincinnati. The Bearcats climbed six spots to No. 6 after taking down K-State 31-26 and now sit at 4-0 overall, 1-0 in the Big 12. Arizona also moved up one spot to No. 7 after a 34-24 road win at Washington State.
West Virginia slipped two places to No. 8 after the loss to Oklahoma State, while Kansas State tumbled five spots to No. 9 after the defeat at Cincinnati. Houston stayed put at No. 5 after a 42-28 road win at Georgia Southern, and Arizona State dropped one spot to No. 10 despite being off last week.
Baylor is No. 11 after a 23-13 win over Colorado, with Iowa State down to No. 12 following the home loss to Utah. UCF climbed one spot to No. 13 after beating TCU 21-13, Kansas moved to No. 14 after a bye, TCU fell to No. 15, and Colorado remains last at No. 16 after its loss to Baylor.
The composite ranking was built from ballots by KSL Sports reporters Steve Bartle, Josh Furlong, and Mitch Harper, and their individual lists show some differences at the top. Bartle put Utah first and BYU second, while Furlong and Harper both had BYU at No. 1 and Utah at No.
- The three ballots also split on the rest of the order, with Oklahoma State and Texas Tech both showing up near the top of each list.
In Other News...
Ryan Smith Just Reinforced Why BYU Can Compete In NIL
Ryan Smiths latest comments offered a timely reminder that BYUs place in the NIL era is not built on one splashy donor, but on a broad and energized base of support. The Utah Jazz and Utah Mammoth owner, who is a BYU graduate, talked in a recent interview about his financial backing of Cougars athletics and framed it as part of a much larger effort from alumni who continue to give because the school means something to them.
For BYU, that matters because competing in modern college sports is as much about sustained buy-in as it is about headlines. Smith pointed to the depth of the donor pool around the program, stressing that the support comes from many different people instead of a single source, and his own involvement is tied to his connection to the university as an alumnus. In a landscape where financial muscle often shapes roster building, BYUs case looks stronger when one of its most prominent boosters says the network behind it is bigger than most outsiders may realize. [Read more 🡒]
BYUs Defensive Rotation Is Already Creating A Bigger Opportunity
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The bigger question now is how that rotation changes once the season resumes, particularly with injuries forcing the staff to keep sorting through depth. A younger safety like Kennan Pula is among the names positioned to benefit if the coaching staff decides to expand the defensive group even further, and BYUs approach suggests those opportunities may come sooner rather than later. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Just Inherited The Big 12 Pressure Fans Have Wanted
Week 4 of the Big 12 season brought the kind of shakeup BYU fans have been waiting to see, with several results reshaping the conference race in a hurry. Cincinnati handed Kansas State its first loss, Oklahoma State went into West Virginia and came away with a win, and Utah took care of Iowa State on the road, all of which tightened the pressure at the top and made every upcoming league game feel a little heavier.
For BYU, that kind of chaos is part opportunity, part test. The Cougars now find themselves in a conference where every week can alter the standings, and the next round of matchups will say plenty about who can handle the grind when the league starts sorting itself out. Week 5 brings another chance for teams to prove they belong in the conversation, and BYU is right in the middle of the conversation fans have been eager to have. [Read more 🡒]