BYU didn’t just beat Notre Dame on Saturday in Provo. The Cougars may have punched their strongest ticket in 42 years to the top of the AP poll.
The 28-24 upset of No. 2 Notre Dame gave Kalani Sitake’s team the kind of headline win that has been missing from the conversation around BYU’s perfect start.
In the Week 7 AP Top 25, only No. 3 Miami and No.
4 Ohio State sat ahead of the Cougars, and Ohio State’s situation took a hit when postgame reports from head coach Ryan Day said quarterback Julian Sayin will be out for several weeks.
BYU was last No. 1 on Nov. 20, 1984, the season it spent the final four AP polls in the top spot. LaVell Edwards’ team stayed there after a 24-17 win over Michigan in the Holiday Bowl and finished 13-0. That BYU squad also topped the AP and UPI polls and remains the last national champion from outside a power conference.
This time, the Cougars have the kind of victory that critics said the 1984 schedule never delivered. Bear Bachmeier did a little bit of everything: he ran for two touchdowns, caught a 15-yard scoring pass from receiver Kyler Kasper and then found tight end Walker Lyons for the go-ahead 6-yard touchdown with 1:47 remaining. On the final play, BYU’s defense forced Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr’s throw to fall incomplete in the end zone.
The Cougars were sharp on the kind of downs that decide big games, converting 8 of 12 third downs. They led until Notre Dame’s two-point conversion trimmed the margin to 24-21 in the fourth quarter.
Sitake spent the week praising the Irish, saying they “ could easily be No. 1.” Now his own team has the stronger argument, especially after Steve Young returned to Provo as College GameDay’s guest picker for the first top-10 matchup at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Miami remains unbeaten after surviving Florida State 43-35 in double overtime, but that resume comes with a different look. Darian Mensah passed for 326 yards and three touchdowns, while Malachi Toney caught the second-overtime touchdown and then threw the two-point conversion to Cooper Barkate.
Florida State had chances. A holding penalty erased a touchdown on fourth down, and Bryce Fitzgerald’s game-ending interception held up on review. Miami improved to 6-0 and already owns a 41-13 road win at Clemson, but it needed two overtimes at home against a 3-4 Florida State team whose coach, Mike Norvell, was under scrutiny coming into the week.
Ohio State, meanwhile, posted its strongest single win of the season by beating Indiana 19-15 in Bloomington and ending the Hoosiers’ 22-game winning streak. The Buckeyes got the stop they needed when Nick Marsh came down out of bounds on a fourth-down catch.
Still, the Buckeyes’ profile took a hit. They lost 24-23 at Texas in September, and the Longhorns have since dropped two straight. Sayin, who entered the week first in my Big Ten QB rankings, left after a fourth-quarter sack that injured his throwing shoulder.
“I don’t have a ton of details, but he’ll probably be out for several weeks,” Day said. True freshman Luke Fahey is now set to take over before an Oct. 31 trip to USC.
If voters follow the usual pattern, Miami’s unbeaten record gives it a real case. But the total body of work still points to BYU, which owns the best win among the unbeaten teams and a quarterback who scored three different ways against the nation’s top-ranked total defense.
That’s why the Cougars have a legitimate claim to No. 1 heading into Week 8, before they visit UCF on Oct. 24.
In Other News...
BYU Gets Defensive Reinforcements Before Notre Dame With One Big Unknown
BYUs defense is getting some help at the right time, with linebacker Isaiah Glasker and strong safety Raider Damuni expected back for the matchup with Notre Dame. Glasker is slated to rejoin the starting lineup after recovering from injury, while Damuni is set to contribute in key defensive snaps even though he will not start.
The bigger question hanging over the Cougars is what the rest of the rotation will look like by game time. Running back Sione Moa has been cleared to play, but his status for the game is still unclear, and there has been no announcement yet on nickel back and punt returner Cannon DeVries. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Just Turned Notre Dame Into A Pride Statement
Fred Warner has become one of the more recognizable BYU alums in football, and now he is lending his voice to one of the biggest nonconference stages on the Cougars calendar. The former BYU linebacker narrated an official hype video ahead of the upcoming matchup with Notre Dame, a game the program is already casting as more than just another intersectional showdown. The clip leans into the schools shared faith-based backgrounds while also underscoring how far BYU has come since settling into the Big 12.
The matchup is set for October 17, 2026, with kickoff at 5:30 p.m. MDT on ABC, and it arrives with the kind of national visibility BYU has been chasing in its new conference home. Between Warners involvement and the messaging around the programs rise, the Cougars are clearly treating this one as a statement opportunity, even before the first snap is ever played. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Freshman Turned A Last-Second Opening Into An Unreal Payday
A late opening on College GameDay turned into a life-changing moment for BYU freshman Carter Smith, who stepped into Pat McAfees Kicking is easy competition and drilled a 33-yard field goal for a $1 million prize. The scene had the feel of one of those chaos-filled broadcast moments that only college football can produce, and Smith made the most of it after earning the chance when the original winner was disqualified for failing to provide identification.
The payday only got bigger from there, with Utah Jazz and Mammoth owner Ryan Smith and his partner doubling the prize to $2 million and adding another $1 million for charity. For BYU, it was a reminder that one unexpected opportunity can change everything in an instant, and for Carter Smith it turned a brief window on national television into something far beyond a routine kicking contest. [Read more 🡒]