BYU got the weekend off, but the Cougars still picked up a few useful breaks around the Big 12.
The biggest picture item is simple: the path to a 5-0 start is there, but it is not wide open. BYU has two conference games left before that potential top-10 showdown with Notre Dame - at TCU next weekend and then against Iowa State.
Both teams took hits on Saturday. TCU lost to a mediocre UCF team, and Iowa State got handled at home by Utah.
If BYU’s FPI win probabilities hold up, the Cougars have a 58% chance to win those next two and head into the Notre Dame game unbeaten.
That said, the Cougars are still the better team on paper than what they’ll see in Fort Worth and against Iowa State. BYU is more talented and more experienced than both opponents.
The one caveat is obvious: winning on the road at TCU has not been easy for BYU historically. Even so, if the Cougars are as good as their ranking says, they should take care of business in both games.
The rest of the league is starting to sort itself out, and right now BYU and Utah look like they’re in a class of their own. Texas Tech is 4-0, but the Red Raiders don’t look anything like the team they were a year ago.
Their defense has slipped from elite to merely above average, and the quarterback play hasn’t been steady enough to carry them. If the season ended today and either BYU or Utah met Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship game, the expectation would be that one of the teams from the Beehive State would win it.
Texas Tech’s schedule is soft enough to keep it in the race, but the overall level of play says something different. BYU and Utah are playing better football than everyone else in the conference right now. If they both keep winning until Nov. 7, when they meet at Rice Eccles Stadium, that game could carry huge weight.
BYU’s offense has been dominant by the advanced numbers. The defense has been solid, though not elite. Still, the Cougars’ September defensive work is looking better and better as the season goes on.
That matters when you look at what some of BYU’s opponents have done since facing the Cougars. Colorado State put up 45 points against UTSA on Saturday, and backup quarterback K’saan Farrar - who couldn’t get much going against BYU - threw for 344 yards and two touchdowns.
Against everyone except BYU, Colorado State is averaging 46 points per game. The Rams managed just seven points in three quarters against the Cougars before BYU emptied the bench in the fourth quarter.
Even with the late scoring, they finished with 23, well below their season average.
Arizona offered another reminder. The Wildcats won on the road at Washington State despite multiple missed field goals from their kicker, and they are averaging 37 points per game against non-BYU opponents. Against BYU, Arizona scored 17 points and was shut out in the second half.
Oklahoma State also made a statement Saturday night, going on the road and beating West Virginia. The Cowboys pulled away late and shut down a dangerous WVU rushing attack.
Pair that with their top-10 win over Oregon, and Oklahoma State has to be treated as one of the league’s real contenders. The Week 1 loss to Tulsa looks more and more like one of those strange early-season results.
Outside of that, the Cowboys have been excellent.
There are three Big 12 teams that avoid both BYU and Utah in league play, and one of them could still end up in Arlington: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, or Houston. Oklahoma State plays both Texas Tech and Houston during the regular season, so those games could end up deciding who gets the shot at the winner of the Holy War in the conference title game.
BYU also has reason to expect a dip in the AP poll when the new rankings come out Sunday. Florida rolled over No.
4 Ole Miss, and No. 10 LSU beat Texas A&M at home.
That likely means at least one team, and maybe two, will move ahead of the Cougars.
One more thing went BYU’s way over the weekend: tiebreaker help. The Cougars were denied a spot in the Big 12 championship game in 2024 because of the winning percentage of their conference opponents in league play.
It is far too early to obsess over tiebreakers, and BYU would rather not need them at all. But if they do come into play later, the Cougars got a boost when Baylor beat Colorado and Cincinnati beat Kansas State.
BYU will play Baylor and Cincinnati later this season, and it will not face Colorado or Kansas State. Those results could matter a lot if the race tightens up.
In Other News...
BYUs Bye Week Brought A Telling Shift In The Top 25
BYUs bye week arrived at a useful moment, not just for rest but for perspective. While the Cougars sat out, the broader college football picture kept moving, and the latest Top 25 ballot offered a reminder of how quickly the sport can shift when teams keep stacking wins and standout performances.
Texas stayed at No. 1 in the ranking, with Miami, Notre Dame, Georgia and Ohio State filling out the top tier, a snapshot that says as much about recent form as it does about reputation. For BYU, the takeaway is less about any single slot and more about the pressure to stay in the conversation when the calendar and the standings both start tightening. [Read more 🡒]
Utah Just Sent A Clear Message In The Latest AP Poll
BYUs place in the AP Top 25 took a small hit after Week 4, slipping from No. 9 to No. 10 as the latest rankings settled in. The Cougars still sit well inside the national conversation, but the movement around them underscored how crowded the Big 12 picture is becoming, with Utah climbing two spots to No. 13 and other league teams continuing to jockey for position.
Oklahoma State also joined the poll at No. 19 after its win over West Virginia, adding another layer to a conference race that already has plenty of traffic. Texas Tech and Houston held steady or moved up as well, so for BYU the message from the latest poll was simple: every week is going to matter, and the margin between a rise and a slide is already razor thin. [Read more 🡒]
Houston Just Got A Ranking Boost Fans Needed To See
Five Big 12 teams are in the latest AP Top 25 poll, the most the league has had since October 2025, and that kind of league-wide recognition only adds to the weekly pressure at the top. BYU sits highest among them at No. 10, with Texas Tech at No. 12 and Utah at No. 13, while Houston has moved into the mix at No. 20 as the conference continues to stack ranked teams.
Oklahoma States debut at No. 19 after ending its long Big 12 skid was the other notable shakeup, a reminder that the leagues middle can change quickly once wins start to pile up. For Houston, the ranking is useful validation, but it also keeps the focus right where fans want it: whether the Cougars can keep climbing in a crowded conference race that suddenly looks even tighter. [Read more 🡒]