BYU and Utah are no longer crashing college football’s party. They’re sitting at the table.
This week’s national rankings put BYU at No. 11 and Utah at No. 17, a pairing that would have sounded far-fetched not all that long ago. Now it barely registers as a surprise.
BYU is tucked between Alabama and USC. Utah sits ahead of Michigan and Oklahoma.
For two programs that spent so many years fighting for respect, that’s a dramatic shift.
There was a time when neither school was treated like part of the sport’s inner circle. Outside Utah, they were often viewed as outsiders looking in, stuck on the fringes while the blue-blood programs collected the attention and the invitations.
BYU spent years trying to find a conference that would take it. Utah watched the Pac-12 collapse around it before the Big 12 gave the Utes a landing spot, and even that came only after the league itself had been shaken up.
Now both teams are regularly showing up in the rankings, and not just in the back half of the Top 25. They’ve become fixtures in a space where their names once felt like novelties.
The numbers tell the story of just how far that climb has gone. Utah made its first appearance in what was then the Top 20 in Week 6 of the 1947 season, ranking 18th.
A week later, it was gone, and then it took nearly another half-century before it came back. BYU needed even longer to break through, waiting 52 years before its first Top 20 appearance in 1974, when it checked in at No. 20 in Week 13 and No. 17 in Week 14.
Since then, both schools have built real staying power. Utah has been in the weekly Top 25 rankings 196 times, with all but one of those appearances coming since 1994. BYU has appeared 308 times, every one of them since 1974, including 64 over the last five seasons alone.
It wasn’t until 2004 that the two schools showed up in the rankings together. Since then, it has happened 65 times, with all but nine of those instances coming since 2008.
Their shared history goes back to 1882, with a few stops and starts along the way, but even their first final rankings breakthrough took time. BYU did not crack the FINAL Top 25 until 1977, while Utah did not do it until 1994. They have finished in the Final Top 25 together five times: 1994, 2008, 2009, 2021 and 2025.
The rise has also changed the way people talk about the people leading these programs. Kalani Sitake, now a hot commodity after Penn State pursued him last winter, was once under heavy scrutiny himself.
Early in his tenure, he made the mistake of building his first staff almost entirely with former BYU players. It was a feel-good reunion that didn’t last.
He had to clear most of that group out and rebuild, and for a time his job security was very much in question.
BYU’s long stretch as an independent also kept the Cougars on the outside of the national conversation for years. That run lasted 12 seasons and came with plenty of complications.
Utah’s path looked different but ended in the same place. The Utes were a .500 program for 50 years before Ron McBride pushed them forward, Urban Meyer lifted them again during his brief stay, and Kyle Whittingham kept them in that higher tier for two decades, with only a few setbacks along the way. After joining the Pac-12, Utah had two 5-7 seasons, then another 5-7 season after moving into the Big 12.
So yes, it still takes a little getting used to. But BYU and Utah are no longer surprises in the rankings. They’re part of the national conversation now.
In Other News...
Utah Fans Just Got Their First Real Look At Alex Jensens Test
Utah fans got their first real look at what Alex Jensen will be walking into when the Big 12 released the 2026-27 mens basketball schedule for the Utes. The league slate is the kind of grind that comes with this conference, with 18 games split evenly between home and road, and familiar regional tests waiting in the form of home-and-away series against BYU, Colorado and Oklahoma State.
The nonconference portion gives Utah some breathing room, at least on paper, with 12 home games and a handful of road dates before the season opens Nov. 2 against Long Beach State. For Jensen, the bigger picture is already clear: the early months should offer a chance to settle in, but the Big 12 portion will quickly show how his team measures up once the real week-to-week pressure starts. [Read more 🡒]
Utahs Rebuilt O-Line Is Changing One Big Concern Early
Utahs rebuilt offensive line has settled in quickly, and through the first two games it has started to erase what looked like one of the seasons biggest early concerns. With five new starters and Jordan Gross overseeing the unit, the group has given the Utes a steadier front than many expected, helping the offense stay productive and keeping the pocket from becoming a weekly issue.
The numbers have backed up the eye test. Utah has allowed only seven pressures and one sack while drawing no penalties up front, a strong start for a line built around Zereoue Williams, Alex Harrison, Solatoa Moeai, Roger Alderman and Cedric Jefferson. For a team sitting high in the national rankings in points and yards per game, the lines quick chemistry has become one of the quiet reasons the offense has looked so balanced early. [Read more 🡒]
Utahs Defense Is Building Real Momentum At The Perfect Time
Utahs fast start has given the defense a chance to settle into a rhythm, and Lance Holtzclaw says the group is feeding off the way different pieces are working together early in the season. In a media session, the Utes defender pointed to the units versatility and the collaborative feel around the group, noting that he has been asked to do more than just play downhill and that dropping into coverage is part of the job as this defense keeps expanding what it can do.
Holtzclaw also offered a glimpse into the tone set by Coach Swann, describing a coaching style that has helped the group stay focused on the details while building toward the next challenge. With Utah State up next, the Utes are treating it as another chance to keep stacking good defensive snaps and carry the early momentum into a matchup that could say plenty about how real this start is. [Read more 🡒]