Utah’s win over BYU did more than settle a rivalry game. It pushed the Utes into a new spot in the College Football Playoff picture, and Tuesday night’s rankings only reinforced how far this season has come.
The Utes climbed to No. 2 in the second CFP rankings of the year, moving up one place and landing in the highest ranking in program history. With three weeks left in the regular season, Utah sits atop the Big 12 and remains the team everyone else in the league is chasing.
That rise came on the heels of Saturday’s victory over BYU, a result that gave Utah its second win over a top-25 opponent and kept Morgan Scalley’s team unbeaten. It also helped fuel a Heisman push for quarterback Devon Dampier. ESPN lists Utah with the fifth-best odds to reach the College Football Playoff, but Scalley made it clear the message inside the program hasn’t changed.
"Every game matters," Scalley said. "You don't know when someone is going to upset you.
When one game matters versus the other - every game matters. So the way we prepare our guys, the way we message it throughout the week, it's no different from week to week."
Utah gets another chance to strengthen its résumé Saturday when it travels to Tucson to face Arizona, led by Noah Fifita. The Wildcats are still in the mix for a Big 12 championship appearance, which gives the matchup another layer of weight.
BYU, meanwhile, slipped only one spot after the loss to Utah, falling to No. 10.
The committee appears to be giving the Cougars credit for how close that game was, along with their win over Notre Dame, which beat previously ranked No. 1 Miami.
Miami dropped to No. 7 this week.
The Cougars still have an outside path to the Big 12 title game and a playoff berth, but they’ll need help elsewhere to get there.
Texas Tech also moved up, climbing to No. 12 after a shootout win over West Virginia. The Red Raiders still control their own fate and could line up against Utah in Arlington to defend their 2025 Big 12 title.
Behind Utah, BYU and Texas Tech in the rankings are No. 14 Houston, No.
23 Arizona and No. 25 Oklahoma State, which entered the rankings for the first time this season.
Monday night at practice, Utah players got a lighter kind of reward for the weekend’s work. As they left the indoor facility, they found a table stacked with Pop-Tarts boxes waiting for them after being named the Pop-Tarts Bowl "crazy good" team of the week. Several players quickly grabbed boxes and celebrated the small prize after a big win.
In Other News...
Noah Fifita Has Deep Utah Ties And A Chance To Ruin Everything
Noah Fifitas connection to Utah football runs deeper than the usual opponent storyline. The Arizona quarterback grew up around the program through his uncles, Steve Fifita and Kelly Talavou, and he was a Utah fan long before he was lining up against the Utes. Even with those family ties and that background, Utah never offered him a scholarship out of high school, leaving a relationship that could have gone a very different direction.
Instead, Fifita stayed committed to Arizona and has become one of the more familiar names on Utahs schedule. He has faced the Utes multiple times and won the games he started, which only adds another layer to a matchup that already carries some personal history. He never entered the transfer portal, never drifted away from Arizona, and now remains a quarterback Utah knows well enough to respect and probably remember. [Read more 🡒]
Alabama Still Has One Rival That Could Wreck Its Playoff Path
The playoff race leaves little room for error, and Alabama is staring at a stretch where one misstep could reshape its postseason path. As the committee weighs rsums and quality wins, the Crimson Tide have to keep handling the kind of games that can either reinforce their place near the top or open the door for the teams chasing them. For Utah fans watching the broader playoff picture, it is the same familiar lesson: the margin between a secure spot and a sudden slide is razor thin.
Among the teams still jockeying for a top-four position, Alabamas remaining schedule carries the kind of opponent that can wreck even a strong case with one bad night. The article points to the way recent performance, individual production and the timing of a loss all factor into committee judgment, which means every contender is being judged not just on whether it wins, but on how it survives the toughest tests. For Utah, Georgia and UCLA, the message is clear enough: one slip against the wrong rival can change everything. [Read more 🡒]
Utah Faces A Familiar Arizona Threat That Could Decide Everything
Utah is heading into a matchup that has the feel of a familiar test, with No. 2 in the Big 12 set to meet Arizona and quarterback Noah Fifita. For the Utes, the challenge is less about introduction than execution. Fifita has built his reputation as one of the nations top quarterbacks in 2026, pairing accuracy with enough mobility to punish defenses that lose discipline, and that combination has a way of making even a solid game plan look thin if the rush does not get home.
For Utah, the key will be whether its defense can keep Fifita from settling in and picking apart the secondary. If the Utes cannot generate pressure, Arizonas passing game can quickly become the kind of problem that changes the rhythm of the entire afternoon. It is the sort of quarterback matchup Utah has seen before, and the kind that can turn a conference game into a referendum on who wins the line of scrimmage. [Read more 🡒]