Is BYU a College Football Playoff team? A top 10 squad? National writers sound off on the Cougars

Brigham Young running back Miles Davis runs the sideline against Baylor for a touchdown in the first half of a game, Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Waco, Texas. | Rod Aydelotte

The BYU football team is ranked No. 17 in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll released Sunday, but many around the country are now talking as though the Cougars should have higher aspirations than that.

BYU is being considered by many as a candidate to make the 12-team College Football Playoff, while at least one prominent writer considers the Cougars to be one of the 10 best teams in the nation.

Here’s a sampling of what college football analysts around the country are predicting about BYU after it beat the Baylor Bears on Saturday to move its record to 5-0 on the season.

BYU to the College Football Playoff?

With the College Football Playoff expanding from four teams to 12 this season, the five highest-ranked conference champions and then the next seven highest-ranked teams will earn berths.

Right now, BYU is the only team in the Big 12 Conference that is both 2-0 in conference play and undefeated overall (Colorado and Texas Tech are also 2-0 in Big 12 action but have lost a game, while Iowa State is undefeated at 4-0 but has only played one conference contest).

As such, many people have put the Cougars in their CFP projections as the default Big 12 champion, although a number of people have put them in their projected fields while predicting that another team will win the Big 12.

Bleacher Report’s Andrew Peters, for example, has BYU getting one of the seven at-large spots (the No. 11 seed) with Utah winning the Big 12.

Four of a 13-member ESPN panel, meanwhile, have the Cougars winning the Big 12 title and getting the No. 4 seed in the CFP in their latest CFP projections (one still predicts Utah will win the Big 12 despite its loss to Arizona…


Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/byu-college-football-playoff-team-212723896.html

Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2024-09-29 21:27:23

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