After BYU’s 41-10 win over Western Kentucky, the Cougars moved into the top 10 in both major polls for the first time since 2009. The Cougars moved up two spots to 9th in the AP Top 25 and moved up one spot to 9th in the Coaches Poll.
The Cougars didn’t see any significant movement this week according to Jeff Sagarin’s college football ratings, where they remain at 6th. BYU’s strength of schedule is 87th in the nation this week according to Sagarin. Houston remains the highest-ranked team that BYU has beaten so far this season, they rank 56th. Western Kentucky ranks 105th.
BYU will face a major test this coming week, as Sagarin has Boise State ranked 9th in the country overall. The Broncos will be the first team the Cougars play to be ranked in the top 25 in any metric and a win in Boise on Friday would legitimize their standing as a top 10 team.
ESPN’s SP+ Rankings have BYU at 12th overall with a 17.2 rating. The Cougars rank 9th offensively and 27th defensively according to this metric. SP+ is meant to be a predictive, forward-looking metric and they still rank Penn State (0-2) ahead of the Cougars at 8th. Oklahoma State is also still ahead of BYU this week despite losing to Texas on Saturday. SP+ has Boise State ranked 26th overall.
NEW SP+ RANKINGS
* Unbeaten Ohio State remains No. 1
* Top-10 Cincy
* Okla State moves up after a strong [checks notes] loss
* Georgia = Florida
* WHY DOES SP+ HATE WAKE FOREST('S OFFENSE)?https://t.co/Lx4J0EQ0Ye— Bill Connelly (@ESPN_BillC) November 1, 2020
BYU continued to move up in the rankings according to ESPN’s Football Power Index, from 18th to 17th this week. FPI does have the Cougars’ chances of going undefeated slightly lower than last week at 41.8 percent but it gives BYU a 14 percent chance of making the College Football Playoff, up from 13.1 percent last week.
The Cougars actually dropped one place according to Massey Ratings, where they are now ranked 21st overall. They were jumped by Cincinnati who is now ranked 18th according to Massey. The Bearcats are ranked 6th in both the AP Top 25 and the Coaches Poll. Massey has been consistently bearish on BYU all season as last week was the first time the Cougars broke the top 20 by their rankings.
Massey has Boise State ranked just behind BYU at 23rd this week. The matchup this weekend will give the Cougars their first high-ranking opponent according to Massey and perhaps a chance to get a significant bump in this metric.
Football Outsiders has yet to update their rankings for this week.
Written by Bridger Beal-Cvetko
Bridger is a student at Utah Valley University where he studies journalism and mass communication. He is the sports editor of the on-campus newspaper, The Review. Bridger is a life-long Cougar fan and college football enthusiast.
