The BYU Cougars broke into the top 10 for the first time this season after moving up one spot to be ranked 10th in this week’s Coaches Poll. The Cougars are ranked 11th according to AP Top 25 and passed Penn State in both polls after the Nittany Lions lost to Indiana.
BYU is still getting a lot of love from Jeff Sagarin’s college football metric, where the Cougars remain at 6th. The Cougars didn’t have much to gain by beating Texas State but Sagarin didn’t punish them for playing an inferior opponent. Sagarin now ranks BYU’s strength of schedule as 76th in the country — not surprising now that the Big Ten and Mountain West have begun their seasons.
Football Outsiders FEI Ratings gave BYU a sizable jump this week, from 15th to 9th. Their metric analyzes the offensive and defensive efficiency based on per-drive scoring advantages and BYU’s 52-14 win over the Bobcats on Saturday likely improved the metrics significantly. The Cougars remain an elite offensive team according to FEI and rank 6th in terms of overall offensive efficiency.
ESPN’s SP+ Rankings have BYU 10th in their rankings this week, up from 15th last week. SP+ still has Penn State ahead of BYU at 8th — they remain the only winless team in the top 10. The Cougars moved up in the SP+ Rankings in each team aspect, offense, defense and special teams (helped no doubt by having a punter who technically leads the nation in yards per carry).
ESPN’s Football Power Index has BYU with a 42.8 percent chance of going undefeated this year and a 13.1 percent chance of making the College Football Playoff. The Cougars rank 18th overall according to FPI, up from 20th last week.
Finally, Massey Ratings moved BYU up two spots this week and has them ranked 20th. Massey isn’t nearly as high on BYU’s offense as every other metric is — they rank the Cougars offense 25th and their defense 35th. They’re similarly skeptical about BYU’s strength of schedule, which they rank 112th in the nation.
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.
