College Football Upsets Create Opportunity For BYU To Move Up Top 25 Polls

PROVO, Utah – Where will the 3-0 BYU Cougars end up on Sunday in the next Top 25 polls? After a wild College Football Saturday filled with upsets, there’s an opportunity for BYU to rise up the rankings.

BYU currently sits at No. 22 in both the Associated Press and Coaches Top 25 polls. Some teams in front of them lost games against some unlikely opposition.

BYU improves to 3-0, with a total margin of victory of 148-24. All 3 G5 opponents have had 9+ wins in a majority of the last 5 seasons. pic.twitter.com/x3whBajyOr

— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) October 3, 2020

Hopefully, every pollster for both the AP and Coaches takes the approach of the Playoff Committee and has a blank slate every week and starts from scratch. If that’s the case, you could see BYU rise up a significant amount in the college football top 25 polls as few teams have dominated the way Kalani Sitake’s squad has through the first five weeks.

Undefeated @BYUfootball has one national writer believing the Cougars are good enough to make the @CFBPlayoff. 🤯#BYU #GoCougs https://t.co/Yf9pVLHVLF

— KSL Sports (@kslsports) October 4, 2020

Bill Connelly from ESPN has BYU as a College Football Playoff team. Bruce Feldman slotted the Cougars into his Top 10.

During the Independence era (since 2011), BYU’s highest ranking is No. 18 in the AP Top 25. The Cougars reached that mark two weeks ago before the AP poll added Big Ten and Pac-12 teams to the mix. BYU also rose to No. 18 in 2014 after a 4-0. But they haven’t eclipsed the No. 18 spot since 2009.

BYU impressed with another dominating performance in their 45-14 win over Louisiana Tech, but as we know in college football, you need some help to climb the rankings when you’re outside the Power 5. Enough upsets happened on Saturday to create some opportunities for BYU to climb the rankings.

College Football upsets that could lead to BYU rising in Top 25 rankings

Iowa State defeats No. 18 Oklahoma

Oklahoma is 0-2 in Big 12 play for the first time since 1998. The Sooners have lost to a pair of teams in Kansas State and Iowa State that lost their openers to Sun Belt teams. Sooners could be out of the poll for the first time since Lincoln Riley took over as head coach. On the flip side, Matt Campbell’s Iowa State squad might find themselves back into the rankings.

Tulsa upsets No. 11 UCF

UCF’s 21-game home winning streak is over after a surprising loss to Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane have defeated the Knights three consecutive times. UCF might fall out of the rankings completely.

Arkansas takes down No. 16 Mississippi State

Yessir! That’s the catchphrase for Arkansas head coach Sam Pittman. The Razorbacks spoiled Mike Leach’s home debut in Stark Vegas with a 21-14 victory giving Arkansas their first SEC win since 2017.

TCU defeats No. 9 Texas

Texas still isn’t back. The Horned Frogs defeated a Top-10 Texas team in Austin for the first time since 1961. Longhorns could make a big tumble down the rankings, but look for TCU to climb into the rankings possibly.

Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m., KSL Newsradio). Follow him on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.