PROVO, Utah — Coming off the first bye of its 2024 schedule, BYU moved up to No. 14 and No. 15 in the national rankings released on Sunday.
The 5-0 Cougars rose three spots to No. 14 in The Associated Press Top 25 and jumped four places to No. 15 in the American Football Coaches Association's US LBM Coaches Poll published by USA TODAY Sports.
BYU has been ranked in the last three national polls after first entering the top 25 at No. 22 in week five of the polls to receive a top-25 ranking for the first time since week five of the 2022 season. This week's ranking for BYU is its highest since being ranked No. 12 (AP) and No. 14 (AFCA) in the week three polls in 2022.
In their second season in the BIg 12, the Cougars are currently 2-0 in conference play after achieving their first Big 12 road win in their last outing with a wire-to-wire 34-28 victory over favored Baylor in Waco, Texas, to follow a dominating 38-9 truimph over then No. 13 Kansas State the prior week at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
The 5-0 start achieved by Kalani Sitake's team marks the eighth time in school history and third occasion under Sitake (also in 2021 and 2020) that the Cougars have earned a 5-0 record. BYU finished ranked No. 11 at 11-1 in 2020 and No. 19 at 10-3 in 2021 as an FBS independent program under Sitake the last two seasons the Cougars won their first five games. With this year's fast start, Sitake's teams have equaled the three 5-0 starts achieved by BYU teams under legendary coach Lavell Edwards during his College Football Hall of Fame career.
Four Big 12 teams were placed in the top 25 by voters this week, while four other conference schools are receiving votes.
Iowa State (5-0), after defeating Baylor at home on Saturday, is the highest ranked Big 12 team at No. 11 by AP and No. 13 by the coaches, followed by BYU at No. 14/15), Utah (4-1) at No. 16/17 and Kansas State (4-1) at No. 18/19 in the two respective polls following bye weeks for all three programs.
Arizona (3-2), BYU's next opponent, is one of four Big 12 teams receiving votes in the coaches poll along with Texas Tech (5-1), Colorado (4-1),and Arizona State (4-1). The Red Raiders and Buffaloes also received votes from AP voters this week.
High-scoring SMU (5-1), who BYU kept out of the end zone in an 18-15 road win in week two, moved into the rankings at No. 25 in both polls after its road win at No. 22 Louisville (34-27) on Saturday to build on dominating wins the prior two weeks over Florida State (42-16) and TCU (66-42).
Texas (5-0), Ohio State (5-0) and Oregon (5-0) are the top three teams in both rankings this week after previous No. 1/2 (AP/AFCA) Alabama (4-1) was upset by Vanderbilt on Saturday.
This week's AP ranking marks BYU’s 282nd overall appearance in the AP poll.
The Cougars will host the Arizona Wildcats this Saturday at 2 p.m. MT in LaVell Edwards Stadium. The game will be broadcast nationally on FOX.