PROVO, Utah — BYU football moved up to No. 23 in both major national polls on Sunday following its 24-21 road victory at Colorado on Saturday night.
Off to a 4-0 start to the season, BYU advanced two places this week in The Associated Press Top 25 and one spot in the AFCA Coaches Poll. The Cougars, who started 9-0 last year, have achieved a 4-0 start in back-to-back seasons for just the second time in program history (also in 2020, 2021) while earning their fourth 4-0 start overall under head coach Kalani Sitake, now in his 10th season. BYU has 12 total 4-0 starts in school history.
This week five Big 12 teams are recognized among the top 25 teams in the country in at least one of the two major polls.
AP voters ranked Texas Tech (4-0) up one spot at No. 11 while keeping Iowa State (5-0) at No. 14, followed by BYU (4-0) at No. 23 and Arizona State (4-1) at No. 25 to re-enter the poll after the Sun Devils defeating previous No. 24 TCU (3-1), who fell out of the rankings after suffering its first loss of the year.
Meanwhile, the coaches regard the undefeated Cyclones as the top-rated Big 12 team as this point of the season with a No. 12 ranking, up one place from last week's poll after earning their fifth victory. The Red Raiders follow at No. 14, the same place they held last week, with BYU at No. 23 and both ASU at No. 24 and Utah (4-1) at No. 25 re-entering the rankings this week after wins.
Big 12 programs listed among those also receiving votes in AP include Utah and TCU, while the Horned Frogs and Houston were among those listed receiving votes outside of the top 25 by the coaches.
Both the media and the coaches agreed on this week's top four teams, keeping Ohio State (4-0) at No. 1 followed by Oregon (5-0) at No. 2, Miami (4-0) at No. 3 and Ole Miss (5-0) at No. 4. Oklahoma (4-0) rounds out the top five in AP, while the AFCA ranking favors Penn State (3-1) in the fifth spot.
This season BYU achieved dominating wins over Portland State (69-0), Stanford (27-3) and East Carolina (34-13) leading up to its hard-fought victory over Colorado (24-21), where the Cougars played resilient complementary football to achieve back-to-back road wins.
With this week's AP ranking, BYU has been ranked 294 times overall in the AP poll since the program's first national ranking in 1974.
BYU will host West Virginia for its Big 12 home opener this week in a featured Friday night matchup at LaVell Edwards Stadium. The game is set for an 8:30 p.m. MT start on ESPN.