PROVO, Utah — BYU football jumped five spots to No. 18 in both The Associated Press Top 25 and AFCA Coaches Poll on Sunday after improving to 5-0 with its win over West Virginia on Friday night.
WIth its 38-24 victory over the Mountaineers, the Cougars have achieved an unbeaten start through five games for the fourth time under Kalani Sitake and done so in back-to-back seasons for just the second time in BYU history. The only previous consecutive 5-0 starts also took place under Sitake in 2020 and 2021. The Cougars now have nine 5-0 starts in their history, with four of them coming from Sitake-led teams (2025, 2024, 2021, 2020).
This week BYU is the second-highest ranked of four Big 12 programs recognized among the top 25 teams in the country. Texas Tech (5-0) entered the top 10 after its win over previously unbeaten Houston on Saturday, up two spots to No. 9 in AP while coaches advanced the Red Raiders four places to No. 10. After BYU at No. 18, Iowa State (5-1), coming off its first loss of the season at surging Cincinnati, is ranked No. 21 in the AFCA Poll and No. 22 by AP, while Arizona State (4-1) occupies the No. 21 ranking in AP and is rated No. 23 by the coaches after a bye week.
Listed among other teams receiving votes, Utah (4-1) fell out of the top 25 in both polls after its bye week, landing just outside the rankings in the AFCA voting, while Cincinnati (4-1) jumped up to that same listing as the top vote-getter outside the top 25 by AP. TCU (4-1) also received media votes following its win over Colorado on Saturday.
The voters agreed on the top five teams with only a slight disagreement on the order of the No. 2 and No. 3 teams. Ohio State (5-0) remains No. 1 in both rankings, with Oregon (5-0) favored at No. 2 by AP while the coaches placed Miami (5-0) in the runner-up spot. Ole Miss (5-0) is No. 4. and Texas A&M (5-0) is No. 5 in both polls.
With this week's AP ranking, BYU has been ranked 295 times overall in the AP poll since the program's first national ranking in 1974.
This season BYU has played three home games and two road contests to date while earning home victories over Portland State (69-0), Stanford (27-3) and then West Virginia (38-24) sandwiched around back-to-back road wins in games three and four at East Carolina (34-13) and Colorado (24-21).
This week the Cougars return to the road with a 2-0 BIg 12 record to face conference foe Arizona (4-1, 1-1) on Saturday in a 5 p.m. local time kick in Tucson being televised nationally on ESPN2.