PROVO, Utah — After its 41-23 road victory at Colorado State on Saturday, BYU football entered the top 10 on Sunday at No. 9 in both The Associated Press Top 25 and US LBM Coaches Poll administered by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA)
AP voters advanced the Cougars two places this week from No. 11, while the coaches jumped BYU four spots from No. 13 in this week's AFCA poll.
The top 10 according to AP includes No. 1 Texas (3-0) for the second straight week, followed by No. 2 Georgia (3-0), upcoming BYU opponent No. 3 Notre Dame (3-0), No. 4 Ole Miss (3-0) and reigning national champion Indiana (3-0) at No. 5. Miami (3-0) is at No, 6, followed by No. 7 Ohio State (2-1), No. 8 Alabama (2-1), No. 9 BYU (3-0) and No. 10 LSU (2-1). Ole Miss made the biggest jump in the AP top 10, moving up four places after defeating previous No. 7 LSU on Saturday, who fell three spots. BYU and Alabama both advanced two places.
In the AFCA Poll, the top five teams remained the same as last week with Texas again atop the poll, followed by Georgia, Notre Dame, Indiana and Miami. The coaches moved up Ole Miss three spots to No. 6, followed by Ohio State, Alabama, BYU and fellow Big 12 school Texas Tech (3-0) at No. 10. The Cougars made the largest jump in the AFCA Poll, advancing four rankings, while the Red Raiders put two Big 12 schools in the top 10 after moving up two places from last week.
BYU and Texas Tech are two of four BIg 12 teams overall in The AP Top 25 this week, while three are ranked by the AFCA. After BYU at No. 9, the Red Raiders are No. 11 in AP, while Utah is No. 15 and Houston is No. 25. Houston is just outside the AFCA rankings, listed 26th, while Utah is up two to No. 15. Four other BIg 12 schools earned the attention of voters in the two polls, with West Virginia (3-0), Oklahoma State (2-1), Kansas State (3-0) and Arizona (2-1) all listed among teams receiving votes.
Coming off a 12-2 season and Pop-Tarts Bowl title, BYU entered the season in the 2026 preseason polls ranked 15th by the coaches and tied for No. 14 with USC by AP voters, which marked the second-highest preseason AP ranking for BYU in program history (No. 10 in 1985). After dropping back to No. 15 in the AP rankings following its 63-7 season-opening win over Utah Tech, BYU returned to the same slot in the AP poll where it finished last season at No. 11 following its 28-17 conference win over Arizona while the coaches rated BYU at No. 13 last week.
Historically, BYU has been ranked 308 times overall in the AP poll since the program's first national ranking in 1974. The Cougars have been ranked in each of the last 17 AP polls released since entering last year's AP rankings at No. 25 with a 3-0 record.