PROVO, Utah — BYU football stayed at No. 8 in both The Associated Press Top 25 and the US LBM Coaches Poll administered by the American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) released on Sunday.
With its 24-10 win over Iowa State on Friday night, BYU stayed unbeaten after five games for the third consecutive year under head coach Kalani Sitake to achieve the first streak of three consecutive 5-0 starts in BYU football history. This week the Cougars will host No. 2 Notre Dame in LaVell Edwards Stadium in the first-ever top-10 matchup in Provo.
Top 10
While the Cougars maintained its ranking, previous No. 1 Texas fell six spots to No. 7 in AP and five places to No. 6 in the AFCA after being upset 27-24 by unranked Oklahoma.
New No. 1 Georgia (6-0) topped both polls, moving up one along with Notre Dame (6-0), Miami (5-0), Indiana (6-0) and Ohio State (5-1) as the top five according to the coaches, while AP voters also advanced their top four teams one ranking—Georgia, Notre Dame, Miami and Ohio State—before jumping Indiana two spots into No. 5.
Alabama (5-1) and Texas (4-1) are just ahead of BYU in both polls, with the AP rating Alabama at No. 6 while the AFCA favored the Longhorns over the Crimson Tide. Ole Miss (4-1) is No. 9 and Texas Tech (5-0) is No. 10 in AP, while the same two schools are flip-flopped by the AFCA with the Red Raiders getting the nod at No. 9 .
Big 12
The Big 12 has five teams in both polls. After BYU and Texas Tech in the top 10, Utah (5-0) is just outside at No. 11 in both rankings. Oklahoma State (4-1) is ranked No. 18 in AP and No. 20 in the AFCA while Houston (5-1) is ranked No. 18 by the coaches and No. 20 by the media. Other Big 12 teams receiving votes this week are Arizona (5-1) and Baylor (4-1).
BYU in the Polls
Last year, BYU was ranked as high as No. 8 in both the AP and AFCA polls after achieving an 8-0 start to the season. Coming off a 12-2 campaign and 2025 Pop-Tarts Bowl title, BYU entered the 2026 season in the 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. BYU moved up to No. 9 in both polls following its 41-23 road win at Colorado State of the Pac-12, before dropping back to No. 10 in AP after a bye week. The Cougars moved up to No. 8 last week in both polls after improving to 4-0 with a hard-fought 17-10 road win at TCU through the rain and injuries.
Historically, BYU has been ranked 311 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 20 AP polls released since entering last year's AP rankings at No. 25 with a 3-0 record. BYU boasts a 43-11 record historically when playing as an AP Top 25 team.