No. 11 BYU is College Football's Forgotten Team, and It's an Outrage

ESPN

Another college football playoff ranking has come and gone and one thing has become abundantly clear: BYU is college footballs forgotten team. When the rankings were released, no one was surprised to find BYU at no. 11. The commentary surrounding it was shocking, though, because there was none. On the release show, a graphic was shown of the resumes of “two- loss teams” ranked 8-15, with the 11th ranked team mysteriously absent. No. 9 Miami vs no. 12 Notre Dame was hotly debated despite an unnamed one loss team sandwiched between them. Why? Because to put BYU’s actual resume metrics on the screen would completely invalidate their ranking, so it’s better to not talk about it at all. But we will. Let’s do some blind resumes:

ESPN compares resumes of CFP highest ranked 2 loss teams | ESPN

Team A:

Record: 10-2

Strength of record: 12

Strength of schedule: 34       

Best win: FPI #11

FPI efficiency: 5

Record over the top 25: 2-2

Team B:

Record: 10-1

Strength of record: 5

Strength of schedule: 24       

Best win: FPI #11

Record over the top 25: 1-1

FPI efficiency: 4

Team C:

Record: 10-1

Strength of record: 6

Strength of schedule: 28       

Best win: FPI #9

Record over the top 25: 2-1

FPI efficiency: 6

You might be thinking that teams B and C would be ranked in the same sphere with team A outside looking in. That would be the logical thing to do, but team A just so happens to be no. 9 Notre Dame. Team B (Oregon) finds itself ranked 6th while team C (BYU) finds itself out of the field entirely, completely unimaginable if their resume is given any real consideration. Among teams ranked ahead of them, BYU is 6th in strength of record, 6th in strength of schedule, 4th in wins over currently ranked teams, 6th in team FPI efficiency, and 6th in FPI of their best win, and yet BYU still doesn’t find themselves in the same galaxy as their piers based on actual play on the field. Why?

This is the problem.

BYU is 10-1 and on the outside looking in, and no one cares.

Most wins vs FBS with 7+ wins
Most wins vs P4 with 7+ wins
Most road wins vs P4 with 7+ wins
Two ranked wins
One loss to top-5 team
Good for No. 11 https://t.co/nRN32huZnv

— Nate Slack (@nateslack5) November 26, 2025

Only the committee knows for sure, but the only logical answer is that BYU is not taken seriously for reasons that have nothing to do with the field of play. It could be that the Big 12 is not perceived as the same quality as the Big Ten or SEC, even though the Big 12’s median team in FEI (35) is nearly identical to that of the Big Ten (33). It could be that BYU’s talent composite ranking (70) isn’t up to par with other teams in the field, which again is also ridiculous considering BYU just beat the 32nd most talented team by 31 points on the field. It could be that BYU lost on the road mustered only 7 points at #5 Texas Tech, which would make sense if Oklahoma didn’t muster just 6 points against #16 Texas. In reality, no one knows, and that is the biggest issue of all.

In every other college postseason selection process, the public has access to every tool, metric and insight that the committee uses to make their decisions. We know what they are and can more or less reproduce the committee's result. In the College Football Playoff, though, it’s all kept under lock and key. They allude to metrics that they use to make these decisions but never release what those metrics are. Honestly, that’s smart of them, because if the metrics were public, it would be too easy to expose the reality of their selection process. The reality is that the metrics are made to fit the committee's established beliefs rather than to educate them. Instead, BYU is being left out for Notre Dame and Alabama because BYU is BYU and Notre Dame and Alabama are Notre Dame and Alabama. What does that mean? No one knows. But also, everyone knows.

This isn’t a tournament of the most deserving teams. It’s a reality TV show designed to maximize dollars for the broadcast networks. We knew this coming in, but every year, there is a small modicum of hope that maybe this year will be different. It’s not and likely never will be. That’s an incredibly depressing thought, but it’s probably the truth.

Now for the positive. BYU still controls its own destiny and holds the dream of a two-bid league in it’s hands. For BYU to emerge from the ranks of the forgotten it needs to do something that the nation can’t forget. BYU has beaten playoff teams and conference champions before, but it’s typically come in September before one or both teams were ranked. The moment needs to come in a game with stakes against a team that everyone recognizes as a juggernaut. It needs to come in Arlington by beating Texas Tech for a Big 12 title. Fortunately for BYU, it has the opportunity to do just that if they take care of business on Saturday.