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The Big 12 Has Started Campaigning for BYU to Make the College Football Playoff

Casey Lundquist|
BYU wide receiver Jojo Phillips against UCF
BYU wide receiver Jojo Phillips against UCF | BYU Photo

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The Big 12 has started to campaign for BYU to make the College Football Playoff. If the season ended today, BYU would be the first team left out of the 12-team field. Now that BYU has finished the season 11-1, the Big 12 has started to campaign for BYU to make the playoff.

On Saturday afternoon, the Big 12 put out a graphic summarizing BYU's CFP resume.

The conference pointed out BYU's strong strength of record - a metric the committee is supposed to use to help construct the rankings. It also pointed out that BYU's only loss is to a top five team on the road.

BYU also put out a graphic after the game, saying "It would be a disservice to our sport if this team's not a playoff team." The graphic was referencing comments made by Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian after the Longhorns took down no. 3 Texas A&M. Sark said the exact same thing about Texas even though the Longhorns have three losses, including one to a 3-8 Florida team.

For the first time this season, the Big 12 commissioner went to bat for BYU on Friday night. Brett Yormark, who was in attendance for the Arizona-Arizona State game, was interviewed by FOX. At the end of the interview, he asked if he could say something about the College Football Playoff.

"If you would have told me a couple of months ago that we would have 3 in the top 13 I would have taken it," Yormark said. "And I'm thrilled where this conference is going. As it relates to Texas Tech, [I] feel really good about them. I feel they are a shoe-in for the CFP. And Utah obviously they won their 10th game this year and they should get strong consideration. As it relates to BYU, I think they've been under-appreciated all season long. When you compare them to a Notre Dame, there is no comparison. When you think of strength of record, strength of schedule, and win-loss."

Yormark continued, saying he has confidence that the playoff committee will correct the rankings and put BYU ahead of Notre Dame. "I've got a lot of confidence in the CFP selection committee. I'm sure they'll get it right by the end of the season."

Despite having a better overall record, a better strength of record and a better strength of schedule than Notre Dame, Notre Dame is ahead of BYU in the CFP top 25. When asked about BYU's ranking, the CFP committee blamed it on BYU's road loss to no. 5 Texas Tech.

Yormark's comments were notable because it was the first time he had made public comments defending BYU. For weeks, BYU's ranking has gone unquestioned by the national media. ESPN's Rece Davis even referred to BYU as a potential "bid stealer".

Fortunately for BYU, the Cougars still control their own destiny. If they beat Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship, the CFP committee won't be able to keep the Cougars out of the College Football Playoff.

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Casey Lundquist
CASEY LUNDQUIST

Casey Lundquist is the publisher and lead editor of Cougs Daily. He has covered BYU athletics for the last four years. During that time, he has published over 2,000 stories that have reached more than three million people.

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