When both major college football polls were released on Sunday, BYU had moved up a few spots according to the voters.

Heading into their first by week, the Cougars reached No. 17 in the Associated Press poll and sit one spot in front of Utah, which lost to Arizona in Salt Lake City on Saturday night.

The US LBM Coaches Poll voters weren’t quite as impressed, slotting BYU at No. 19 with Utah at No. 18.

It’s the highest the Cougars have been ranked in 2024 and the best ranking since BYU was ranked No. 16 in early October 2022.

While the pollsters may be hesitant to admit BYU is significantly better than expected, national commentators have been more willing to laud the achievements of the Cougars to this point.

Here are some of the things they are saying:

Ross Dellenger, Yahoo! Sports

Dellenger’s Top 10 Power poll attempts to “not consider any preseason polls or any past season results. What happened in the past is in the past. It’s who you’ve beaten and how you’ve beaten them!”

With that in mind, Dellenger has the Cougars up at No. 6 due in large part to the win over Kansas State.

He said: “Some within the industry thought coach Kalani Sitake — in his ninth season — needed a strong year to cool his seat after going 5-7 in Year 1 in the Big 12 in 2023. Here the Cougars are, five games into the season and without a loss. They led 21-0 against the Bears before hanging on for the win. Couple that with victories at SMU and against Kansas State and the Cougars have a pretty strong resume thus far.”

Link: https://sports.yahoo.com/yahoo-top-10-surprise-upsets-and-a-dramatic-alabama-georgia-finish-shake-up-rankings-065420220.html

Bill Bender, The Sporting News

Bender is currently projecting BYU to win the Big 12 and get the No. 4 seed in the College Football Playoff.

He said: “Utah lost to Arizona, and BYU has a head-to-head victory against Kansas State. That means the Cougars are the Big 12 front-runner for now and squarely in the mix for one of the four automatic berths. This is the biggest surprise from September. Jake Retzlaff led BYU to a 34-28 victory at Baylor in Week 5 – a game in which the Cougars were underdogs. BYU has a bye week before a matchup against Arizona. The Big 12 promises to be the most-unpredictable race among the Power 4 conferences.”

Bender currently ranks BYU at No. 16.

Link: https://www.sportingnews.com/us/ncaa-football/news/college-football-playoff-bracket-week-6-top-seeds-first-round-bubble-teams/bd668be5e6638c3ebfb6cf44.

Will Backus, CBS Sports

BYU got significant attention from Backus in his Week 5 Overreactions column as he talked about the chances the Cougars reach the Big 12 title game.

He said: “I don’t really love making proclamations about the Big 12 since it’s about as wide open as a conference race could possibly get, but few teams have looked as impressive as BYU thus far. Yes, the Cougars almost saw a big lead evaporate in a 34-28 win against Baylor, but to go on the road as underdogs and fend off the surging home team is admirable. This, after dismantling a good Kansas State team to the tune of 38-9. BYU has jumped a huge hurdle by starting conference play 2-0, and now a path to Arlington is clearer. Its toughest remaining game is likely on the road against top rival Utah. With Utes quarterback Cameron Rising’s health a weekly question, that could be a winnable game.

“The Cougars also have to play Oklahoma State at home. The Cowboys are likely to plummet out of the AP Top 25 after consecutive losses to Utah and Kansas State, and they don’t look like a conference competitor thus far. Arizona at home and UCF on the road are other tough, but completely winnable, games for BYU.

“Closing the year against Kansas, Arizona State and Houston, which now boast a combined record of 5-9, is as easy as it gets. All of this to say, BYU has a great shot at the title game and, given the chaos around the rest of the conference, it could even afford a loss or two on the way.”

Link: https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-week-5-overreactions-kalen-deboer-states-his-case-as-best-coach-ole-miss-collapses-again/

ESPN.com

Writers at ESPN are still trying to figure out BYU and the Big 12 in general.

David Hale, for example, prefaced his section on the league by saying “in the race to see which Big 12 team will get smoked in the playoff, Week 5 appeared to be a line of demarcation.”

He then said of the Cougars: “Believe it or not, BYU is 5-0 after toppling Baylor 34-28. The Cougars were actually up 31-14 entering the fourth quarter, then nearly blew it late with what looked like Baylor’s “victory cigar” defense, only at BYU it would’ve been called a “victory generic caffeine free diet cola” defense. Baylor had numerous chances to take a lead, but turned the ball over on downs deep in BYU territory with 1:47 to play then threw a pick with 59 seconds to go to end the game.”

Ironically, one of the most favorable reviews of the Cougars came from ESPN’s sports betting notes (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that owns BYU counsels against gambling).

It said: “No. 22 BYU clinched the over on its win total (4.5), improving to 5-0 outright and ATS this season after its win over Baylor. The Cougars have covered each game by at least 9.5 points and improve to 3-0 outright as underdogs this season.”

Links: https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/page/gamedayfinal092824/college-football-week-5-highlights-top-plays-games-takeaways-2024

https://www.espn.com/espn/betting/story/_/id/40159558/betting-buzz-latest-sports-betting-odds-updates-changes-line-moves-industry-intel

RJ Young, Fox Sports

Young posts his weekly rankings and moved BYU to No. 15.

He said: “Coming off last weekend’s dominant showing against Kansas State, this could have been a spot for the Cougars to slip up. But instead, Kalani Sitake’s team took care of business against a Baylor team that fell to 2-3 following the loss.”

Link: https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-football/2024-college-football-rankings-alabama-moves-no-1-following-win-over-georgia