According to ESPN's Bill Connelly's SP+ rankings, a predictive college football power-ranking system, the best teams in the country based solely on their performances in 2025 are Texas Tech, Oregon, Penn State and BYU, in that order.
In the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll released Sunday, Texas Tech is No. 17, Oregon is No. 6, Penn State is No. 2 and BYU is nowhere to be found.
Actually, the Cougars (2-0) are receiving votes from media members across the country and would be No. 26 if the survey extended that far. In the LBM Coaches poll, which many suspect is mostly a survey of sports information directors voting for coaches, BYU fell from No. 25 last week to among the teams receiving votes this week after being idle last Saturday.
So the unranked Cougars are getting a decent amount of respect, enough that neither head coach Kalani Sitake nor players who participated in Monday's weekly press briefing ahead of Saturday's nonconference tilt at East Carolina (5:30 p.m. MDT, ESPN2) are complaining about it.
"We just want to get out there and play and compete and whatever happens, let everybody else figure that out," said Sitake, who is not a voter in the coaches poll.
In truth, neither poll matters that much — aside from shaping narratives and influencing public and media perception — in the big picture. It could be argued that the College Football Playoff (CFP) selection committee draws upon the polls for background information when it convenes in late October to begin the process of releasing the first CFP rankings of 2025.
Those will come out Tuesday, Nov. 4.
BYU safety Raider Damuni said Monday that the Cougars haven't talked rankings at all this season, as a team or individually.
"That's actually something that's probably never brought up to us at all in the locker room or anything. I think, personally, for me, I kind of like it better that way. We know that if we take care of what we need to take care of, if we win our games and we go out and play the best that we can do, then it'll take care of itself," Damuni said. "But we don't really pay much attention to that. We like having that chip on our shoulder and like to continue to prove why we believe that we can compete with anyone."
Another Big 12 team that was hurt last year by not being ranked when the season began, Arizona State, also could not be blamed for questioning the rankings in 2025. The Sun Devils were No. 12 before losing 24-20 in the final seconds at the SEC's Mississippi State and fell out of the media rankings entirely. Even though they dumped Texas State 34-15 last week, they fell from No. 24 in the coaches poll to among the teams receiving votes.
BYU's Cody Hagen, who has replaced the injured JoJo Phillips on the wide receiver depth chart, said the Cougars believe if they take care of business the respect will come.
"The goal is obviously to be the best team we can be in and (get) ranked. But we don't dwell on that, per se," Hagen said. "We definitely know that we want to keep winning, keep being the best team that we can be, and keep competing, and keep showing everyone that you know we're a great offense, great defense and overall team."
Before BYU even takes the field Saturday, a clear Big 12 favorite will have emerged — and it won't be the Cougars.
Utah (3-0), which is No. 16 in the AP poll, hosts No. 17 Texas Tech (3-0) at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City (10 a.m. MDT, Fox). The Utes would be No. 8 in the SP+ rankings if based solely on this year's games.
BYU hosts Utah on Oct. 18, travels to No. 12 Iowa State on Oct. 25 and to Texas Tech on Nov. 8. Those Big 12 games are far more important than Saturday's return to Greenville for the first time since a 33-17 loss to the Pirates in 2017, but Sitake said the focus is on ECU.
"Our goal has been (to) stay humble, stay hungry. So regardless of what the rankings are and what people are saying about us, the only people that matter (are ourselves)," he said. "That's nothing against (voters). The people that actually (matter) can control something about it, and that's the guys that put on the cleats and put on the gear and get on the field and do something."
Certainly, if BYU can't beat a one-loss American Conference team as a touchdown favorite, it doesn't deserve to be ranked.
"I feel like we're in a really good spot right now. Let's just put our nose down. I'm just going to work, man. We can't control what everybody else is doing," Sitake said. "But so far, our mentality has been the same from Week 1 to Week 2 to the bye week and now Week 3. Here we are, and I'm seeing a lot of consistency in the way that they want to work."
BYU defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa said the Cougars are proud of their success on defense through two games — they are No. 1 in total defense and scoring defense — but not dwelling on it.
"I think success needs to be counted. If you're only counting the things that you can improve on, it's extremely difficult to stay motivated and disciplined within a long season," he said. "So we definitely account for that. But I think we're far from satisfied, because we recognize what we have and the ability that we have. … We're extremely blessed to be able to be in this position, but we're far from content, because I believe that we can do this consistently over the (course) of 12 games."
BYU defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa (57) celebrates a sack and safety against Stanford in Provo on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
