As quickly as it came, the 2025 college football regular season has come to a close, and before one of the final playoff rankings are released tomorrow, we wanted to take a look at the teams that are, or are perceived to be, on the bubble of making the second 12-team college football playoffs. We're going to look at Notre Dame, Alabama, Oklahoma, Miami, BYU and Ole Miss and talk through what's working in their favor and what's working against their final push to the playoffs. Let's first take a look at the BYU Cougars who are sitting at 11-1 on the season, ranked 11th by the playoff committee and are gearing to face Texas Tech in a rematch in the Big 12 Conference Championship.
What's Working In Their Favor?
BYU has been one of the lesser talked about programs in the country this season, but have put together a really good year under head coach Kalani Sitake. They started off the season handling their business and winning eight games in a row. The only blemish on their resume was a resounding loss to Texas Tech on the road 29-7. They won their final three games of the regular season including a 44-13 victory over TCU at home and a 41-21 victory over UCF at home. Their performance has them in a rematch against the Red Raiders for the Big 12 Championship game.
The computers also love this Cougars team; they rank 15th on ESPN's FPI, 15th on the FEI and 20th on the Sagarin. BYU has the No. 6 strength of record according to ESPN and the No. 35 strength of schedule according to ESPN. They have wins over 9-3 Arizona on the road, 10-2 Utah at home, 8-4 Iowa State on the road, 8-4 TCU at home and 7-5 Cincinnati on the road. They're a relatively balanced football team that ranks No. 22 in the country in points per game and No. 14 in the country in points allowed.
What's Working Against Them?
Their 11 wins on the season is very impressive, unfortunately for BYU, five of their 11 wins were over opponents that were sub .500 and really weren't overly close. Portland State is 1-11, Stanford is 4-8, Colorado is 3-9, West Virginia is 4-8 and UCF is 5-7. Now, they handled business in all of those matchups but when it comes to being battle tested and playing playoff caliber opponents, BYU played one and lost to Texas Tech 29-7 and if the Red Raiders had a better performance in the red zone, it would have been closer to 40-7. Sitake, their head coach, is also a leading candidate for the Penn State job reported by multiple sources including CBS Sports, On3, ESPN and NBC Sports. Hopefully, their situation doesn't become similar to the one happening down in Oxford, Mississippi.
My Thoughts: BYU is in a very similar spot to Alabama; win and you're in, but that task is especially difficult in championship weekend. They have the opportunity to right the ship and get some much-needed pay back for their only loss of the season against Texas Tech in a game that simply wasn't all that competitive. If they lose, BYU should be out of the playoff conversation despite their 11-2 record. Their 35th ranking in strength of schedule combined with their consistent ranking outside of the top 12 in the FPI, Sagarin and FEI make it difficult to put in a two-loss Cougar team.
-------
Be sure to stay locked into Irish Breakdown all the time!
Join the Irish Breakdown community!
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Irish Breakdown podcast on iTunes
Follow me on Twitter: @TTrow5
Like and follow Irish Breakdown on Facebook