The BYU Cougars: Overlooked, Underappreciated

Photo by Mark J Rebilas/USA TODAY SPORTS

The College Football Playoff selection has come and gone, with 12 teams hearing their names called

to be a part of the quest for a CFP National Championship. Three Southeastern Conference teams, four

Big Ten Conference teams, two ACC teams, a team representing the Independents, a team representing the Mountain West Conference and a team representing the Big 12 Conference will compete for that title starting on Dec. 20.

Many are satisfied with the committee’s selections, with a few naysayers arguing that the Alabama

Crimson Tide should have made the playoff due to having the No. 2 strength of schedule with just three

losses. However, one team that is rarely being talked about has a win over a playoff team, has a stronger

strength of schedule and strength of wins than five teams in the playoff and went 10-2 on the season, losing to the bewildering Kansas Jayhawks in their three-game ranked win streak and current playoff team, the Arizona State Sun Devils. That team was the BYU Cougars.

The Case for the BYU Cougars

The Cougars carried a perfect record until their ill-fated loss to Kansas on Nov. 16. After a close loss to

Arizona State 28-23 the next week, BYU quickly lost steam as a potential College Football Playoff

contender. The ship sailed entirely, by most accounts, when they were knocked out of Big 12

Championship contention the last week of the regular season.

However, given the overall strength of resume, listed at No. 12 on ESPN’s FPI rankings over current at-

large playoff team the SMU Mustangs, the only thing the Mustangs have a leg up on the Cougars is the

fact that they were in the Atlantic Coast Conference title game, losing to the Clemson Tigers 34-31.

Head-to-head, the Cougars beat the Mustangs 18-15 in a heavily contested defensive battle.

The Cougars still beat them head-to-head, have a stronger regular season resume and if it weren’t for the

parity of the Big 12, would have been in the conference championship game and would have given a

better battle to the Sun Devils than the 45-13 drubbing handed to the Iowa State Cyclones.

Yes, the Cougars can deal with the hypotheticals all they want, they don’t matter to anyone but Alabama. However, there’s legitimate, hard evidence that BYU is superior to a team that got an at-large bid. There’s a solid case that the Cougars should be in over the Mustangs and there should be two teams from the Big 12, yet no one is talking about it.

Cougars vs. Committee

The major question at hand now, considering this and other potential College Football Playoff

Committee controversies are what matters to the selection committee that led them to this decision. What

played a factor in selecting who many feel is the “most non-controversial” College Football Playoff they

could have selected?

While controversy obviously isn’t warranted for a committee selection to be validated or vindicated in

any way, there’s always going to be the prospect of “this team didn’t get in and that’s not fair to that

team.”

Such is the case with the Cougars and Crimson Tide. The Crimson Tide’s exclusion makes a bit more

sense in the grand scheme of things. Three losses, including a loss to the 7-5 Vanderbilt Commodores and a blowout loss to the 6-6 Oklahoma Sooners, should get you excluded from the playoff, no matter who you faced or what conference you’re a part of.

That leaves the concept of BYU being left out though. The same record, but with better strength of

schedule, overall strength of resume and a head-to-head victory over the Mustangs apparently didn’t

mean as much as a conference championship appearance. Yes, the Cougars lost to a 5-7 Kansas team,

but look at that Kansas team’s resume. Wins against three straight ranked opponents and a No. 3

strength of schedule.

Neither of these losses were to bad teams, and while SMU’s losses weren’t either, SMU still lost the head-to-head and they ended with the same record, with BYU having the stronger strength of schedule and resume. Those who are arguing for Alabama’s inclusion may have a point with the strength of the schedule argument, but they need to include BYU as well in this argument to make it even moderately valid.

Decisions, Decisions

The fact of the matter is this: The committee chose a conference championship appearance over

strength of resume, which while makes sense this time around given SMU’s record and strength of

schedule at least being relatively close to those they were competing with, could set a dangerous

precedent.

The committee made good enough choices overall. It’s a playoff bracket not many people have disagreements with, but, should the committee find themselves in a similar situation, where two teams went head-to-head and the winner of that head-to-head has a stronger strength of resume, yet didn’t make their respective conference championship, will they take the same course for an at-large bid? How much do conference championships matter over regular season resumes and head-to-heads in terms of an at-large bid?

It's a question that perplexes even those a part of the selection committee. It had to be an incredibly

tough decision, but it’s a decision that shouldn’t set a precedent. Strength of schedule does matter,

head-to-head matters, but with how close those last at-large spots were, this is a decision made by the

committee that wasn’t necessarily the wrong one. You could play “eenie-meenie-minie-moe” between

those teams ranked No. 12-15 and come out with a solid at-large pick. People were going to be angry no matter what, it was just a matter of how many.

In the end, the committee’s job is unenviable, and by no means is this a full-on argument that BYU

should have made it over SMU. It’s merely an analysis of what the committee looked at in their decision

and why BYU at least deserved to be talked about more in the national media zeitgeist regarding the

College Football Playoff.

It wasn’t just Alabama that got “snubbed," as many SEC pundits would like you to believe. The Big 12

could have had two teams in over the ACC with SMU’s loss, but conference championship appearances

mattered more to the committee than what BYU had over the Mustangs. A decision that, while not

entirely out of line given the circumstances, should not set a precedent. Strength of schedule, record, strength of wins and head-to-head needs to matter just as much if not more in the grand scope of at-large bids.

BYU had a major shot and if they were to have gotten in over Iowa State, probably would have been better competition. Once again though, hypotheticals are what they are. The committee made a decision on statistics and resumes, but even then, BYU had an argument for contention. An argument that has gone unheard.