Last year at this time, Brett McMurphy of On3 Sports asked every football coach in the Big 12 to predict the league’s champion and runner-up in 2025.
That’s a total of 32 votes, coming from 16 different coaches.
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“You know who didn’t get any votes?” McMurphy asked rhetorically. “Somewhat surprisingly, BYU.”
After coming off an 11-2 season, finishing in a four-way tie for the Big 12 regular-season title and pummeling Colorado in the 2024 Alamo Bowl, the Cougars got very little respect in McMurphy’s straw poll in the summer of 2025.
Obviously, a big reason for that was BYU’s uncertainty at quarterback, with projected starter Jake Retzlaff facing a lengthy suspension for violating the school’s honor code. Retzlaff eventually transferred to Tulane, clearing the way for Bear Bachmeier’s amazing rise.
But McMurphy’s point remains: Kalani Sitake’s program hadn’t quite won the admiration of the other 15 coaches in the league.
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Fast-forward to this year at the annual Big 12 football media days in Frisco, Texas. As the Senior National College Football Insider for On3, McMurphy conducted a similar poll of the league’s coaches and found that BYU edged Texas Tech as the favorite to win the Big 12 title game.
BYU received six first-place votes, compared to four for Texas Tech, and BYU was picked to finish first or second by 13 of the league’s coaches. In a poll of 16 beat writers who cover the league (one for each school in the league) that was published by the Deseret News on Monday, Texas Tech was the overwhelming favorite to repeat (14 first-place votes), with BYU the clear-cut runner-up.
“BYU has arrived as a legitimate force in the league, absolutely,” McMurphy said. “There’s so much stuff out there, but everything I see, the stuff that I trust, and that I put a lot of value in, they all rate BYU very highly. They all have BYU in the top 15 nationally. I think they are here to stay. As long as Kalani’s there, BYU ain’t going anywhere.”
Utah and Houston each received two votes to win the championship, while Arizona and Iowa State (picked to finish last in the beat writers’ poll) got one vote each to win the title.
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More on BYU from McMurphy, other writers
Also at the Big 12 media days, the Deseret News spoke to several national college football experts, including McMurphy, about BYU’s rise and potential staying power. Nicole Auerbach of NBC Sports and Shehan Jeyarajah of CBS Sports were also kind enough to share their thoughts on BYU football from a national perspective.
McMurphy said Sitake is the “No. 1 coach in the Big 12 right now” and that he “wouldn’t be surprised” to see BYU win the league, “as crazy as this league is.”
The veteran scribe said in his estimation BYU is the only team in the Big 12 that does not have to win the conference to get into the 12-team College Football Playoff in 2026.
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Why?
Because BYU has Notre Dame on its schedule. BYU hosts the Irish on Oct. 17 in Provo.
“Now, of course, they do have to beat Notre Dame,” McMurphy said. “But if they do beat Notre Dame, I strongly believe if they get to the Big 12 title game and lose, they will still be in the playoff if they have double-digit wins, with that Notre Dame win.
“Everybody else has to win the Big 12, or they are not in,” he continued. “If Texas Tech doesn’t win the Big 12, they are not in the playoffs. They don’t play anybody. BYU does, so I think that’s a bonus for BYU.”
McMurphy said the “hardest coaching job of Kalani’s life” won’t be in the Notre Dame game. It will come the following week, when BYU travels to UCF. The Oklahoma State graduate remembers how OSU beat Oklahoma in the last Bedlam game in 2023, then went to UCF the following week and was blasted 45-3 by the Knights.
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“Oklahoma State was flat as a pancake,” he said. “I guarantee you that (UCF) will be a tremendous challenge, regardless of how the Notre Dame game plays out for BYU. To go to Florida the following week and have gas left in the tank is going to be crazy difficult.”
NBC’s Auerbach: BYU has proved skeptics wrong
In 2021, shortly after BYU received its long-awaited invitation to join the Big 12, Auerbach penned an analysis piece for The Athletic entitled “BYU finally gets its Big 12 moment: How ‘the planets aligned’ to bring the Cougars back from independence.”
Her premise was that BYU football faced a monumental task, in particular, and was going to experience a lot of growing pains and other major difficulties.
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“They were going from something like six power conference opponents a year to the full schedule,” Auerbach said. “I was (skeptical). Lack of depth was the (biggest) thing. … But I have been very impressed by their transition to the Big 12. Really, it couldn’t have gone better for BYU than it has. They have been a contender right out of the gate.”
How far has BYU come, in Auerbach’s eyes?
“I think they’ve had the biggest case of being snubbed by the CFP, both years, that no one talks about because they didn’t really complain about it,” she said. “I feel like that’s put them squarely in the national picture. Now, this is a team that you expect to be fighting for a spot in the Big 12 championship game and just being a significant player in the playoff picture.”
Auerbach said she “respects the fact” that Sitake and BYU didn’t do a lot of “politicking and complaining” after being snubbed by the CFP committee the past two years, and that it shows a certain inner confidence and maturity within the program.
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“You just had other teams dominating that conversation,” she said. “I don’t think that actually affects the committee, but in terms of like the buzz around the team, there was a lot to respect about the way they played and won their bowl game and had a lot of fun with it. I think that was really commendable.
“I fundamentally agree with Kalani’s non-campaigning approach, but it is unique compared to the way that everyone else has been whining each year,” she concluded.
One final suggestion from Auerbach: If BYU beats Notre Dame and Bear Bachmeier continues to shine, the school should start pushing the sophomore for Heisman consideration, much like Arizona was doing with QB Noah Fifita at media days.
“They could send everyone little teddy bears, or something like that,” she said. “There are a lot of options with the name Bear. … The Big 12, and BYU, should be pushing him nationally as one of the faces of the league and the team, for sure.”
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‘Kalani Sitake’s star is really on the rise’
A national college football writer for CBS Sports, Jeyarajah said BYU has quickly become a pillar of the Big 12, in a variety of sports. Due to Sitake’s influence, BYU football has led the way.
“I think that over these past couple of years, BYU has established itself as one of the premier programs in this conference,” Jeyarajah said. “And I think that Kalani Sitake’s star is really on the rise.”
Jeyarajah, who has also worked for the Dallas Morning News and Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine, said BYU has done “an incredible job of establishing a clear identity” in the Big 12 after a mediocre first season in the power conference in 2023.
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“There was that 5-7 blip, but it’s really pretty impressive how quickly they then got back up to speed,” he said. “It was ultimately one season of (struggling), followed by a 23-4 record in the last two seasons. That’s remarkable.”
Under Sitake, the program is on solid ground and will be for the foreseeable future, Jeyarajah said.
“I think they have a real vision for what they want for football. I think that their commitment to keeping Kalani around is a huge endorsement of what they have and the ability they have with football at this level and, of course, men’s basketball,” he said.
Jeyarajah said BYU has moved into another realm as far as football recruiting is concerned, a move up that should pay dividends for years.
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“They are just starting to gain access to a level of player that frankly they never really had before,” he said. “I’m thinking of the Ryder Lyons level of player. You don’t have to stack 15 of those players every year, but if you can get two or three every couple of years, that will just continue to elevate this program.”
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake talks to his team during spring camp in Provo on March 27, 2026. | Jaren Wilkey, BYU Photo
