Provo • Kalani Sitake sat in the same back room of LaVell Edwards Stadium, wearing the same dissatisfied look on his face, after another regular season was done.
In 2024, BYU’s head coach just couldn’t wrap his head around how his team just went 10-2 and was still so far from its College Football Playoff dreams. He tried to celebrate a season-ending win over Houston. But the missed opportunities wouldn’t let him.
“We are sitting here at 10-2, but my mind keeps going to what could have been,” he said that day.
Almost exactly a year later, Sitake was there again, equally discontent after throttling UCF on Saturday afternoon. This time, BYU avoided the potholes that sunk it in 2025. It went 11-1, improved in nearly every statistical category and suffered its lone defeat against a top-five team on the road.
Still, Sitake found himself just as far from the at-large playoff conversation. His Cougars will have a chance to win their way in by beating Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game. But if they don’t, a near-perfect season will likely end in some city in Texas or Florida playing for a bowl game instead of a title.
New record, same result.
“The next best thing to 12-0 is 11-1. That’s what we are. And losing to the fifth-ranked team,” Sitake said with a shrug. “I feel good about our resume. ... I don’t know if maybe they need more teams [in the playoffs]. I don’t have all the answers.”
This was Sitake’s way of trying to understand how the goal posts moved on BYU this year to get into the playoff.
All year, Sitake told his group that if they cleaned up the mistakes from 2024 they would be comfortably in the playoff picture. And his program responded.
Whereas last year’s BYU team lost a head-scratching game to Kansas, this year’s group took care of all the teams they were favored to beat.
Whereas last year’s team dropped two games in November, this year’s team finished the critical month with three double-digit wins.
And whereas last year’s team only mustered one top-25 win, this year’s group knocked off two nationally ranked programs en route to the most regular season wins since 2001.
“The key is learning lessons from last year,” offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said. “Last year we had nine [wins] in a row and then we dropped two. We learned from that. This year, we dropped one, then we bounced back. Now we have to finish it off.”
But the playoff committee has still been unimpressed — punishing the Cougars for their 29-7 loss to No. 5 Texas Tech in Lubbock. The Cougars’ margin for error, even in the Big 12, was next to none.
“It’s really the way they looked in that game against Texas Tech,” committee chair Hunter Yurachek said. “They were dominated on both sides of the ball.”
For now, No. 11 BYU is on the outside looking in of the playoff picture again. And likely its only path into the field is beating the Red Raiders in Arlington this weekend.
It’s led some to ask why beating the No. 5 team in the country is the barometer for BYU getting into the postseason. Some teams currently in the field haven’t even met that threshold.
Notre Dame, for example, is sitting at No. 9. But the Fighting Irish lost their lone top-five matchup of the year. Their best win is over No. 20 USC.
BYU, on the other hand, beat No. 13 Utah. It knocked off No. 25 Arizona. And Notre Dame has two losses, not one.
“BYU has been underappreciated all year. And when you compare them to a Notre Dame, there is no comparison,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark said. “I have a lot of confidence in the selection committee. I’m sure they will get it right by the end of the season.”
(Carolyn Kaster | AP) BYU head coach Kalani Sitake, center, looks to a replay with officials during the first half of Saturday's game in Cincinnati.
That committee Yormark referenced often talks about metrics like strength of record and strength of schedule. BYU sits at No. 6 in strength of record and has the 33rd best strength of schedule — higher than Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Ohio State and several others in the field.
But the committee has more often discussed elevating Miami into the playoff, with two losses, instead of BYU.
Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire doesn’t think that’s right. He also doesn’t think BYU should have to win the championship game to get in.
“No matter what happens, I think BYU and Texas Tech should be in,” McGuire said.
For now, Sitake doesn’t want to argue with the committee. His players, though, want their voice heard.
“I think we should be in the CFP,” quarterback Bear Bachmeier said. “I think we are a great team.”
“We’ve believed [BYU is a playoff team] from the beginning,” linebacker Jack Kelly added.
Sitake, though, is focused more on what he can control, which is a play-in game against Texas Tech in Arlington.
But for some in Provo, the fact that BYU needs a play-in at all is an issue.