Projected 2020 College Football Playoff Top 25 rankings for Week 14

The College Football Playoff selection committee showed its disdain for the schedule BYU was forced to cobble together this season on short notice in the midst of a pandemic. In the committee’s inaugural rankings for 2020, the Cougars were ranked six spots lower than they were in either the AP Top 25 or the Coaches Poll. With only one game remaining as of now, Kalani Sitake’s team is probably too far out of reach for even an at-large New Year’s Six bid.

When you consider how BYU has performed even against a light slate, though, they are operating at an efficiency higher than what one would expect for a top-five team against the same competition. It is a conundrum where eyeballs and advanced stats show the Cougars to be an elite team but the selection committee but the committee is inherently skeptical of the teams they’ve played to reach 9-0 in the standings.

That is small solace for BYU fans, who are more likely to experience the pain of 1996 than the exhilaration of 1984 when all is said and done this year. The narrative around their wholly-justified decision to turn down a no-guarantee game against Washington hurts them further and makes it less likely they will get a Power Five opportunity this year. Barring a sudden addition to the schedule, BYU won’t take the field again until heading to California to face San Diego State on December 12.