One more win and everything changes. One more win and we can no longer ignore what will be staring back at us, begging for attention.
What to do with BYU?
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“We could be one of the most talked-about teams in the country right now with what we’ve been doing,” said BYU wideout Mitch Mathews. “All eyes are going to be on us.”
Let’s play a little game for funsies, shall we? BYU goes to UCLA on Saturday, and by the time the cool air rolls off the San Gabriel Mountains in the crisp Pasadena night, the Cougars walk away with the biggest win of the young season.
A win over a team many believe has the talent to not only reach the College Football Playoff, but win it. A team that is, at the very least, one of two or three favorites to win a conference many believe is as good as — and maybe even better than — the big, bad SEC.
Then what? Then how do we quantify the program that no Power 5 conference wanted a few years ago during realignment; the program that was so lost in the reshuffle, it had to settle this June for a postseason agreement with the Poinsettia Bowl?
That is, unless the College Football Playoff comes calling.
"This team is really close," says BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall. "They have great chemistry and there are good players.”
So why not the unthinkable?
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If BYU wins at UCLA and keeps winning over the next six weeks, no one will have a better win by the time the CFP selection committee releases its first ranking on Nov. 3. No one — with the exception of the SEC leader — will have better wins than three Power 5 teams on the road (Nebraska, UCLA, Michigan) and the best Group of 5 team (Boise State) at home.
It is then when we see what the CFP is truly made of, if schedule and who you play really is important (as the committee stressed last season). Think about this: by the time Ohio State reaches the first week of November, take the Buckeyes projected victories (Virginia Tech, Hawaii, Northern Illinois, Western Michigan, Indiana, Maryland, Penn State, Rutgers) and match them against the BYU schedule
The difference is as stark as it is revealing.
If both teams win out — and we’re still a long way from that — Ohio State’s best win (Michigan State in Columbus) still won’t be as good as BYU’s (at UCLA). Then we'll move to the remainder of the two schedules, where there will be no question whose road to November was tougher.
Yet where does that leave us with the CFP, which stressed last season that conference championships are critical — and proved it by choosing Ohio State ahead of Big 12 co-champions TCU and Baylor, who both had better schedule resumes than the Buckeyes? If the CFP can make that statement, why not make the same with BYU, despite the Cougars’ independent status?
Before we go further, BYU has to win a white-hot UCLA this weekend. Then at Michigan next week.
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But the potential of what could be is what’s so intriguing. It’s not just that BYU has won, it’s how the Cougars have done it: losing their best player (QB Taysom Hill) and replacing him with a 22-year-old freshman (Tanner Mangum) who spent the last two years on a mission trip.
All we know now is the Hail Mary throw to beat Nebraska and end the nation’s longest winning streak in season openers, and the Hail Mary throw to beat Boise State a week later. Beginning this week, everything changes.
Beginning this week, everyone looks at the Cougars through a different lens — one that comes into clear focus with an upset of UCLA.
“We’ve got an opportunity to meet a great team at a great place and really show who we are,” Mathews said. “If we go an sit on our hands, then we’ll squander what we’ve already built. Going there to their place and beating them in there, it will solidify those two wins that we had and they won’t be “lucky” anymore.”
They’ll be part of a growing resume that the CFP can’t ignore.
And that will be the biggest impact of all.