BYU Football cracks AP Top 25 for first time since 2018
BYU Football proved it was a top competitor in the season opener against Navy, earning the No. 21 and No. 22 rankings in the AP Top 25 and Amway Coaches Polls, respectively. It is BYU’s first Top 25 appearance since 2018, when the Cougars were ranked as high 20th.
BYU dominated both sides of the ball and scored on almost every possession against the highly ranked Navy defense, ending the game with a 52-point margin of victory – the highest in the Kalani Sitake era.
The latest AP Poll only includes teams participating in college football this fall, unlike the preseason ranking that included all FBS teams. The latest AP Top 25 is as follows:
- Clemson
- Alabama
- Oklahoma
- Georgia
- Florida
- LSU
- Notre Dame
- Auburn
- Texas
- Texas A&M
- Oklahoma State
- North Carolina
- Cincinnati
- UCF
- Tennessee
- Memphis
- Miami
- Louisville
- Louisiana-Lafayette
- Virginia Tech
- BYU
- Army
- Kentucky
- Appalachian State
- Pittsburgh
Texas was the only Top 25 team to outscore BYU during the first week of college football. No. 14 Texas defeated UTEP by a score of 59-3 while BYU defeated Navy by a score of 55-3.
Army is the only team on BYU’s revised 2020 schedule to make the Top 25. The game was originally scheduled for Sept. 19, but was postponed due to a “small number of positive COVID-19 tests” on the BYU team. Players and coaches are hopeful that the game will be rescheduled for later in the season.
“We are going to play and we get to play,” center James Empey said. “Let’s stay positive and we will get that game later down the road.”
The Cougars’ next matchup will be the home opener against Troy in front of an audience of 6,000 fans at LaVell Edwards Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 26. The game will be broadcast on ESPN at 8:15 p.m. MDT.
