AP Top 25
1. Oklahoma (43) 4-0 1,599
2. Alabama (21) 5-0 1,565
3. LSU 4-0 1,466
4. Missouri (1) 4-0 1,453
5. Texas 4-0 1,362
6. Penn State 5-0 1,252
7. Texas Tech 4-0 1,105
8. Brigham Young 4-0 1,098
9. USC 2-1 1,087
10. South Florida 5-0 1,035
11. Georgia 4-1 1,018
12. Florida 3-1 914
13. Auburn 4-1 860
14. Ohio State 4-1 829
15. Utah 5-0 713
16. Kansas 3-1 650
17. Boise State 3-0 549
18. Wisconsin 3-1 520
19. Vanderbilt 4-0 459
20. Virginia Tech 4-1 290
21. Oklahoma State 4-0 277
22. Fresno State 3-1 232
23. Oregon 4-1 199
24. Connecticut 5-0 126
25. Wake Forest 3-1 107

USA Today Poll
1. Oklahoma (57) 4-0 1,520
2. LSU (1) 4-0 1,399
3. Missouri 4-0 1,398
4. Alabama (2) 5-0 1,350
5. Texas (1) 4-0 1,310
6. Penn State 5-0 1,146
7. Brigham Young 4-0 1,054
8. Texas Tech 4-0 1,047
9. USC 2-1 990
10. Georgia 4-1 888
10. South Florida 5-0 888
12. Ohio State 4-1 854
13. Florida 3-1 832
14. Auburn 4-1 776
15. Utah 5-0 684
16. Kansas 3-1 555
17. Wisconsin 3-1 521
18. Boise State 3-0 446
19. Vanderbilt 4-0 351
20. Oregon 4-1 286
21. Fresno State 3-1 280
22. Oklahoma State (229) 4-0 229
23. Connecticut 5-0 180
24. Virginia Tech 4-1 161
25. Wake Forest 3-1 148

I was hoping TCU would have a better showing against Oklahoma. Too many turnovers and big plays given up. Oklahoma is either REALLY good, or TCU isn't quite as good as they/we thought.

Nice showing for BYU and Utah in the polls, just a week before the first BCS poll comes out.

Utah has a chance for one more statement win OOC vs the Beavers. Let's hope they can truly dominate a decent team for once this season.

NO won-loss teams ranked ahead of BYU in the polls. A good sign that BYU and the MWC are gaining some respect nationwide.

A team is only without honor in their own country (see Utah fan/BYU haters).

Congrats to the Utes getting to #15 in both polls. November 22nd is shaping up to be a momentus day for BYU/Utah.

Thats right BYU is gonna be in the top 3 at the end of the season, after they cream Utah who will be lucky to still be in the rankings by the end of the season

GO COUGARS!!!!!!

Congratulations Utes.

I was at the Utah game last night and I wan't impressed with their showing against Weber State. Utah will definately fall in the coming weeks.

BYU needs to stay focused every week.. even against Utah State. If they do that they will be in the top 5 at the end of the season.

Go Cougs!

Before you guys get all riled up about how BYU was cheated by the AP at only #8, sit down, stop, and think about this:

1. Alabama and LSU play each other
2. Texas plays Oklahoma and Missouri
3. Oklahoma has to play Texas and beat the Big 12 North Champ (probably Missouri).
5. Penn State moved past BYU - but they beat a ranked team, something BYU has only done once this decade. That said, they still have to finish out the Big 10 schedule.

In other words it doesn't get any better than this for BYU. Drop the National Championship talk for now (Alabama is a more complete team), but the chance to move up dramatically is there. It is going to be very tough for anyone ahead of BYU to remain unbeaten. BYU is better than TCU this year and innovation and execution could trump speed for 1 game in a major bowl.

The landscape is changing and BYU is part of the change. Unless Alabama and Penn State both emerge unbeaten (sportswriter dream come true), the play-off calls are going to really crescendo this year. BYU is earning a place at the table.

How great is it (for the state and for the MWC) that both BYU and Utah are ranked! These are good times indeed.

Great showing for both teams! Way to go Cougars and Utes!

Finally, start purusing the news outside of Utah. BYU is getting more favorable mention than I can ever remember. This isn't Missouri in 1838 and the AP and ESPN are not Lilburn Boggs.

BYU has a chance to achieve something special this year. Remember 1 thing: If BYU wins out and gets a BCS bowl invitation, it is almost guaranteed to be a better draw then Michigan in 1984. The BCS is far from perfect, but at least it has accomplished that.

...if you really think BYU could beat any team in the top 12. Their ranking is a result to everyone else losing. Well I guess that win against 1-3 UCLA was impressive, or was it the squeaker by 0-4 Washington that won the voter's hearts?

And I failed to mention (because they are over-rated) that Texas Tech plays Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri too.

With no 1-loss teams ahead of BYU it truly is a sweet situation for BYU.

Congrats to BYU in moving up to #7 in the important poll. They are where I thought they would be after this wild weekend of upsets.

My Utes are about where I thought they would be as well at #15. This week will be telling to see how they play vs OSU. Maybe the Utes were saving their energy last night and will be ready to play Thursday.

Right now its all about "just keep winning" for both Utah & BYU. Do this and the polls will take care of themselves.

I know I'm really sticking my neck out with this one, but I know everyone out there hates the BCS as much as I do and this would really shake them up. As of right now no one-loss team is ranked higher than BYU and if any of the top seven lose they will fall behind the Cougars in the polls. With only the Big 10, SEC, and Big 12 represented in the top seven, there can theoretically be only three undefeated teams among them at seasons end. What if Penn St. falls in the regular season and an undefeated team from the Big 12 or SEC loses its conference championship game to a one-loss team? It's iffy, but the possibility makes me excited. I also think that both the Utes and Cougars can end up being in BCS games if they're match-up is a close one.

WOW!! If you come to Utah you had better be ready to play! GO Cougars and Go Utes. I think the next few weeks we put it aside and be proud of what our two schools are accomplishing.

In the Stands has a great run down on this.

As I look at the top 20 teams I sincerely think BYU can play with and beat from #5 on down. When you get into the top few teams I think we could be very competitive.

That aside, all we need to do is focus on Utah State. I'm spoiled now as I expect our defense to hold them scoreless, and our offense to drop 50+ points on them.

In order for BYU to get into a national championship game we need to go undefeated, dominate every team (beat them by 4 plus touchdowns) and then all of the teams ahead of us must stumble. Then...MAYBE.

Short of the perfect dream scenario BYU does sit on the drivers seat to get to a Fiesta/BCS Bowl. And how we do that is skip the news stories, focus on Utah State and pound the crud out of them. Repeat that seven more times and the rest will take care of itself.

I am a solid believer in Mendenhallism - The art of assignment football!

Go BYU!

PS I hope Utah beats Oregon St. Makes the Holy War victory that much sweeter.

I think both BYU and Utah are ranked too high. I don't think either of them could beat the teams that are ranked around them. I don't think BYU could beat for example USC or Florida and I don't think Utah could beat Florida or Auburn

I hope that Max Hall takes Coach Mendenhall's philosophy to heart and focuses on doing what the Cougar's are doing and not what the polls are saying. Many times if you are trying to "stay on top" you play differently. As the old adage goes, "prevent defenses, only prevent you from winning".

I hope Max keeps going out and doing what he does with the same confidence that he has had this year. I have never seen a quarterback be so decisive and play within himself the way Max has thus far this year. He doesn't force things, and that is what Detmer started to do after he won the Heisman Award. He tried to do too much. High expectations are a precarious perch to balance on. Don't start believing what the polls are saying about you Cougars, it is always better to play as if you are going to prove the naysayers wrong rather than trying to keep up with expectations

Go Cougars!

These polls are hillarious If anyone else should be complaining it should be Boise State but, look out Utah next season you got Boise State and I will bet you that the Utes lose

re:Rankings. I am glad you think that. The reality is neither you, I nor anyone else has a clue as to what would ACTUALLY happen on the field. Why is it again that college football can't be like All other college sports and let the players determine who the real champion is? We can only hope that this "light of day" continues to shine on this deplorable situation so that someday action to correct this injustice will actually come about.

BYU has one win over a ranked opponent this decade, and they expect to win in the BCS? If BYU plays in a BCS Bowl, they will play against Texas, Oklahoma or Missouri in the Fiesta Bowl, or Bama, Georgia, LSU or Florida in the Sugar Bowl.What will happen when BYU actually faces a formidable offense, and a fast defense? You haven't even played a decent team, and you think you can play with one of the top five teams in the nation? Your schedule is a joke! I thought people here in the South were ignorant, then I read some of these comments. Enjoy the success while you can...before someone drops 50 on you on primetime in January.

Rankings - I disagree to an extent - it depends on where they play. BYU could not beat Alabama or Oklahoma right now, and could likely not go to Baton Rouge, Austin, or the Swamp and pull out a victory. However, I believe BYU could beat Florida or USC at home 6 times out of ten - But the season is not a vaccuum. I assume BYU's Defense will get much better as the months go by. It really does not matter. BYU's ranking is nice, and destiny is in their hands for once. But TCU, AF, Utah, and CSU on the road is going to take all they have. UNLV at home, as well as NM is no cakewalk either. Given what BYU has done the past two MWC seasons, just getting to Utah undefeated would be a major accomplishment, and a conference winning streak unparallelled by the BYU teams of old. BTW, despite the 35-10 score last night, National Media have yet to see that the TCU defense held OK under 75 yards rushing for the game, and Utah's work on Air Force last week was astounding.

Congratulations to both the Utes and the Cougars.

NCAA football is the greatest Spectator sport in America...at least the regular season is. With all due respect to the Power Brokers of the BCS conferences, The NCAA football post-season is no where near as thrilling as it could or ought to be.

Fans should realize the Poll Voters: (coaches and writers) are throwing a little extra love at BYU, UTAH, Boise St, Fresno St, etc. because WE ALL NEED A CHANGE in the NCAA football post season (BCS and Non-BCS alike). If one of those (Non-BCS) teams could be ranked in the TOP 5 at the regular season's end, Perhaps even as high as #2 or #1, the pot will be stirred BIG TIME regarding bowl affiliations. BYU, Utah, or Boise St. needs to go undefeated!!

Then if the powers that be do not put a #1, or #2 Non-BCS team into the National Championship game, the rebellion and outcry will be so loud for so long... "that they will surely let my people go...." If not, Congress will be persuaded to get involved again and the BCS monopoly...will finally be broken.

This is by far the most exciting football season I can remember (I was born in '83). I love this for the Utes and the Cougs.

I have to agree with "Keeping up with the polls". We'd better not start trying to keep up with expectations. We need to do this one game at a time and focus on that. Well, that's not exactly true- the teams definitely need to do that. As for us fans? BYU for the NC game!!! Long shot, but that's what I'm rooting for. That's what fans do.

This is the same exact story on espn.com. I find that very funny.

It isn't about whether you believe that you can all the teams around you in the rankings. None of the teams could play all 9 of the other teams in the Top 10 and emerge unscathed.

All you can do if beat the teams that you play. Even if there was a 16 team play, you only have to beat 4 of the teams in the bracket.

I don't believe that BYU could beat all of them, but they could beat some of them.

so far so good on this board....lets keep it civil

For all those who like to write about different topics or applications (so-and-so won't win next year) ad nauseum, if Congress rolls over, as reported, and signs away $725 BILLION to companies that can't run themselves, guess who pays. That's right, so we better emjoy the fun this year, because we might be in a job line next year instead of a football ticket line.

I write this not be negative, but to ask, how many who took the time to conjecture or complain or attack about a mythical appraisal system (BCS) has taken the time to write your congressman??

gymnastics... some judges(voters) sit around and hold up a scorecard(ranking) to decide the winner.

IMHO - there are 3 or 4 teams below byu that would beat them, Florida, USC, Georgia and Ohio State. Just because they have a loss does not make them a worse team then byu. It will be interesting to see how sos will effect the bsc standings...

again like gymnastics the competitor(team) whose performance(schedule) has the most difficulty will out score the competitor who does everything perfectily but has a low degree of difficulty.

Byu needs utah a lot more then utah needs byu this year. Yes Michigan isn't that great but they just beat wisconsin #8 and OSU beat USC #1. So utahs sos is going up, while byus wins just keep looking less impressive, ucla now 1-3 and uw 0-4.

If I was a byu fan I would be cheering for utah to win every game and be highly ranked going in to that last game. Sure if byu is undefeated they go to a bcs game no matter where utah is ranked, but not to the nc game. And even then I don't believe the judges would allow that to happen.

bradford said it best "...anyone can beat anyone on any given saturday"

there will always be question marks on a bcs champion. playoffs only way to determine TRUE champion.

come on NCAA, let em play it out on the field!!

As a both a Alumni to BYU and a current Graduate Student at OU. As much as I like BYU, I have to say they would look like boys among men if they were to ever face OU this year. Keep dreaming; BYU would get ripped apart by Bradford and company. Let's all hope BYU can move up, but lets not kid ourselves they barely beat Washington. OU put in the second string at Halftime against the same Washington team. BYU is good, but I think people are getting a bit carried away.

Re: In the Stands,

I completely agree. Just because BYU wouldn't beat every team around them doesn't mean they can't beat some of the teams around them in the polls. And at the end of the season if (big if) they were in the top 5 they would have an even shot at beating any bowl opponent they were put up against.

Look how many top ten teams lost to unranked opponents this week- BYU is easily as competitive as those unranked teams. I believe they are much more competitive. So let me ask you this: If it had been BYU playing on Thursday vs. USC and USC had played exactly the same as they did (I know this is a silly what if...) who would have won? I say 8 out of 10 times it would have been BYU.

They are up to the task of playing top ten teams. They wouldn't win every time, but they would win many times.

BYU for NC!

Love to see the PAC-10 humbled. Cal beating Colorado State is their only win of note. Now it is up to Utah to continue the humiliation.

BYU IS RANKED AHEAD OF FLORIDA GEORGIA AND USC?????????? shows a little something about these polls.....they mean absolutely nothing!

I really enjoy the college football fanaticism in this state. I am a loyal Ute fan and I will cheer for them forever. They will show what a great team they are when they beat OSU on Thursday night and continue on to win the conference championship! GO UTES!!! RED ALL THE WAY!

If our scheduling isn't up to par, there's not a lot to be done about it--certainly not for this year. Who cares whether or not we can beat any given hypothetical team? Does last year even matter? Does 1984? Well, actually, yes to the former; no to the latter. This is a new team, in a new year, in a set schedule. All we want is a shot. Well, crash the BCS and strength of schedule goes up exponentially. Don't say anything until we do or do not make it there and a real outcome exists. This team: looking better through each of 4 games.

BYU ahead of USC?? THese polls are a joke and so is BYU's reg. season scheule. YOu line up BYU and USC and it's a slaughter. TCU lined up against a top notch team and got ran. Same thing would happeb to BYU or any other MTn. school.. THis doesn't make any sense. Corvallis is one of the toughest places to play and USC will win out and go to the NC.

Red, this is In the Stands.

I wouldn't hazard a guess on who would have won your hypothetical USC versus BYU game, but BYU would definitely would have had a chance. Which is the whole point isn't it? BYU has a chance. Now all they have to do is win they games they have.

To the graduate student at OU, you are probably right 8 out of 10 times, but they do have a chance. Oklahoma actually has experience with that sort of thing in their last two bowls.

No game is a given until it is actually played. Go ask USC about the 5'7" athlete that did them in on Thursday.

Everyone plays out of their bodies against USC. SC would win 9 out of 10 games against OSU but when it's home and SC is ranked numero uno then of course it is very emotional. The Mtn. west doesn't have that same target snd so it's really convenient to say that BYU is really better than them. YOu really think BYU could beat Georgia? LSU? USC? NO they would get ran and the MTn west schools need to remeber you don't play anybody.

To SEC at 1:45

So Mississippi didn't win an SEC game last year - how do you account for their stunning win at Florida yesterday. I am a born and bred SEC fan too, but BYU can play with a good many of these teams.

I stand all amazed... BYU #7? thrilled, but don't get it. I'll take it but hope that no one in the football program reads these rankings. They mean nothing.

And to my fellow Cougar fans... we've played no one this year with much of a challenge. Utah has played the seemingly better teams (Michigan that beat a ranked Wisconsin team, and UNLV that beat a ranked ASU team). If Utah beat Oregon State, and frankly I doubt that they will, the ranking should be flip flopped. I'd rather have our guys playing with a chip on their shoulders about getting slighted than feeling like they have to protect a ranking.

Usually the movement in outside the top ten, and things in the top ten get really tight.

Interesting day yesterday,

I am very surprised at the jump BYU took and Utah's lack of movement.

Maybe voters are not looking at just one games, but how the program progresses as a whole week in and week out.

It also shows that voters do not read all of the "Ute Logic" that pops up in the DN Boards.

Ah, the gnashing of teeth!

I know, I know, the polls make me furious when they don't respect my cougars, too, but for this week, I'm happy!

And next week will be another round of upsets and shake-ups. BYU's job is to not be one of them. TCU, Air Force, UNLV, UTAH(!!!) will all come soon enough.

I see some posts bashing BYU for being ranked so high. I'm not surprised because everyone knows there are haters out there who will always bash BYU no matter how well they do.

But think about this: Maybe the voters aren't impressed that BYU beat a UCLA program that is not at its best but instead they were impressed that BYU's 1st team beat them 49-0 and then for the last 1 1/2 quartes of the game BYU's 2nd & 3rd stringers beat them 10-0. Yes UCLA is down but it's still UCLA with their top tier athletes, great facilities, great tradition, and highly paid coaches including the guy who was going to be able to give us quite a beating Mr. Norm Chow himself.

Anyway, it's useless to try to explain BYU's high ranking to the haters. Instead I'll just sit back and enjoy seeing them get all upset and frustrated. :)

Do you guys know anything? Have you not realized that anyone can beat anyone. Who thought usc could lose to Oregon State? who thought Florida would lose to Ole miss? On a given day, any good team can have a chance with any other. Also the stereotyping of fans is , as ricky bobby would put it, "dumb". if some BYU fan makes an arrogant statement, The Utah fans make it seem like that is how all BYU fans are and vice versa. Grow up and everyone needs to quit acting like the know it all.

Ya, I hear some here say BYU Utah ranked to high. Complaining about their schedule. Hey, they are ranked high from simple merit of being very good teams. If you look at the very first ranking before the very first game of the season, your going to see teams ranked upon what the voter feel about how good the team is before they even play their first game. This goes for BYU and Utah. They may have not played a tough schedule, but they are very good teams never the less and they would compete very well against other top ranked teams if given the chance to play them.

Maybe the best thing that could have happened to BYU was to get accused of being handed a win against Washington. After talking to a few of the players the week before the UCLA game, they were pretty tight-lipped, but they clearly had a chip on their shoulder. It obviously showed in the UCLA game. I hope that was the springboard they needed for the season and not just a couple of games as we all know you are only as good as your last win.

The worst thing that could have happened for Utah was to play in a non-televised game against Weber St.. The voters saw a 16 point win; not the domination of the first three quarters. The talk of who is better because of SOS is ridiculous because there is a head to head on Nov. 22. It's hard to beleive that we are this far into the season and we still can't get a handle on how good either team really is. But, my guess is that by the time the TCU/BYU game is over we will have a pretty good idea.

Huge for BYU to have no 1-loss teams ahead of them. That's a big hurdle.

BYU has thus far done little to merit a #7 ranking. However, if they win out, they will deserve to go to a BCS game having beaten MWC teams (on the road) who had quality wins over BCS opponents. On the other hand, BYU could very easily wind up in 3rd place in their own conference behind Utah (plays both TCU and BYU at home) and TCU (who plays BYU at home). If the Cougars can beat TCU on the road after a short week, then there will be legitimate reason for optimism, but not until then.