BYU’s win over Notre Dame boosts Big 12 playoff case — SkimNews
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- BYU beat Notre Dame in Week 7, delivering the Big 12’s most valuable nonconference victory and strengthening the Cougars’ case for a College Football Playoff berth as an at-large team.
- Big 12 placed three teams in the top 10, matching the Big Ten and SEC; Miami was the ACC’s lone representative, and Notre Dame ranked No. 11.
- Big 12 supplied two of the four teams with four victories over top-65 opponents—BYU and Houston—while the SEC’s Alabama and Kentucky comprised the other two.
- Big 12 accounted for three of the five unbeaten Power Four teams—BYU, Texas Tech and Utah—more than any other league represented in the group.
- Texas Tech at 12-1 was specifically identified as a Big 12 runner-up with a good case for an at-large College Football Playoff berth alongside the champion.
- SEC claimed four of the six teams with two wins over top-25 opponents—Alabama, Texas, Florida and Ole Miss—with BYU and Ohio State the others.
- CBS Sports 138 assigns game value from an opponent’s ranking and game location, excluding postgame win expectancy, preseason bias, success rate and margin of victory while evaluating the full 12-game slate.
Why it matters: BYU gives the Big 12 a credible two-bid path because the league has three top-10 teams and three of five unbeaten Power Four clubs. The counterweight is elite-win concentration: four of the six teams with two top-25 victories come from the SEC.
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