ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 BYU safety Faletau Satuala says the Cougars have no choice but to be optimistic going into the College Football Playoff selection show, and of course, he\u2019ll be watching Sunday.<\/p>\n
The outlook isn\u2019t so great<\/a> after a second lopsided loss to Texas Tech, this time 34-7 in the Big 12 Championship Game<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n From BYU\u2019s point of view, the only two losses are to one of the best teams in the country.<\/p>\n The Cougars (11-2) were already on the playoff bubble at No. 11 in the CFP rankings<\/a>. They couldn\u2019t even afford to drop one spot, and will have a hard time making a case to stay where they were.<\/p>\n They\u2019ll try anyway.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d say we won all season. The only time we\u2019ve lost is the No. 4 team in the nation,\u201d Satuala said, referring to Texas Tech\u2019s CFP ranking that would earn a first-round bye. \u201cSo obviously Texas Tech is a great team. But I feel like we can go out there and compete. Like, you should be able to get in with winning games.\u201d<\/p>\n BYU had the winning coach on its side. Joey McGuire of Texas Tech (12-1) started his postgame meeting with reporters by politicking for the Cougars.<\/p>\n \u201cI truly believe the Big 12 deserves two teams in the playoffs,\u201d McGuire said.<\/p>\n Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark obviously shares McGuire\u2019s view, but perhaps sounded a little less than optimistic in the event of a BYU loss at his news conference about 90 minutes before kickoff at the home of the Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n In a 29-7 defeat at Texas Tech four weeks ago, the Cougars didn\u2019t score until the middle of the fourth quarter, with the outcome no longer in doubt. This time, BYU scored first but not again.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re healthy. When they were in Lubbock, their quarterback and running back weren\u2019t as healthy as they are today,\u201d Yormark said, referring to Bear Bachmeier and LJ Martin. \u201cThey\u2019re a better BYU team today. I would hope they wouldn\u2019t have to convince the selection committee with the win today that they deserve to be in the CFP, but it might take that.\u201d<\/p>\n Bachmeier appeared to injure an ankle on BYU\u2019s opening possession, and his limited mobility played a role in a season-low 63 yards rushing for the Cougars. But so did Texas Tech\u2019s defense, one of the nation\u2019s best. BYU\u2019s two lowest rushing totals this season \u2014 and the only two of less than 100 yards \u2014 came against the Red Raiders.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not on the playoff committee, but I can tell you one thing, who\u2019s played the best team in the country twice? We have,\u201d coach Kalani Sitake said after already having declared where he thinks the Red Raiders should be ranked. \u201cAnd does that mean that you\u2019re not one of the best 12? I have no idea. I don\u2019t make those decisions. But others will find out. That\u2019s the great thing about the playoffs. Everybody else will find out what we had to go against.\u201d<\/p>\n If receiver Chase Roberts were making a case for his team, he would point to a 13-7 halftime deficit \u2014 and a missed field goal that could have pulled the Cougars within three points to start the second half. All four BYU turnovers followed.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a lot of confidence in my guys when we don\u2019t turn the ball over and we\u2019re able to play together, then we\u2019re hard to beat,\u201d Roberts said. \u201cSo let\u2019s just see what happens. I know it\u2019s hard. I know we\u2019re building, too, as a program and whatever happens, I think we\u2019re ready to take it on.\u201d<\/p>\n Roberts, a senior, later said that includes the bowl bid that would come with a CFP snub.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a> and here<\/a> (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) \u2014 BYU safety Faletau Satuala says the Cougars have no choice but to be optimistic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":80425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1892,150,152,151,36250,23042,23045,261,416,300,1888,23290,28061,154,27,415,1891,1760,23046,2188],"class_list":["post-80424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-ap-top-25-college-football-poll","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-brett-yormark","tag-brigham-young-cougars","tag-brigham-young-cougars-football","tag-college-football","tag-college-sports","tag-football","tag-joey-mcguire","tag-kalani-sitake","tag-local-news-for-apple","tag-sports","tag-texas","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders","tag-texas-tech-red-raiders-football","tag-tx-state-wire","tag-ut-state-wire","tag-utah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80424"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80424\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}