PROVO — BYU didn’t have to wait until after Saturday morning’s kickoff against UCF (11 a.m. MST, ESPN2) to clinch a spot in the Big 12 championship game.

In that regard, Arizona took the suspense out of the home finale Friday night.

The Cougars (11-1, 7-1 Big 12) will play for the Big 12 title in their third season in the league after the No. 25 Wildcats’ 23-7 Territorial Cup win over No. 20 Arizona State.

The loss eliminated the Sun Devils (8-4, 6-3 Big 12) from Big 12 title contention, and BYU owns the tiebreaker over Utah (10-2, 7-2 Big 12) on head-to-head results (if BYU were to lose to UCF).

The Cougars will face fifth-ranked Texas Tech on Saturday, Dec. 6 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas (10 a.m. MST, ABC).

But there’s still plenty of reason to compete in Saturday’s senior-day matinee.

The Knights are also fighting to extend their season, needing a win to clinch blow eligibility in Scott Frost’s first season of his second go-around in Orlando.

UCF (5-6, 2-6 Big 12) is just 1-3 all-time against the Cougars, including a 24-17 setback on Cody Hoffman’s kick return touchdown in the Knights’ last trip to Provo in 2011.

“They’re playing for bowl eligibility, and we’re playing for a lot, too,” Sitake said. “There’s a lot riding on this game.”

BYU’s odds at the league championship game were lining up in the Cougars’ favor after LJ Martin and the offensive line rolled up a 26-14 win over Cincinnati a week ago, though as many as four teams remained mathematically alive for two spots. Texas Tech (10-1, 7-1 Big 12) also clinched a bid with Arizona State’s loss.

Thanks to Utah’s 31-21 win over Kansas, the Cougars could fall no further than a tie for second with the 13th-ranked Utes.

That left eyes on Tempe, where the Sun Devils jumped out to a 7-3 halftime lead before the Wildcats came back to put a bow on a 9-3 regular-season campaign in a nationally televised game, with commissioner Brett Yormark among the dignitaries in attendance.

The third-year conference commissioner even took advantage of the FOX broadcast and an open microphone to send a message to the College Football Playoff selection committee that ranked three of his teams most recently in the top 15, though No. 11 BYU and No. 13 Utah are currently the first two teams outside of the 12-team bracket due to automatic bids.

Yormark called No. 5 Texas Tech a “shoo-in” for the bracket, and that the Utes “should get consideration.” But most of his message was about the Cougars.

“I think they’ve been under-appreciated all season long,” Yormark said. “When you compare them to a Notre Dame, there is no comparison when you think of strength of record, strength of schedule and win-loss.

“I’ve got a lot of confidence in the CFP selection committee,” he added. “I’m sure they’ll get it right by the end of the season.”

From the perspective of BYU and head coach Kalani Sitake, who has repeatedly declined to lobby for CFP inclusion, the goal remains the same: beat UCF, and earn a spot in the field through the Big 12 title game.

The Knights’ 22.0 points per game scoring defense ranks among the best in the Big 12, and Malachi Lawrence ranks seventh in the league with 11 tackles for loss and fourth with seven sacks.

Jayden Bellamy is eighth with nine passes defended to anchor a passing defense that allows just 175.6 yards per game.

The Knights will be motivated. So should the Cougars.

“This game is what gets you there,” BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said. “You have to win this game, and we respect this team a lot. They played really well last Saturday, and they have a really good defense.”

The Cougars still control their own destiny.

“When we set out at the beginning of the season, the goal was to win a Big 12 title,” defensive coordinator Jay Hill said. “You can’t win it until you go to the game. We have an opportunity to get that done this week. We understand what’s riding on this.

“You want this pressure, and you want these opportunities,” he added, “and you only get them by winning.”

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.